ST. GEORGE’S
THE
BULLETIN
OF
ST.
GEORGE’S
SCHOOL
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SUMMER 2022
A MOMENTOUS CELEBRATION
125
YEARS IN THE MAKING
ST. GEORGE’S SUMMER 2022
T HE BU L L ET I N OF ST. GEORGE'S SCHOOL
F E AT U R E S
D E PA R T M E N T S
06 Founding Vision
0 2 Letter from the
John Diman's foresight helped establish St. George's School in 1896, but many of his decisions continue to influence the school today
Head of School 0 3 Campus News 3 5 Alumni News
10 Miss Emily Diman: Matriarch of the Hilltop
3 8 Class Notes
Since the school's beginning, Emily Diman was a pillar of support for the entire
The St. George's flag flies boldly over the north athletic fields.
St. George's community
8 0 Student Essay ON THE COVER
P H OTO BY C H I P R I E G E L
12 Remembering Baoth Growing up, Baoth Wiborg ’38 was surrounded by several literary and artistic icons of the Jazz Age
17 125 Interesting Tidbits about SG From historical to anecdotal - and everything in between
The St. George's Bulletin is published biannually. It's printed on 8pt. Stirling Matte Cover and 70# Stirling Matte text by Lane Press, South Burlington, Vermont. Typefaces used are Antwerp, Brix Sans and Brix Slab. Please send correspondence to bulletin_editor@ stgeorges.edu. © 2022 St. George's School
EDITOR’S NOTE:
The preparation of this edition of the Bulletin, and many others, would not have been possible without the extraordinary assemblage of historic documents and images in the St. George’s Archives and Special Collections. To those over the past decades who have taken great care to preserve the history of our school, we owe great thanks. —S.M.
The Bulletin of ST. GEORGE'S SCHOOL Alixe Callen Head of School Jedd Whitlock Director of Advancement
OUR MISSION The specific objectives of St. George’s are to give its students the opportunity of developing to the fullest extent possible the particular gifts that are theirs and to encourage in them the desire to do so. Their immediate job after leaving school is to handle successfully the demands of college; later it is hoped that their lives will be ones of constructive service to the world and to God. Today, we continue to teach our students the value of learning and achievement, service to others and respect for the individual. We believe that these goals can best be accomplished by exposing students to a wide range of ideas and choices in the context of a rigorous curriculum and a supportive residential community. Therefore, we welcome students and teachers of various talents and backgrounds, and we encourage their dedication to a multiplicity of pursuits — intellectual, spiritual and physical — that will enable them to succeed in and contribute to a complex, changing world.
stgeorges.edu
Suzanne McGrady Director of Communications Lindsay McLaughlin Director of Parent & Alumni Relations Jeremy Moreau Web Manager Alexander Silva Digital Communications Specialist Adam Bastien Designer I N S I D E C O V E R P H OTO BY A DA M R I C H I N S
02
A LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL
BY ALIXE CALLEN
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From the Hilltop
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s I write this letter, our 125th anniversary celebration is just two weeks away. Our campus is undergoing final preparations, our advancement office is working long hours, the schedule is being honed, duties are being assigned — as we excitedly await the arrival of 1,500 alumni, families, and friends. By the time you read this, the weekend itself will be a memory, but undoubtedly the celebration of our great Dragon community will persist. There is much to celebrate. We are among the most selective small boarding schools in the country. Over 1,200 students applied for admission to St. George’s this year — with only 14% accepted. Our record in college admissions is similarly impressive, with students from the Class of 2022 set to matriculate at such schools as Stanford, Harvard, Dartmouth, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, and Northwestern. And thanks to a compelling academic vision and an incredible infusion of resources, the future for St. George’s is bright. This success is particularly impressive when set against the backdrop of our humble beginnings. We don’t know a lot about Reverend Diman’s decision to open St. George’s, originally called Mr. Diman’s School for Boys. What we do know is that Reverend Diman, age 33, with a grand total of three years of teaching experience under his belt, borrowed $5,000 from his mother, rented some houses in Newport, and advertised his new school in local newspapers. In the period between April and October of 1896, he enrolled a dozen students and convinced his sister to come along and be the “housemother.” By all accounts it
was a terrible business decision. The economy was in awful shape, and there was already a prep school, called Cloyne House, here on Aquidneck Island. But Diman had a vision, and over the course of the following 21 years, he turned that vision into a reality, moving from those tiny little rental houses, to a mansion on the Cliff Walk, and then here to the Hilltop in 1901. A tireless cheerleader for the school, Reverend Diman spoke often of the importance of school spirit, once calling on students to, “show our school spirit in as many ways as possible and pass it on each year to succeeding forms ...” Through his personal charisma and sheer dedication, he made this school into one of the pre-eminent boarding schools in the United States. In fact, Reverend Diman was such a skilled leader that at some point in the school’s early years, St. Paul’s tried to woo him away. To no avail. There is evidence that Reverend Diman would approve of St. George’s evolution over the years. Indeed, in his writings he calls for “respect for all members of the human family.” Late in his life, he also wrote, “the greatest disappointment of my school career has been that the schools with which I have been most closely connected have always been classed as ‘expensive schools.’” I am confident that he is smiling down, delighted by the fact that this school strives to be as diverse, equitable, and inclusive as possible. For those who were here on campus for the 125th, I hope you witnessed firsthand the success that Reverend Diman’s vision has wrought. And for everybody else, we look forward to lots more celebrations in the future!
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SUMMER 2022
Campus News
IN THIS SECTION
04 New tennis courts
ALUMNI REGATTA ’21
Our Dragon sailors had a great time sailing around Newport at our Alumni Regatta on Oct. 10, 2021, as part of the yearlong celebration of the 125th Anniversary of St. George's! The regatta’s winners were Halsey Richartz ’07 and Samantha Becker ’90, who came in first place; Ben Pedrick ’07 and Madeleine Parker ’13, who came in second place; and Whitney Peterson ’91 and Gately Ross ’91, who came in third place.
New tennis courts grace Lower Road They’ll continue to memorialize two St. George’s alumni
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ix new tennis courts, built by J.G. Coffey Company along Lower Road near Wolcott Avenue, were completed this spring — just in time for the spring athletic season. Gleaming in U.S. Open blue and green, they replace the old courts previously located on both sides of Purgatory Road near the Main Drive entrance. Deemed the WoodBlazer Tennis Courts, the new facility retains the names of the old courts, decades-old memorials to two St. George’s alumni who died far too young. The six old courts on the south side of Purgatory Road were named in memory of Bernard Henry Wood III, Class of 1931, with a generous gift of the Prince Charitable Trusts in the early 1950s. Bernard entered St. George’s as a first-former in 1925 and was a member of the St. George’s Chapel Choir and the Junior Civics Club from 1925 to 1929. He played multiple sports, including football, soccer, basketball, and baseball, but he shined on the hockey rink, where he played center and was named team captain in his senior year. After St. George’s, Bernard attended Williams College and the University of Virginia, according to the New York Times. He was a member of the
Racquet Club and was employed by the Empire Trust Company, a commercial bank in New York City. Bernard’s brother was William Wood, the former chairman of Armour & Company, chairman and president of Chicago’s Union Stock Yards, and a prominent Chicago philanthropist, who died in 1998. The two grew up together in Tuxedo Park, New York. William became William Wood Prince in 1944, when he was adopted at age 30 by his distant cousin, Frederick H. Prince, whose own son had died. (Another of his sons had no interest in continuing the family business.) Prince admired and trusted William, and the two men, though decades apart in age, foxhunted, sailed, and played polo and tennis together, sharing time at the 994-acre estate in Wenham, Massachusetts, that Mr. Prince called Princemere. Upon his adoption and becoming heir to Mr. Prince’s fortune, William agreed to change his name and oversee Armour, a leading firm in the meatpacking industry, which by all accounts he did successfully for decades. Bernard Henry Wood III died at age 39 at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York in January 1952 after a brief illness, according to the New York Times. He had been a decorated American Field Services volunteer during World War II, serving in Unit 32 in the Middle East after being sent to the British Middle East Forces. Surviving him, along with his mother, father, and brother, was his second wife, the former Elsie Goadby, whom the Times noted he married secretly in Culpepper, Virginia, in 1939.
