Lake Forest Academy (also known as LFA) is a co-educational college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9 through 12. The school is located on the North Shore in Lake Forest, Illinois, United States, about 30 miles north of Chicago. As of the 2017â€"2018 school year, the school has 435 students, with the students coming from 15 states and 39 countries. It is a fairly selective school, admitting 29% of applicants in 2018. The current Head of School is Dr. John Strudwick, a former teacher at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. The school is accredited by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS), and Secondary School Admission Test Board (SSATB).
History
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The Academy (known as "LFA") was founded in 1857 as a Presbyterian boys preparatory school. Its founding was part of the creation of Lake Forest, Illinois. The Young Ladies' Seminary at Ferry Hall, later simplified to Ferry Hall School, was founded in 1869, and was considered a sister school. Both schools proceeded with their separate missions until the early 1970s, at which point the schools began to coordinate their efforts. A merger of the schools to form the coeducational Lake Forest Academy-Ferry Hall School took place in 1974. Later, the school's name officially became Lake Forest Academy. Lake Forest College was a third component of the original founders' design and opened its doors later although it uses the Academy's founding date as its own. It has no formal relationship with the original schools.
Campus
Lake Forest Academy is situated on a wooded 150-acre (0.61 km²) campus, which includes a small lake. There are 30 plus buildings on campus, including Reid Hall (formerly the estate of Chicago meat entrepreneur J. Ogden Armour), Corbin Academic Center, Hutchinson Commons, the Student Union (which houses the dining hall), five dormitories and several faculty housing buildings. The Cressey Center for the Arts (formerly the Fine & Performing Arts Center, or FPAC) is the site for all-school meetings, concerts and student theatrical productions; the Reyes Family Science Center; and a new student union building was opened in the fall of 2016,housed within it is the Stuart Center for Global Learning.
LFA has a variety of athletic facilities, including the David O. MacKenzie '50 Ice Arena, a swimming pool, the Glore Memorial Gymnasium, the James P. Fitzsimmons Athletic Wing, the Crown Fitness & Wellness Center, tennis courts, all-weather track (new as of 2005), and five full-sized playing fields for football, field hockey, and soccer.
Approximately three-quarters of the faculty of Lake Forest Academy live on campus.
Dormitories
Lake Forest Academy houses its approximately 200 boarding students in five different campus dormitories. The dorms are single-sex and are of varying size.
Ferry Hall Dormitory
Ferry Hall Dormitory was completed in the winter of 2012, and the first girls moved into their rooms in February of that year.
Named in honor of Ferry Hall School, and taking design elements from that campus, Ferry Hall Dormitory is the first building to be built on the campus of Lake Forest Academy for girls. With 36 beds, Ferry, as it has come to be known by students is the newest dormitory and is located across the field hockey field from Atlass Hall, forming a quad with the Crown Fitness and Wellness Center and Reid Hall.
In addition to housing students, Ferry Hall Dormitory is also the home to four faculty apartments.
Atlass Hall
Atlass is the newest boys' dormitory, and located in the center of campus, it is closest to the academic buildings and dining hall. In addition to generously sized rooms and new furniture, Atlass also sports a comfortable lounge area with a television, sofas, and pool table. Atlass is a two-story building that houses 70 boys and four faculty members in apartments on either north or south end of the dorm.
Atlass opened in January, 1999 following a grant from H. Leslie Atlass, Jr., class of 1936, in honor of his father (class of 1912). According to the inscription on the dormitory, Atlass Sr. was a "broadcasting pioneer and innovator." The financial gift was given with the condition that it be used to construct a new boys' dormitory, since Bates House, the previous boys' dormitory constructed in 1948, was in extremely poor condition.
Warner House
Warner House houses about 30 boys and five faculty members; four in the actual structure, and one family in the attached Remsen Cottage. Warner is acknowledged to be the oldest structure on the Lake Forest Academy campus, thought in campus lore to have been a horse stable in the years before the Academy when J. Ogden Armour occupied the campus space. Upon the Academy's relocation to its current physical plant in 1948, the Board of Trustees dedicated the building to Ezra J. Warner, Jr., class of 1895. Warner is located near the football field and with its relatively large number of faculty, has always been a dormitory that epitomizes the strong connection between students and faculty at LFA.
Marshall Field House
Marshall Field House (or simply "Field") is the home to nearly all female boarding students, housing 72 out of 82 girls. Field is older than the Atlass dorm with its first season of housing students in 1965 but Field House is the closest dorm to Hutchinson Commons and has the most spirit of all of the Academy dormitories.
Marshall Field House was named after Marshall Field, the founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based chain of department stores. A substantial donation was made by Field to the Academy, and the Marshall Field House was dedicated to him on October 9, 1965.
