<b>Millbrook's Kingdon Gould '42 on Founding an Independent School</b>
We thought members of the Millbrook family might be interested in the article below entitled, “The Origin of a School,” which was originally printed in the Buckley School magazine. It is Kingdon Gould’s (Millbrook, class of 1942) account of how in 1954 he founded the Glenelg Country School in Maryland with a little help from his Millbrook education as well as from his former headmaster, Edward Pulling, and his teacher, Henry Callard.
Because both my wife, Mary, and I had had the good fortune to attend quality independent schools, she the New Canaan Country Day and Miss Porter’s, I Buckley and Millbrook, when the time came in 1954 for our eldest to start her schooling we checked out the independent school situation in our neighborhood.
We had recently relocated from New Haven to Howard County, Maryland, which lies between Baltimore and Washington where I worked. Howard County, population 25,000, was at that time a beautiful, rural area, a delightful, tranquil place to live but devoid of that independent, nonsectarian school for which we were searching. Of course both Washington and Baltimore had independent schools of great distinction but both cities were a substantial commute away and schooling them at either would have meant our children would be educated outside the community in which they lived.
The answer seemed obvious: start a school. What sounded simple turned out to be a most complex project, one that would engage us for over fifty years but also one that has substantially enriched our lives.
Throughout this process we were blessed with a vast store of good fortune as you will see. We soon discovered there were several other families in the neighborhood with independent school backgrounds who were also looking for a local elementary independent school. In early May we invited them to our house to discuss the possibility of starting such a school and to hear Henry Callard, then the Head of Gilman School in Baltimore, under whom I had studied at Millbrook during its early formative years when classes were still held in the barn and the loft was the gym/theatre.
“How does one start a school?” we enquired of Mr. Callard. He replied with great simplicity, “You engage a person to run it and you find a place to hold it.” Next I sought out Edward Pulling, the legendary founder of Millbrook, told him what we were about and asked if he could recommend a head. He gave us just one name, Marjorie Dunn, whom we immediately contacted. She expressed interest in the project and arranged to visit. Marjorie Dunn turned out to be a gracious, experienced Vassar grad with excellent credentials and a commanding presence. She radiated confidence. I do not recall having interviewed another candidate. We engaged her to run the school and she set about preparing a curriculum and selecting an excellent faculty contingent on our coming up with an adequate facility. This was the second of our strokes of good fortune, the first having been encouragement from Mr. Callard and “The Boss”.
Now we began searching in earnest for a structure to house the school. To build from scratch was never an option for young parents with burgeoning families. At this point our lucky streak really took off.
Being a newcomer to the area I drove about Howard County somewhat aimlessly until one most fortunate day I started down a country lane that led for a quarter mile through a forest of towering oaks to a stately residence in the Tudor style sporting a crenellated tower and surrounded by beautiful boxwood on carefully landscaped grounds.
Nobody seemed about so I parked nearby and peered in a window. The large room into which I gazed was empty save for elegant mirrors set above opposing fireplaces. Then I noticed two men walking towards me. “Excuse me for trespassing,” I said, “but I just had to look into this magnificent building. Could you kindly tell me who owns it?” “I do,” responded the elder. “Does anyone live here?” I continued. “No one,” he replied. “It’s been empty for eleven years.” “Would you consider leasing it for a school for young children?” was next. “I might,” he said.
I rushed to meet with the four other friends* who would join as incorporators to tell them of this remarkable mansion and its possible availability. They, being old time Howard Countians, recognized it immediately as Glenelg Manor formerly a grand showplace – 700 acres of beautifully farmed land with stables, polo field, clay and grass tennis courts, elaborate gardens and so forth – which had been sold during World War II to George Zaiser, operator of Wilton Dairy. We all agreed the Manor house would be ideal, not only large and imposing, but situated in the center of the County. A lease was agreed upon with the owner: $100 a month for twenty years for the Manor and the surrounding fifty acres!
We were in business!
There was need for much sprucing up: cleaning, painting, and removal of an extended family of raccoons in the attic. This work was gladly performed by volunteers, ourselves included.
A charter and bylaws were prepared and approved along with the lease and a budget and tuition schedule ($250 per year I recall as the maximum) by the incorporators at their organizational meeting held by candlelight as electricity was lacking. The Manor lent its name as well as furnishing the venue: Glenelg Country School. This unique structure remains the heart of GCS.
When GCS opened its doors in September, 1954, enrollment stood at thirty-five. Grades were kindergarten through six. Seventh and eighth grades were added the next two years and GCS remained an elementary school for the next thirty years until the Board of Trustees decided to add high school. By that time GCS had purchased the Manor House and the surrounding 85 acres.
Today GCS is arranged in four mini campuses: primary school (kindergarten through first grade), lower school (second through fifth grade), middle school (sixth through eighth grade) and high school. There are four playing fields, a baseball diamond, an outdoor pool, tennis courts, three gyms, a theatre, an observatory, and, of course, modern structures to house the primary, middle and high schools. The lower school continues in the Manor House. The architecture of all the new structures has been designed to harmonize with the Manor House and maintain a rural atmosphere. Enrollment stood at 820 students last year; the budget exceeded $18,900,000; and net assets were $14,500,000.
Good fortune, too, has followed our choices of Head. They have been gifted educators and executives; their service terms have been of long duration, the most recent three having served 17 years, 12 years and 13 years. Since inception GCS has had a diverse enrollment and a generous financial aid program. Two recent developments I find particularly gratifying are the introduction of Chinese to the curriculum five years ago and the opening of the Glenleg School of Abu Dhabi in September, 2008, for which GCS served as a model and mentor.
In crafting the educational parameters and ethos for Glenelg, I turned to my Millbrook and Buckley experiences and the qualities of their programs: an enduring commitment to excellence; an emphasis on language, proper grammar and poetry; the early inclusion of Shakespeare and Latin in the curriculum; vigorous athletic programs; wide-ranging artistic opportunities and creativity in adapting to limited facilities, e.g gym and theatre were located in the Buckley basement among the steam pipes, and classes were held in former box stalls at Millbrook. At Glenelg it was wrestling on mattresses on the cellar floor next to the boiler.
To have had a hand in the founding and in the administration of Glenelg Country School has been a most rewarding opportunity for me and our family. Our nine children have been provided an excellent educational grounding in a beautiful bucolic environment; likewise several grands have had the experience and a great-grandson is there now. It has led us all into enduring friendships. And we have shared in shaping the educational and character formation of over 1600 young people motivated to seek the greater good.
That’s a synopsis of GCS’s origin – but I’d like to end with this vignette. Some years ago an elderly gentleman asked if he might view the Manor House again for it had been his boyhood home prior to World War II. At the end of his visit he expressed great satisfaction as to the use to which Glenelg Manor had been put. “Nothing could make me happier than to see happy children in the house where I was raised,” he commented as he passed out the door. But he knocked once again and on admission asked the Head, “May I slide down the banister one more time?” And he did.
* Jamie Macgill, Jack Mason, Bill Shippen and Albert Warfield.