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The Prince Charitable Trusts continues to provide significant funding to educational and cultural organizations in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Newport, Rhode Island, to this day. Bernard Henry Wood III’s nephew is William Wood Prince Jr., St. George’s Class of 1960, and his great-nephew is Patrick Wood Prince, Class of 1988, currently a trustee of the Prince Charitable Trusts.
THE FOUR COURTS THAT had been located to the left of Main Drive upon entering campus were named in memory of Stuart M. Blazer, St. George’s Class of 1945, by his parents, Paul Garrett Blazer and Georgia Monroe Blazer. Arriving on the Hilltop in January 1944, Stuart attended St. George’s for just a year and a half — but in that short time, he became actively involved in the life of the school. He was a charismatic student who worked on the Red & White, played basketball and football, and was a member of the Civics Club. After St. George’s, Stuart attended Princeton University and graduated in June 1950. In December 1950, Stuart entered the Army after undergoing an operation to correct a shoulder injury that had prevented his enlistment, according to the Princeton Alumni Weekly.
He was commissioned a second lieutenant after officer candidate school and served as a field communications chief attached to the 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, on the central front during the Korean War. A native of Monroe County, Kentucky, and the youngest of three children, Stuart was just 25 when he was killed in action on Oct. 14, 1952, in the Kumhwa region of North Korea. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. “Throughout his years at Princeton, Stu evidenced a capacity for leadership and a sense of moral responsibility that will long be remembered by his classmates,” reported the Princeton Alumni Weekly following his death. “As a student, he was known for his keen perception of ideas and his pronounced ability to relate them to the world in which he lived.” In his will, Stuart had made provisions for bequests to St. George’s, Princeton, the Princeton Quadrangle Club, and the American Youth Foundation. Soon after Stuart’s death, the Blazer family established the Stuart M. Blazer Foundation in his memory, which among other projects helped to establish a number of athletic facilities, mostly in their home state of Kentucky, including the Ashland Tennis Center.
Founding Vision
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View of Old School from the northwest, c. 1902.
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efore Main Drive led to Old School and before the Chapel rose from Aquidneck Island — a man stood on a Hilltop. John B. Diman toured a field above Second Beach in Middletown, Rhode Island, on an autumn day in 1900 with an architect from his cousin’s firm in Providence. He was looking toward the future …
Armistead Cottage, the first home of St. George's School in 1896.
<< John B. Diman, the founder of St. George's School.
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Growing a school
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JOHN DIMAN FOUNDED our school in the fall of 1896 after receiving his master of arts degree from Harvard the previous spring. The son of Emily Stimson Diman and Jeremiah Diman, a Congregational minister and noted Brown University professor of history and political economy, John grew up in Providence, the second oldest of four children. He graduated from Brown University in 1885 and received a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1885 from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1888, John became the first permanent rector of the newly-established St. Columba's Church in Middletown, and for several years also taught at the University Grammar School in Providence. Like his father, his interests in religion and education were hallmarks of his career. John was a passionate champion of education, and twice served as president of the Harvard Teacher's Association. St. George’s, originally named Mr. Diman’s School for Boys, opened for the academic year in the small Armistead Cottage on present-day Hunter Avenue with 11 students and one teacher. “The impression of that first year is very distinct in my mind and it is made up of pictures which bespeak the very smallest beginnings of things,” Diman recalled in the 1906 Bulletin. “Rooms so draughty that the bedroom floors were half covered with snow in the winter, hardly any athletic field at all, a pleasant, jolly lot of boys who seemed utterly unacquainted with the deficiencies of the equipment and who helped lay the foundations upon which all the future years were to build.” Ever with an eye on expanding, Diman moved his school one year later into Swann Villa on Cliff Avenue and stayed there for four years, using the building with maximum efficiency. The large ballroom at the property was converted into a schoolroom, bedrooms became laboratories, plays were rehearsed in the basement, and a bathtub was even used as a lily pond and aquarium. The growing demand for admission, however, soon surpassed the space to accommodate students. Diman knew St. George’s would have to evolve beyond renting space and make a permanent home to compete with other, well-established schools of the time. In 1900, Diman decided to incorporate the school as a private business, allowing stockholders to help purchase the 12-acre site
overlooking the Atlantic Ocean as the permanent home for the school and invest in a new building’s construction. Not all of the school’s supporters initially agreed with Diman’s decision to move St. George’s to the Middletown Hilltop. Some thought it was too close to Newport or not close enough to St. Columba’s Chapel for church services. However, after having spent considerable time carefully surveying all possibilities in the area, Diman convinced others to back his dream. By the end of 1900, he secured the funding, along with an option to purchase more acres in the future. And more would certainly be needed in the years to come. “It should be said, too, that in planning this building and its location, the glance ahead has been far into the future,” Diman wrote in The Herald on Feb. 25, 1901. “… And it is hoped that, whatever is done in the next year or two, it will only be a step in the transition of the school from its present small beginnings into a size and an estate that will place it among the large and important schools of the country.”
Mr. Diman in his office on the Hilltop.
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SITTING ON the eastern veranda of Swann Villa, students and teachers could look across First Beach Bay and see their new school rising. By autumn 1901, work was completed and St. George’s School moved into its new home with close to 40 students enrolled. The new building was designed by Clarke & Spaulding, a leading architectural firm in Providence, of which Diman’s cousin, Prescott Clarke, was a principal. Known as “Old School” today, it was intended to serve nearly all functions — classrooms, dormitories, faculty residences, library, kitchen, dining room, and infirmary. Diman’s aspiration to further grow St. George’s soon after its move to the Hilltop was cautiously acknowledged in the Trustees’ 1905 Annual Report. “It is the desire of the Head Master that in course of time the school shall be further enlarged. The Trustees are in accord with this wish; but before launching out on further expense it is the hope that all the large debt incurred shall be materially reduced.” Two years later, St. George’s School began its next transition. The school was rechartered as a nonprofit educational institution, mostly at the urging of William Wood, father of two St. George’s graduates, who wished to make a generous donation for the construction of Arden Hall, but who was dismayed to find the school was a for-profit venture. Another large donation that year created the iconic King Hall as the school’s dining hall. Today, with the support of countless generous benefactors, the campus has grown to 125 acres and 26 school buildings — and the school community has grown to 381 students and their families, 200-plus faculty and staff, and nearly 8,000 alumni.
Mr. Diman with Catherine and Henry Howard ’1918, the niece and nephew of early faculty member Edward Sturtevant.
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The historic move
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Mr. Diman in front of Swan Villa, 1896.
