A Brief History of The Storm King School

Established as the Cornwall Heights School in 1867 by Reverend Louis P. Ledoux, an Amherst graduate and pastor of the Cornwall Presbyterian Church, the School later became known as the Stone School when Dr. Carlos H. Stone took over the Head of Schoolship. Its present name, The Storm King School, dates from 1923, during Head of School Alvan R. Duerr’s tenure, and reflects the name of the mountain where the School is located. Storm King was an all-male boarding and day school until 1970, when the first girls were admitted as day students. Girls became boarding students in 1975, and since then the School has been a coeducational, college preparatory school for grades 8 through 12, with a capacity for approximately 130 boarding and 50 day students.

The Storm King School was chartered in 1928 by the Board of Regents of the State University of New York as a nonprofit institution governed by a selfperpetuating Board of Trustees. Today, it is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS), and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), and the College Board, among other professional organizations. A 20-member Board of Trustees, of which approximately half are alumni, governs the School.

Located on the West Bank of the Hudson River near the crest of Storm King Mountain, the 51-acre campus offers a commanding view of the Shawangunk Mountains and distant Catskills. The Storm King School is a member of the Black Rock Forest Consortium, which administers the Black Rock Forest, a 3,800-acre wilderness that abuts the campus. The School makes maximum use of these natural surroundings for its science, environmental, and recreational programs. The School maintains its position as a founding member of the Consortium Board. The Consortium membership also includes the American Museum of Natural History, Barnard College, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Browning School, City College of New York, Columbia University, Convent of the Sacred Heart, the Dalton School, Friends Seminary, New York Academy of Sciences, New York University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Newburgh School District, and Teacher’s College of Columbia University.