WHEN DIMAN LEFT his position at St. George’s School after 20 years, his vision for the school’s continued development remained. Diman’s successor, Head of School Stephen Cabot, assured alumni of as much at a dinner in 1925. “I want to state right here that I do not wish you to feel that St. George’s School is in any way self-satisfied,” Cabot said. “I can think of no greater disaster to any institution of learning than to become static. Unless it moves on, not merely in material growth but in intellectual and moral and spiritual growth, it is beginning to go downhill.” The location atop the hill selected by Diman for St. George’s contained many advantages that helped guide the school’s growth — and today continues to be among its greatest assets. In the 10th anniversary edition of the Bulletin, Diman wrote of the impact a school with such a grand setting could have on students. “I have spoken of the opportunities that our position gives for special forms of study and sport, but more important than any of these is the influence that beautiful natural surroundings must exert upon character,” Diman wrote. “A noble prospect must have, it seems to me, an ennobling effect upon the natures of those who habitually gaze upon it.” And 125 years later, Diman’s sentiment has withstood the passage of time. “Here, morning and night, year in and year out,” he continued, “we look out over long beaches and sunny hillsides and ponds and woods and meadows to the dim and distant ocean horizon. … In many students hearts the desire is born here to live worthily and to strive for truth and honor for all their days.”
st. george’s school
A dream realized
10 st. george’s school
Miss Emily Diman:
Matriarch of the Hilltop
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hen 12-year-old Edward M. Howland arrived in Newport with his aunt to attend John Diman’s new school, he stepped off the train from New Bedford, Massachusetts, onto a crowded platform and climbed into one of many taxicabs. They twisted through city avenues, eventually turning down a short, dark street that ended in an open field situated with two cottages. “The windows were ablaze with light,” Howland recalled in the Spring 1946 Bulletin. “Mr. and Miss Diman were at the front door to welcome us. There was an open fire, burning brightly.” From the first night at what would become St. George’s School, John Diman was never alone in founding his dream. Diman’s youngest sister, Emily Diman, joined him in his educational venture, serving as hostess and housemother at his school at the age of 25.
Miss Diman and her dog, Dandy c. 1905.
Miss Diman's Room, now serves as a conference room. >>
When Diman moved his school after its first year into the larger Swann Villa overlooking First Beach, Miss Diman traveled to Providence to care for the siblings’ ailing mother. Emily Diman visited Swann Villa occasionally, returning to the school fully in 1904 after St. George’s was already established at its new and permanent Middletown location overlooking Second Beach.
Miss Diman helped John Diman at St. George's School and lived on the Hilltop for the next 24 years. “The two perfectly complemented each other,” William Buell said of the brother-sister duo in the Fall 1970 edition of Newport History, published by the Newport Historical Society. The two stood side-by-side in front of King Hall to shake hands with each student every morning.
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Miss Diman jumping rope outside of Old School, 1919.
Where John Diman commanded respect from students using his charisma and large presence, his sister received just as much respect without ever having to raise her voice. “The most unruly desperado, after his first meeting with her, knew instantly that here was a friend,” Joseph Alger, Class of 1918, said in the 1946 Spring Bulletin. “And this fact is the more remarkable when we recall that Miss Diman was always on the side of law and order, that she never condoned rebellion and never proffered motherly consolation to a boy who had been chastised. On the contrary, she always maintained an almost austere dignity, which never seemed austere because of her great beauty and friendliness.” The teachers’ room had a sign on the door that read “Ye who enter here leave all hope behind,” but Emily Diman’s room had a panel that simply said “Come in.” Sitting with Miss Diman at the head table in King Hall became a privilege sixth-formers looked forward to; they would talk to her about any and all subjects beyond their Hilltop educations (and SG athletics, of course!). “From the first apprehensive trip up the long front drive to the sorrowful last departing, this great and charming lady shines in our school day memories like Sakonnet Light,” Joseph Alger, said of Emily Diman, referencing a local lighthouse. Miss Diman’s tenure at St. George’s outlasted her brother’s by a dozen years, as she stayed at the school through the administrations of John Diman’s next two successors. John Diman would often later tell people that he created St. George’s with Emily. “In the fall of 1896, my sister Emily and I started St. George’s School in two small wooden houses in Newport,” John Diman wrote in the Catholic paper Our Sunday Visitor in 1942. “I cannot refrain from bringing my sister’s name in at this point, as I am fully convinced that whatever measure of success the school attained as long as I was there was very largely due to her share of the work.” For many students who came to call St. George’s home, Emily Diman was a big part of that during her 28 years with the school. “… Miss Diman’s continued presence helped in no small measure to maintain the continuity,” Douglas S. Byers ’21 said after John Diman left. “Her sitting room was always open to the younger boys, who lay on the floor, or sat on benches or chairs near the fire, when she read aloud after supper.” “Sprawled about her cordial room were 10 or 15 boys, spellbound,” Alger said. “Even for the most homesick this was the certain cure. This was the moment every boy suddenly discovered that the school was home.”
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<< Courtesy of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
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Throughout most of the 1920s, Gerald and Sara Murphy were the glamorous and charismatic couple at the heart of a vibrant expatriate community outside Paris. Calvin Tomkins wrote about their life in the New Yorker, articles that later became his book “Living Well Is the Best Revenge.” The two met in 1904 in East Hampton, New York, where Sara’s parents, the Wiborgs, originally from Cincinnati, had built a 30-room mansion they called The Dunes and Gerald’s family had a summer home. Gerald attended Yale, becoming friends with Cole Porter, while Sara was educated in Germany, where the Wiborgs lived for a time, and at the Spence School. They both grew up in immense privilege — Sara was five years older — although they confided in each other that their parents had been emotionally distant. They were both eager, it seems, to escape their families’ expectations. Gerald and Sara were friendly companions until 1915, when Sara was 32 and Gerald 28, and they were engaged and eventually married in a modest ceremony at the Wiborg home on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Neither of their parents were particularly thrilled about the arrangement. Gerald had been born in Boston to an Irish family that owned the Mark Cross Co., a seller of luxury leather goods, while Sara’s father, Frank Wiborg, had become a millionaire by age 40 as a manufacturing chemist who co-founded a printing ink and varnish company. Gerald and Sara moved to Paris in 1921 and later to the French Riviera. In France, the couple found not only liberation but a vibrant cultural and social life. “They studied painting and helped create scenery for Sergei Diaghilev’s popular Ballets Russes,” wrote Gioia Diliberto in her review of a 1998 book about the Murphys, “Everybody Was So Young,” by Amanda Vaill. “One day, while working on some stage sets, the Murphys met an intense young artist named Picasso. He introduced them to other figures of the avant-garde.” The Murphys and their three children — daughter Honoria, Baoth, and younger son Patrick — spent long days on the beach in Cap d’Antibes. At night, the couple hosted parties at the Bohemian Mediterranean home they named Villa America, where “Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Jean Cocteau, Igor Stravinsky, Cole Porter, and Dorothy Parker listened to Louis Armstrong records and talked all night about art.” Fernand Léger paintings adorned their walls. The couple later served as the inspiration for Dick and Nicole Diver in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1934 “Tender Is the Night,” and Sara modeled for some of Picasso’s paintings. Gerald, ultimately known as a “brilliant and inventive” painter himself, created a body of work later exhibited at revered institutions like the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Until Baoth’s illness, the Murphys had mostly worried about the health of their younger son, Patrick, diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1929. For a time, the entire family,
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ara Murphy was in Key West visiting the writer Ernest Hemingway and his wife Pauline when she received word from her husband, Gerald, that their eldest son, Baoth, was gravely ill. A third-former at St. George’s, Baoth had contracted the measles and his condition had worsened so much that Headmaster J. Vaughan Merrick III made the urgent decision to rush him by ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston — even before he could reach the Murphys. Sara’s sudden trip back to New England to be at Baoth’s bedside was reported in the New Herald Tribune newspaper. It was February 1935.
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Remembering Baoth
14 st. george’s school
People were always “their best selves with
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the Murphys.”
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—John Dos Passos
including the boys and Honoria, moved to MontanaVermala, a health resort/hospital in the Swiss Alps. In those years, as the family’s melancholy grew over Patrick’s health, perhaps Baoth saw his role as the one who could lighten his parents’ and his sister’s mood; he became known for his humorous, lighthearted nature. At that time, he was the lucky one.
Sara Murphy had two sisters, Olga and Mary. “Grandfather Wiborg had only daughters, and he felt sorely deprived of an heir to carry the Wiborg name,” Honoria wrote in her 1982 memoir, “Sara & Gerald: Villa America and After.” The discontent apparently lingered; years later, in 1926, Gerald and Sara agreed to legally change Baoth’s name to F. Baoth Wiborg. Frank Bestow Wiborg died four years later, in May 1930. Baoth joined the third form on the Hilltop in 1934, Headmaster Merrick’s seventh year. Baoth was one of 17 third-formers to join the school, which had an overall enrollment of 168 that year, down from 183 in 19311932, in large part due to the Great Depression. The new students also included two whose names still reverberate on campus thanks to their generous and heartfelt philanthropic support of St. George’s: Lewis Madeira ’39, for whom Madeira Hall is named, and Albert Merck ’39, namesake of the Merck Center for Teaching. By all accounts, Baoth was a crowd-pleaser from the start, often joking with his friends and family or making people smile when reading one of his letters. “Baoth was a comedian, a laughing child,” Honoria wrote. “He was very much like Mother, which is why she loved him so.” When Baoth came to St. George’s, in 1934, he was “as robust and light-hearted as ever at age 15,” she said. “I just love this school,” he wrote to his mother the day after Gerald had dropped him off. “It’s ‘jus wunnerful.’” Upon his arrival on the Hilltop, Baoth would’ve just begun getting used to school in the United States. Born in New York in 1919, he had spent much of his childhood homeschooled overseas. Following the 1929 stock market crash, the Murphys returned to the United States. By 1934, Gerald officially took over the Mark Cross brand, expanding its offerings to include luggage, cigarette cases, and even jeweled evening bags. The company still includes in its publicity
a clip from Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Rear Window,” in which Grace Kelly carries a Mark Cross overnight case. (The Murphy family eventually sold the company, although Gerald stayed on as president until his retirement in 1955.) In the early 1930s, Baoth attended boarding school in Germany. However, when Sara and Gerald learned that Baoth was being forced to stand in the snow at 5:30 a.m. in his underwear to do “Heil Hitlers,” they deemed it time to pull him out, Honoria recalled in her memoir; she vividly remembered going to retrieve Baoth and her parents having “an angry discussion with the headmaster.” “I went with Baoth to help him pack,” she wrote. “… Baoth told me of the way he intended to get revenge for what had been done to him at school. As the headmaster came strutting down the hallway after the meeting with our parents, Baoth and I sprang around the corner and stuck our tongues out at him. ‘Rude Americans,’ he sputtered, as we ran for the car, delighted.” Somewhat trying years followed for the Murphys in the U.S., although the strong friendships they had forged continued to sustain them. Patrick, years into his diagnosis of tuberculosis, required constant care. Perhaps sensing their anxiety, in August 1932, Pauline and Ernest Hemingway — a celebrity since the publication of “The Sun Also Rises” (1926) and “A Farewell to Arms” (1929) — invited Sara, Gerald, Baoth, and Honoria to spend three weeks at the L-Bar-T Ranch with them in Wyoming. “Every day at the ranch was a delight,” Honoria wrote. “Baoth and I would go with the cowboys at five in the morning to round up the horses. One cowboy was named Hal. … He taught Baoth and me every word of ‘Red River Valley,’ which was the first song of the American West I had ever heard. “After supper, Ernest told stories of his adventures as a hunter.” In the fall of 1934, Baoth joined the football team at St. George’s and enjoyed sailing, with which he was very
"Villa America," the Murphys' home in the French Riviera. Courtesy of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
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Baoth died at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston, on March 17, 1935. He was 15. On March 21, Sara and Gerald wired the Hemingways and Dos Passoses in Key West:
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The Murphys’ papers are held in the archives at Yale University. There, boxes of photographs —including family portraits taken by Man Ray — along with letters and personal effects, are housed, artifacts caught in time of lives lived well, yes, but not without tragedy. Among the family mementos is a small manila card from the St. George’s infirmary, dated Feb. 15, 1935, 5 p.m. Written in pencil is “Name: Baoth Wiborg. Illness: measles with ear complications. Temperature: 99.4. Respiration: 24. Pulse: 84. Remarks: Left ear draining an occasional drop. Nauseated at intervals between 9:30 and 12:30 … No vomiting since this time. Slept between 2 and 4 p.m. Feeling better upon awakening. Has taken four ounces of orange juice and retained it.” On the back of the small card is a message from Baoth, which the attending physician had transcribed and relayed to Gerald. “Much pleased that Mother got away for a much-earned rest [in Key West]. There isn’t anything I want. Much love to everybody.”
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familiar, having spent much time on his family’s twomasted schooner Weatherbird in Antibes. He wrote to his parents on Oct. 7 that he had just gotten out of the infirmary with a cold. “I’m awfully sorry, but I was sailing in the bay and the boat capsized and I came home on the handlebars of my bicycle, another boy pedaling.” According to Honoria, Sara and Gerald visited Baoth at St. George’s in late October, and they sent Patrick a postcard picturing the Newport mansion of Marion Graves Anthon Fish, Olga Wiborg’s mother-in-law. In another postcard a few weeks later, Honoria reported, Baoth shared “the worst pun I ever heard” in an effort to boost Patrick’s spirits. That fall, Patrick had relapsed and was at a hospital in New York. “At a football game, I was standing in front of the bench on the sidelines, evidently obstructing someone’s view, because he said, ‘I know you’re a pain (pane), but you’re not a window.’” Baoth was clearly happy at St. George’s, although Honoria sensed “he enjoyed his extracurriculars more than his classwork.” In November, she said, he had failing grades in history and math. “I’m sorry about my grades,” Baoth wrote to his parents on Nov. 24, “but it’s hard to settle down … I’ll try to keep my head. I’m having a very nice time. I take wrestling and swimming since football has stopped. I shall now turn over a new leaf.” At Christmastime, Baoth and several classmates returned home to New York for the holiday break by ferry — the Fall River Line from Newport. The Murphys’ Manhattan apartment overlooked the East River, and as they came down the river, they saw a sheet hanging from a window, on which Sara Murphy had written, “Welcome home, Baoth.”
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Gerald Murphy, Genevieve Carpenter, Cole Porter, and Sara Murphy in Venice, 1923. Alamy Stock Photo
“Baoth was back in the St. George’s infirmary in January 1935, but his letter to our parents on the 29th was reassuring, not just for what he had to report, but because of his jocular tone as well,” Honoria recalled. “‘My ills are over,’ he wrote. ‘A slight cold mixed with a dash of hydrophobia made up my ailment.’ He was spoofing,” Honoria added. “Baoth loved to swim and had no fear of the water whatsoever.” Baoth reported that he had been released from the infirmary on Saturday, Jan. 26. “The delay in the writing of this missive was caused by grievous arrears in Latin prose,” he wrote. “[However,] I think my grades are forging their way up. If their altitude is not sufficient, believe me, the pressure will be increased.” He spoke fondly of his Christmas vacation in New York. Their parents, Honoria said, “always saw to it that the quality of our entertainment was of the best sort, and it often included Shakespeare plays. Back at school, Baoth boasted, ‘I am a walking encyclopedia of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.’” “He obviously enjoyed being a clown, and he did a written imitation of a hillbilly accent. ‘Ah ain’t fergettin’ me pleasures daown thar in Noo Yawk.’ He signed the letter, ‘The leaning tower of Baoth.’” It wasn’t long, however, after Baoth returned to the Hilltop from the break that he was back in the St. George’s infirmary.
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“BAOTH’S ASHES STAND ON AN ALTAR IN SAINT-BARTHOLOMEWS UNTIL SUNDAY WHEN THEY WILL BE LAID BESIDE HIS GRANDFATHER AT EASTHAMPTON OH THIS IS SO UNLIKE HIM AND ALL OF US WE TRY TO BE LIKE WHAT YOU WANT US TO BE KEEP THINKING OF US PLEASE WE LOVE YOU = SARA GERALD”
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Baoth’s funeral took place at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton, New York, on Sunday, March 24, at 3 p.m. His grave is beside Frank Wiborg’s in South End Cemetery.
The memorial service for Baoth at St. George’s on May 26, 1935, was reported in the May 29, 1935, edition of the Red & White. Following the regular chapel service that morning, the choir led the congregation to a tree and bench donated by the Murphys in Baoth’s memory, which had been placed north of the tennis courts next to Main Drive. “Everyone sang the hymn, ‘The strife o’er, the battle done,’” the paper reported. Headmaster Merrick read commemorative prayers and faculty member Arthur S. Roberts, who taught from 1903 to 1946, read a section of the Old Testament. The choir sang “Ave Maria,” after which Archibald MacLeish, the longtime friend of the Murphys, read “Words to Be Spoken,” a poem he had written specifically for the occasion. Later, MacLeish recalled being struck by emotion at the memorial service and having difficulty beginning the reading until another man, recognizing his predicament, came and stood quietly next to him. It was the famed poet Ogden Nash, St. George’s Class of 1920. Headmaster Merrick reported Baoth’s death to the external St. George’s community in the Alumni Bulletin
in June 1935. “Our winter term was very difficult,” he wrote. “Not for a good many years has there been so much interruption due to illness, nor so much anxiety arising from its form.” A number of schools besides St. George’s were significantly impacted by the measles epidemic, and Merrick reported 27 students on the Hilltop had contracted the disease in February and March 1935, four of whom, like Baoth, had developed mastoiditis, a serious bacterial infection in the mastoid bone behind the ear. “The end of the term was profoundly saddened by the death of Baoth Wiborg of the third form,” he added. “He came to us as a new boy last September, a boy of evident promise, cheerful and friendly, with a sunny nature that won him a place of liking before many days had passed. “His character was so clearly fine, his ability so plain that his future was assuredly successful and the school knows that it has lost one too early who would have brought credit to himself.” Merrick called the tree and bench a memorial “of unusual beauty … and we have always before us that symbol of a growing life that shall continue to remind us of him.”
Nearly two decades later, in October 1954, the Red & White reported that Gerald Murphy donated money to purchase a new tree and bench. “The ravages of time and weather had taken their toll on the original memorial and it was necessary to have them removed. It is to be hoped that the years will smile kindly on the new tree and bench in their location near the upper tennis courts.”
Less than a year after Baoth, Patrick Murphy succumbed to tuberculosis on Jan. 30, 1937, at age 16. Gerald Murphy died at home in East Hampton in 1964. He was 76. There are no known paintings of Gerald’s created after his sons’ deaths. Sara died in Arlington, Virginia, where she had moved to be with Honoria and her three grandchildren — two grandsons and a granddaughter — in 1975. She was 91. Unfortunately, time and weather once again took their toll, and the second memorial tree also had to be removed. However, this spring, another tree, a hearty crab apple, was planted in the same area.
And we, too, hope the years will be kind to Baoth’s tree. A portrait of Baoth, Sara, Patrick, and Honoria, taken by Man Ray. Courtesy Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
<< A drawing by Baoth for Sara. Courtesy of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
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St. George’s School didn’t start on the Hilltop. The first two locations were in Newport: Armistead Cottage on Hunter Avenue, from 1896 to1897, and Swann Villa (pictured below) on Seaview Avenue, from 1897 to 1901. In 1901, the school moved to its treasured home on Purgatory Road in Middletown.
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The cornerstone of Memorial Schoolhouse holds a time capsule filled with copies of the School Charter and Bylaws, the School Catalog, a copy of the Dragon, Alumni Bulletin, the Lance, and “St. George’s School in the War,” which profiles each of the 16 members of the community who died in World War I. Also inside are coins of the day, a local newspaper, and photographs of the school, sixth-formers, and athletic teams.
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From dirt to pavement and horse and buggy to automobile, the Main Drive has welcomed the St. George’s community with the same view of Old School for decades.
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During the school’s opening year, 11 students were enrolled — six boarding and five day students.
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Every Dragon knows it can get awfully cold and windy on the Hilltop, but perhaps the classes of 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1985 know best. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Newport was -9°F/-22°C in January 1982.
Author and poet Maya Angelou gave a 75-minute talk on spirituality, weaving in tales from her past and the family members who influenced her, to roughly 1,700 people in attendance at the Dorrance Field House as a part of St. George’s Centennial celebration in 1996.
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A standing portrait of St. George, which originally hung above the fireplace in the center hall after Old School was built, mysteriously disappeared from campus. It was last seen photographed in 1965. Memories of the portrait, or any information regarding its disappearance, may be sent to archives@stgeorges.edu. The Sixth-Form Shield was originally sewn into the fabric of blazer pockets. Only members of the sixth form could purchase this blazer, and it was worn throughout a student’s sixth-form year. Still offered in the Campus Store, pin-on shield patches are now worn by sixth-formers on Prize Day only.
The school motto, “Sapentia Utriusque Vitæ Lumen,” is inscribed on the exterior of King Hall and translates to, “Wisdom, the light of every life.” It was suggested in 1900 by William Binney, friend and benefactor of SG, and incorporated into the construction of King Hall, which was completed in 1907. More than 1,200 apple pies have been awarded to SG community members since the annual Pie Race first began in 1959 as a means of celebrating school spirit. And speaking of apples … Anecdotal evidence tells us that King Hall’s famous apple crisp, served throughout the decades, is one of students’ most beloved dishes.
For the Centennial celebration, in 1996, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra played under a big top tent on Crocker Field. The famed composer John Williams, who has created some of the most popular film scores in cinematic history, was conducted. Williams turned 90 in February 2022. Views of our extraordinary Hilltop that we all know and love have also caught the eyes of Hollywood. Parts of “The Education of Charlie Banks,” directed by Fred Durst, were filmed on campus, with establishing shots of Old School, King Hall, and the Chapel used to represent Vassar College. The film premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, in New York.
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Faculty pets have always been a part of school life. This photo appeared on SG social media with the post, “Having a ‘ruff’ time with calculus.” (Photo of Gus, teachers Warren and Holly Williams’ dog.)
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Three Hilltop buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the Gothic Revival– style Church of St. George (1924-1928), the Tudor Revival–style Memorial Schoolhouse (1921-1923), and the Little Chapel (1909-1911).
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The first graduate to be hired as a member of the faculty was Harold N. Arrowsmith, Class of 1904. Following his graduation from Harvard, he taught German and French at SG from 1909 to 1912.
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John Nicholas Brown ordered lighting manufacturer Edward F. Caldwell & Co. to create 10 replicas of a chandelier he admired in a church in Spain in January 1927. With the help of generous donors, these elaborate crystal fixtures were fully restored between 2011 and 2013.
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Professor Philip Drinker, Class of 1911 and inventor of the iron lung, brought one to campus for a talk in 1950 and let students get inside of it.
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Wheeler Close, the enclosed garden next to the Chapel cloisters, was named in memory of Alan R. Wheeler, a faculty member from 1902 to 1947 and an avid gardener.
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Students of many eras fondly remember the school’s holiday traditions. The Christmas Festival started with a feast in King Hall in December 1912; the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols in the Chapel were first held in December 1958.
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A dramatic Dragon win in athletics has always been a reason to celebrate. Left: Former coach and school chaplain the Rt. Rev. Dr. Hays Rockwell reacts to a 1963 wrestling victory. Right: Coach Dwayne Pina celebrates in style following an overtime basketball win over Pomfret in 2020.
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The library has had several homes. From its original spot in Old School Main Common Room (which doubled as the school’s dining room until 1907), the library moved to Sixth-Form House in 1934 and was named in memory of Washington Everardus Bogardus, Class of 1915. In 1968, the library moved to what is now the Brown Center and was renamed in memory of Nathaniel P. Hill, Class of 1915. In 1978, a new library was built, keeping the Hill name, on the former site of the Applied Mechanics Building. The library was fully renovated in 2011.
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Memorial Schoolhouse and the Chapel are attached physically to reinforce one of the school's founding principles: that the spiritual life, and a commitment to serve others, be recognized as intimately connected to and essential to the attainment of true knowledge.
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One of the ways students “served marks” in 1910 was by weeding dandelions from the lawns in front of Old School. 21
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Carved lists of graduates on the wooden wall panels in King Hall started in 1923; the school backfilled earlier years. 23
c.1949 Ruth Davenport, First Librarian, at Desk Ruth Davenport worked at St. George's from 1947-1964 and was the school’s first librarian. At the time, the library was housed in the space now occupied by the Advancement Office on the main floor of Sixth-Form House.
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In 2000, the White House Historical Association published a commemorative calendar for the 200th anniversary of the White House. The 14 images for the calendar were painted by 14 artists, one artist from each of the original 13 colonies and the District of Columbia. Chosen from Rhode Island was former St. George’s Art Department Chair Richard Grosvenor. His painting, “Crisp October,” shows the columned south balcony facade of the White House.
After Memorial Schoolhouse was built, the old Schoolroom building (once connected to Sixth-Form House) was torn down and its materials were used to build a boathouse for the school on Third Beach.
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In recent “exit polls” prior to graduation, when students were asked which song will most remind them of St. George’s in the future, the prevailing answer was the hymn “Jerusalem,” sung in chapel a few times during the year — and always at Prize Day Chapel.
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Two historic buildings on campus are topped with cupolas and gleaming goldtoned weathervanes: Memorial Schoolhouse and Diman Dormitory. The schoolhouse weathervane depicts St. George and the dragon; the one on Diman is a decorative arrow (though some say it resembles a fish skeleton).
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In the early days on the Hilltop, students arrived in Newport by ferry from New York, and by train from Providence and Fall River. From there, they would be taken by horse-drawn carriage to the front door of Old School.
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Rich with culture, dining, and entertainment, the nearby city of Newport has always been a draw during time off from school responsibilities. Early on in school history, students who went into Newport for an afternoon had to wear a jacket and tie.
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There used to be only two phones on campus for students to use, and a “telephone boy” would deliver messages as part of a student messenger service.
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A “temporary” altar window remained in the Chapel for more than 80 years before a true leaded stained-glass window was designed by artist Lyn Hovey and installed in 2010. The temporary window was simply painted glass - a quick solution to have something in place for the Chapel Consecration in 1928.
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To create the St. George’s shield logo, the school commissioned Pierre la Rose, a Harvard instructor in medieval heraldry and talented artist. La Rose began with the St. George’s cross, adding black diamonds to the white background as a visual pun on the last name of founder John Diman. The design dates back to 1938-1939.
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The Red Key Society started out as a welcoming committee of team captains for guests on campus (such as visiting teams and their families). Red Key guides now give tours to prospective families for the Admission Office.
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The official red of St. George’s is Pantone 1797.
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The largest event ever held on the Hilltop was the Centennial celebration, in 1996. More than 2,300 were in attendance.
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The first student to graduate did so on his own — a class size of one — in June 1899. His name was Cornelius S. Lee; records show he was admitted to the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 6, 1906.
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When Memorial Schoolhouse was built in the early 1920s, the St. George’s School Railroad ran in the sub-basement, delivering coal to Old School, Sixth-Form House, and Auchincloss through tunnels connecting the buildings.
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There have been several sports teams to come and go on the Hilltop, including gymnastics, rowing, wrestling, and cycling. Volleyball was added as a team sport and began competition in the Independent School League in 2021.
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The Chapel Choir once used the Crypt under the Chapel as its choir room.
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The faculty residence know as The Cottage was moved across Kane Avenue in 1924 to make way for construction of the Behrend Pool.
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The porch on the east side of Old School became "Sixth-Form Porch" because it was a popular gathering place for seniors before meals.
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Old School is the first building constructed specifically for St. George’s School, dating back to 1901. The architects were John Diman’s cousin, Prescott O. Clarke, and Wallis Howe, members of the Providence firm Clarke, Spaulding & Howe.
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The first Middlesex rivalry game was held at SG in the fall of 1902; SG football won 28-0.
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The prefect system was instituted in 1908 by John Byron Diman. Each year since then, a senior prefect has been elected to lead the student body and be a liaison between the students, head of school, and faculty. The first senior prefect was Laurance David Redway, Class of 1908. He went on to receive his bachelor’s degree at Harvard in 1912 and his M.D. from Harvard in 1916.
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Three faculty members in school history have been appointed head of school: Stephen Cabot (1917-1926), Russell Nevins (1926-1928), and William Buell ’14 (1951-1961).
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The first St. George’s Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony took place in November 1995. Honored were inaugural inductees Alfred L. Dyer ’86, Marie Dougherty Hinman ’75, Elizabeth Hunt Isaacson ’83, Henry W. Large Jr. ’58, Robert A. Shann ’61, John H. Stein ’50, John F. Watson ’53, and William A. Wilson ’37 — and coaches William P. Elliot, Jeremiah Ford II, and George W. Wheeler ’27.
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The school’s first official rival was not Middlesex, but actually Cloyne School, formerly located in Newport, Rhode Island. Although the school no longer exists, it was located outside Gate No. 1 of the Newport Naval Station, and most of the original school buildings are still in place today — now owned by the Navy.
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Students at St. George’s get to surf before class. In fact, upon the initiative of students in 2018-19, the Surf & Leadership Program became an official afternoon activity. In 2021, members of the group volunteered at a Third Beach clinic aimed at helping disabled veterans enjoy getting out on the waves.
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Jane Stormont-Lewis was the first female faculty member, serving from 1899 to 1900. She taught German and French at the school’s second location, Swann Villa.
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A horse was once placed inside the Headmaster’s Office as a prank.
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Before AirPods and smartphones, students could go to the Radio-Victrola room in lower Diman Hall to listen to a football game or their favorite dance orchestra, or play records from the school’s collection.
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One of the first Japanese children born on the East Coast attended St. George’s. Yoneo Arai, born to Japanese citizens Ryichir Arai and Tazu Ushiba, graduated in 1908 and went on to Harvard, where his friends included Vincent Astor ’10, Sinclair Weeks, and T.S. Eliot. When King Hall was built in 1907, a temporary covered wooden walkway was installed between Old School and the dining hall. The following year, in 1908, fully enclosed cloisters were constructed, which we now call the Wind Tunnel.
During World War II, the Chapel tower was used as an official military observation post, manned 24 hours a day by students, faculty, faculty families, and neighbors. At the time, the top of the tower, which stands 145 feet tall, was the highest point on Aquidneck Island. The first Prize Day held outside was in 1971, when several sixth-form students persuaded the administration to “capitalize on the natural beauty of the school’s location,” according to the Spring/Summer 1971 edition of the SG Bulletin.
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Fifteen alumni and one faculty member died in the service during WWI and are the reason the Memorial Schoolhouse received its name. They are listed on oak panels above the fireplace in the schoolhouse lobby, Memorial Hall. The school handbook, The Shield, was first published in 1946, 50 years after the school was formed.
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The first Prize Day was held in June 1903. On that day, just three prizes were awarded — Academic, Athletic, and Gardening. John B. Diman was eager to have people donate more prizes to recognize the efforts of a greater number of students.
St. George’s Day is most often celebrated each year on April 23, though some religious traditions delay celebrations if April 23 falls before Easter. We use the day to celebrate Dragon Pride.
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The Geronimo program’s first summer sail was in 1974, and the first academic-year trips started in the fall of 1975.
There are several spaces on the east side of the Academic Center meant to be used as outdoor classrooms.
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When organized athletic competitions first began, the baseball and football teams were allowed to have faculty members on their rosters.
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The first winner of the Distinguished Alumnus Award was John Nicholas Brown ’18, in 1977, and the second was U.S. Senator Claiborne de B. Pell ’36, in 1978. The award was not granted again until 1991, at the urging of honorary board member Lewis Madeira ’39. At that time, the award was renamed The John B. Diman Award. The first female to receive the award, the school’s highest alumni honor, was the Rev. Susan E. Lyon ’75, in 1997.
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In 1987, for the first time in school history, more girls (42) graduated than boys (40).
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The Winter Formal began in the 1890s, with girls visiting from as far as New York and Philadelphia. These dances were so well received that they evolved into elaborately planned extravaganzas. Today, the Winter Formal remains a much-anticipated student event. 67
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A school dance, scheduled for Feb. 23, 1935, had to be postponed due to an epidemic of the measles.
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Little Chapel was the first chapel on the Hilltop; it was moved to its current location when the 100-foot-long, 29-footwide Chapel we know today was constructed.
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School on the Hilltop was originally first through sixth form (grades 7-12). First form was eliminated in 1930; second form ended in 1966.
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In January 1971, Mary Walsh, a day student from Newport, was the first girl to officially enroll at St. George’s. A sixth-former, she completed a high school English credit on the Hilltop and was honored at Prize Day. (She received her diploma from her previous school in Noroton, Connecticut.)
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Alumni Weekend is a time for past students to return to the Hilltop, to reunite with each other and with the school. The first of such celebrations was on May 19, 1917, and was originally called “Alumni Day.”
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Once a regular gathering in the Study Hall of Memorial Schoolhouse, Assembly was moved to Madeira Hall because of more-stringent state fire codes enacted following the Station nightclub fire in West Warwick in 2003.
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Alixe Callen became the school’s 12th and first female head of school on July 1, 2017.
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When the School Battalion existed during World War I, Prize Day always included a military demonstration.
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All five past and present headmasters at the time were in attendance for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of St. George’s, in 1946.
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The first female Senior Prefect was Addie Dix, Class of 1976, four years after the school went fully coed.
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A baseball player and football player are carved in stone over the north slype door of the Chapel. Documentation says they are Babe Ruth and Red Grange, though many think the baseball player bears an uncanny resemblance 77 to Lou Gehrig.
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The dragon sculptures now adorning the exterior of the Nathaniel P. Hill Library once decorated flagpoles on the Manufacturers Building at 101 Sabin Street in Providence, which was demolished in 1964. Salvaged by two separate collectors in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, they were eventually gifted to the school.
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The only midterm graduation to ever occur on the Hilltop was during World War II. In January 1945, three already-enlisted sixth-formers were graduated in a special ceremony held in the Chapel.
The @DragonsofSG Instagram account reached 1,000 followers on Sept. 10, 2015.
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A campuswide “dimout” was observed for almost two years during World War II, preventing buildings from being fully lit at night.
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The stone gates at the entrance onto Main Drive are a memorial to Mr. Julien T. Davies, a longtime trustee, benefactor, and loyal friend who sold his summer home, Pinecroft, on Purgatory Road, to the school (for a generously discounted price). The residence became a faculty home and dormitory in 1913. It was demolished in 1965.
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Prior to the 1980s, students mostly carried their textbooks and school supplies by hand. Not so anymore. Backpack piles are now visible around campus daily, particularly when the school community gathers for chapel and Assembly. 83
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The school’s first Black student was Conrad Young, in 1963. The Conrad Young Prize is now awarded on Prize Day “to a member of the fifth form who has contributed significantly to the school’s efforts to become a more diverse, respectful community through scholarship, leadership, and character.”
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According to the Admission Office, students’ smiles are the school’s best advertisement.
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The Snapdragons were the first a cappella group formed in the 21st century, beginning in 2002. They were named in honor of a female a cappella group that previously existed at St. George’s. Two years later, the Hilltoppers, a male a cappella group, was formed.
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The first two squash courts on campus were located to the north of Sixth-Form House. They were donated by the mother of John Nicholas Brown, Class of 1918 and donor of the Chapel, in 1913. They had to be torn down for the construction of Memorial Schoolhouse.
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Prize Day took place live online on May 25, 2020, for the first time in school history.
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Before the Hoyt Pool, the Behrend Pool was located between Eccles and Auchincloss dormitories. The Behrend Pool was named in memory of benefactors Ernst and Mary Behrend, parents of Warren Moritz Behrend, Class of 1928. The younger Behrend died heroically in a car accident in which he swerved to avoid a bus filled with schoolchildren that had cut in front of his vehicle. He was just 20.
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Although John Diman insisted that students keep academics as their first priority, he recognized the value that athletics might have for his small school. Thus, he formed two school clubs — Sachuest and Sakonnet — to inspire competitive spirit, to give everyone a chance to play and practice, and to allow students to get to know each other across class years. The club teams were most active from 1904 to 1931, but were resurrected in 2008. Students today are still assigned to one or the other, and “club games” take place sporadically in Assembly.
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Students cited two reasons for their excitement over the renovation of Dragon Quad in 1995: The dense shrubs that once surrounded the dragon sculpture were removed, making it easier to bolt through the Quad in a straight line, and the addition of benches, which they said prevented teachers from saying “There’s no place to sit” when asked to hold class outdoors.
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On March 17, 2020, in a letter from Head of School Alixe Callen, it was announced that due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, students would not return to campus from Spring Break. SG would transition to virtual learning, with students attending classes remotely from their homes, for the first time in school history.
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A time capsule was buried under a paver in the Buell/Wheeler courtyard in 1996, the school’s centennial year. At the time, it was requested that the capsule be excavated at the school’s 125th anniversary celebration.
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The Rev. Jackie Kirby became the school’s 19th, and first female chaplain in the 2017-18 academic year.
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In the years before the duPont Science Building was constructed, in 1963, science classes were held in Memorial Schoolhouse, with experiments sometimes performed in the Study Hall.
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The St. George’s Archives has been in operation for 21 years. It was founded by Jack Doll ’52 and is now overseen by current archivist Valerie Simpson.
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The Blizzard of ’78 brought 20 inches of snow to the Hilltop on Feb. 7, 1978. The National Weather Service reports 21 inches of snow fell on Jan. 29, 2022, in Newport. Head of School Alixe Callen gave students a much-appreciated snow day, with no classes (not even virtual!).
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The Polar Bears Club used to practice ice rescue drills and climb the side of the Chapel as part of a wide range of fitness and survival training. The program started as “the Adventure Group” and was created by science teacher Gil Burnett, who was a former U.S. Intelligence Agency officer.
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Class rings became popular at St. George’s in the 1950s.
Service to the greater community has long been part of a St. George’s education. The Cabot-Harman Ice Center is named in honor of two past headmasters: Steven Cabot (1917-1926) and Archer Harman (1961-1972, 1988-1989). Both played and loved ice hockey. It evolved from the original, uncovered Cabot Memorial Ice Hockey Rink built in 1954, which was covered in 1968. Before 1954, hockey was played on Nelson’s Pond.
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The fully student-written play “Behind the Hills” premiered in Madeira Hall on April 30, 2015. Created by Catherine Farmer ’15 and Laurie Germain ’15, who met at age 10 while living in Rwanda, the play told the story of the Rwandan genocide of 1994. 95
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The words to the School Hymn were written in 1905 by Louise Diman, one of John Byron Diman’s sisters.
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The tradition of the Diman Cup — awarded to the winner of the most athletic competitions between the St. George’s Dragons and the Portsmouth Abbey Ravens each year — started in 1979. That was more than 83 years after the founding of St. George’s School and 53 years after Portsmouth Abbey, which both owe their beginnings to John Diman.
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Every stone used in the Chapel’s construction was cut, carved, and transported to the Hilltop from the J.P. Falt Co. Stone Mill in Sander’s Quarry, Indiana.
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The attention-grabbing dragon mascot seen at games and special events today has a wingspan of 6 feet.
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Emily Diman, John Diman’s other sister, served the school long past our founder’s departure in 1917. She worked on the Hilltop until 1928.
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The Red & White had precursors (e.g., St. George’s Weekly). It ceased publication from 1912 to 1922, but the school newspaper has consistently remained in production since 1922. 113
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The Lance started out as a biennial publication in 1908. No editions were published in 1909 or 1911. By 1912 it had become an annual publication.
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The Dragon is the oldest student publication. It started as a monthly in March 1899, and in the earliest years it reported on SG news and events in addition to publishing student essays, fiction, poetry, and drawings.
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Nellie Brown, a talented cook, was one of John Diman’s first hires, in 1896. She stayed for 37 years.
113.
The longest-serving SG employee in school history was Samuel Ross Jr., a staff member from 1906 until 1966.
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114.
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Prior to 1907, there was a chicken yard on Cliff Field that supplied all of the eggs for meals. Community members advocated for it to be moved to the north side of the kitchen to improve the view from the windows of the newly built King Hall.
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Typically, The Lance yearbook 115 is dedicated by the students to a faculty member; however, the honor has gone to at least two staff members: The Class of 1970 dedicated their edition to Theo Belcher, who worked at the school for 48 years and was affectionately known as “the keeper of the keys,” overseeing the school’s buildings. The Class of 1991 dedicated their yearbook to Bessie Burns, a dining hall worker who retired in the 1980s but who remained living on campus for years. She was known for sipping a cup of tea in the afternoons and The whimsical regaling her coworkers with cartoons of school poems and stories, recited life seen in early editions of The from memory, from her life Dragon were mostly done by in Ireland. Students loved to Jacob Bates Abbott, Class of greet her as they came through 1913, who went on to draw for the food line, and she loved The Lampoon at Harvard. their company.
117.
Maggie’s Pantry, adjacent to the Main Common Room in Old School, is named in honor of Margaret Galvin, who worked at St. George’s from 1910 to 1961 performing such tasks as cooking and preparing tea but perhaps more memorably serving as a warm and motherly figure to students over the decades. A native of County Kerry, Ireland, and an avid sports fan, she kept in the pantry photos of student-athletes in their moments of glory. 117
115.
P H OTO BY DAV I D L A U E R
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<< Sloan Buhse ’15 giving her Chapel Talk.
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118.
When the school infirmary opened in 1931, it included a dental office.
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In 1945, the theater department presented “A Christmas Carol” at the Elizabeth Peabody House, in Boston, one of the first settlement houses in the city and also founded in 1896.
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The maze on the floor of the Chapel was designed by donor John Nicholas Brown, Class of 1918, and represents the difficulties of reaching eternal life.
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The first turf fields were installed in 2018, one replacing the formerly grass Crocker Field, and the other, Montgomery Field, newly named in honor of former coach Archibald Montgomery, as a gift of the 1990 boys’ lacrosse team.
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Each year, sixthformers may volunteer to give a Chapel Talk. These days, approximately one-quarter of all seniors decide to do so.
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Around the top of the Chapel’s turret tower are four separate busts. They are: John Nicholas Brown, Class of 1918 and Chapel donor; the Rev. Arthur Newton Peaslee, a math teacher at SG and Brown’s favorite teacher; Stephen Cabot, the headmaster during the first two years of construction of the Chapel; and Russell Nevins, the headmaster during the last two years of construction and at the time of the consecration service. Each one is guarded by six grotesques, meant to scare away bad demons.
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SG was once home to a nine-hole golf course and a barber shop in the basement of Memorial Schoolhouse — and a rifle range under King Hall. 121
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More than 1,200 students applied to St. George’s in 2021-22 — more than any in our history — for roughly 90 spots. St. George’s is well positioned to flourish and prosper for another 125 years!
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SUMMER 2022
st. george’s school
Alumni News
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Rob Baer ’00 and his wife Lynne are the proud co-founders and owners of a new boutique hotel and hostel that opened in November 2021 called The PAD in Silverthorne, Colorado. Sustainably constructed from 18 shipping containers, the design-forward hotel features 36 rooms offering a variety of options for different budgets — ranging from dorm-style bunk rooms to private and posh suites. Years in development, according to Lynne, the project has been highlighted in a number of publications, including the Boston Globe, Travel & Leisure, and Forbes.
The C L A S S N O T E S section has been removed from this digital copy of the Bulletin to respect our alums’ privacy. Class notes are only available in the print edition.
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S T U D E N T E S S AY
BY CHASE MOCKRIDGE ’22
st. george’s school
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My middle school metamorphosis
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hroughout grade school, I wore a uniform that consisted of khaki pants and a white polo shirt. Each morning I arrived clean and pressed, but by dismissal, I looked like I had signed up to be the canvas for a Jackson Pollock painting — but one where, instead of paint, he used markers, ketchup, and grass stains. One day my principal stopped me on my way out the door and asked what had happened to me. I paused for a moment and proceeded to say, “Tough day at the office, Mr. Nespole.” I am not sure how a 6-year-old me knew such a phrase, but it certainly shocked my principal, who burst out laughing. This story epitomizes my journey throughout elementary and middle school. I was always quick with a retort, but it was all an act. Deep down, I felt like a distorted cacophony of ideas trapped by the speckled white cement halls that confined me. Instead of focusing on schoolwork, I put all my energy into gags, pranks, and any other mechanism for entertaining my classmates, but my mischievous nature was simply a means to an end. It was apparent to me that reading came much easier to everyone else in my class. I was falling behind and, as a result, felt like I was dumb. Surprisingly, I found that the best way to hide my academic insufficiency was to place myself at the center of attention. Distracting my classmates with humor was the perfect way to disguise my insecurity. To avoid being a class idiot, I became the class clown. Then, in sixth grade, I met my match. Mr. Smee was a tall, steely-eyed man, with the courage of an eagle and cunning of a fox. He and I faced off like two cowboys in a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western. Yet what set him apart was not his intimidating stature
This was Chase’s college essay. He will attend Wake Forest University this fall.
or powerful nature, but his ability to empathize. He assigned a project on ancient Greece that required many weeks of research, but naturally I left it to the last day and failed. I remember sitting in my classroom as he handed everyone’s projects back except mine. One by one, my classmates received their grades and filed out of the room. Mr. Smee then sat down beside me and through his thoughtful questioning of what went wrong, I eventually broke. I pressed my face against the cold steel desk and wept. That day, Mr. Smee did something that no other teacher had. Instead of getting mad at me for my usual antics, he found the natural leader in me before I ever could. He helped me see that my issue wasn’t a lack of intelligence, but instead my misguided belief that I was dumb. He challenged me to focus my energy on leading rather than distracting my peers. This moment was a major turning point in my life. Through hard work and determination, I started to achieve good grades and discovered that I could balance making my friends laugh while also thriving in the classroom. It is hard to imagine that any of my classmates and teachers who elected me Senior Prefect would recognize me in my messy white polo shirt (unless of course, they spot me in the dining hall on rib Thursday). While I may still ruin a shirt every once in a while, I have come a long way from the bowl-cutsporting menace I was as a child. I no longer hide in the center of attention but instead take command of it and use the spotlight to further class discussions. I am no longer the class idiot, and while I can still be the class clown when appropriate, I have learned how to use what got me in trouble in middle school to instead lead my peers to succeed. Thanks to Mr. Smee, that’s my story: class idiot to class clown to class president.
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