At present, Field is planned for major renovation as part of the Academy's expansion plans, as detailed in the Strategic Plan. According to the report, Field will be scaled down to house only 40 girls, and a second new dormitory will be constructed to house 40 others.
McIntosh Cottage
McIntosh Cottage (known simply as "Mac") is a unique dormitory, housing only nine girls in five rooms. In addition to the nine student residents, McIntosh houses two faculty members in apartments. McIntosh was named for Arthur T. McIntosh, class of 1896, by his son.
Athletics
The Academy was formerly a member of the Chicago Independent School League and competed against eight other independent schools in Chicago's suburbs in some sports. The school recently withdrew from this conference and began playing an independent schedule in all sports in 2009â€"10. The following sports are offered:
Many sports include JV and JVB programs to ensure that every student is able to participate in an athletics program. Beginning in the 2017-18 season, the football program made the transition from playing in 11-player games to 8-player games. Students at LFA may also partake in non-team P.E. activities such as bowling, curling, salsa dance, jogging, lacrosse, water polo, weightlifting, and yoga, as well as a winter/spring musical.
LFA has a very strong athletic tradition that began in 1859 when Elmer E. Ellsworth, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln who already had become well known in the leading eastern cities by organizing military units called Zouaves, would be hired to drill the students. Ellsworth would be called to Washington, D.C. by Lincoln who made him a colonel. He was the first officer in the Civil War to give his life for the Union cause. The Academy's drill team had been a pet project of Colonel Ellsworth, so that after the Civil War, when President Lincoln's body was brought through Chicago from Washington to Springfield, it would act as escort and guard of honor from Chicago to the State Capitol.
Because of the Ellsworth experiment, a gymnasium would be erected in 1864 and physical training was strongly stressed. In 1876, the LFA baseball team played against Albert Spalding's Chicago White Stockings (later renamed the Cubs) professional team. LFA lost; the score was 31 to 1. In 1888, football would be introduced by math and physics instructor William H. ("Little Bill") Williams. He would later coach and would be president of the University Athletic Association; and he has been called the father of the Western Collegiate Football Association, subsequently named "The Big Ten." The Academy's football tradition would be carried on by such legendary coaches as Clarence Herschberger and especially Ralph Jones whose teams during the 1920s stood among the finest in the entire country. He had been the University of Illinois' head basketball coach and its freshman baseball and football coach. For eight years he would achieve great success in the Big Ten and had written the acknowledged standard work on scientific basketball playing. Under his stewardship of LFA's football program during the 1920s, it became more and more difficult for the school to arrange games with secondary schools, and the schedule would be nearly filled against college freshman and junior college teams. In the early 1930s when an ex-player of Jones' bought the Chicago Bears, he would ask Jones to coach them. He did so with distinction, which included the first NFL championship.
Lake Forest Academy is notable for not being a full member of the Illinois High School Association, the body which governs most sports and competitive activities in Illinois. According to a September 2009 interview with the school's athletic director: "... LFA's athletic philosophy and active recruitment of international students conflict with the IHSA and that the Caxys are not eligible to compete for state championships in any sport. And LFA was not about to change its private-school philosophy (required athletics for every student) to conform to IHSA standards." Kevin Versen, Director of Athletics 2000 - 2012 .
Mascot
The LFA mascot is the "Caxy", which is ancient Greek for "ribbet" â€" the croaking sound made by a frog. In the early 1900s, Aristophanes' hit comedy, The Frogs, was the subject of a popular Greek literature class. LFA is believed to be the only school with "Caxys" as a nickname, although a popular athletic cheer at Yale University uses lines from the same Aristophanes play. The cheer dates back to at least 1896, when a student revolt against suspensions of several students led to dozens of students taking the train to Chicago, where upon alighting at Wells Street they wandered the streets and chanted, "Caxy, go wack! Go wack! Go wack! Caxy, go wack! Go wack! Go wack! Hi-O! Hi-O! Paraballoo! 'Cademy! 'Cademy! L.F.U.!!"
Traditions
Move-Up Day
Move-Up Day began as a tradition at Ferry Hall in 1906, originally called Ivy Day, commemorating the annual planting of Ivy at the base of Smith Hall. Over time, this tradition would evolve into its current form, usually being held the day before Graduation. Departmental awards and speeches are given, and at the end of the ceremony, each class is invited to "move up" and literally take the place that they will occupy the next year: seniors move to sit with the alumni, juniors take the former spots of the seniors, and so on.
All-School Handshake
At the beginning of each year every student, faculty member, and administrator gathers in the formal gardens and participates in the all school handshake. The entire school arranges themselves in a line around the periphery of the Formal Gardens and the Head of School begins by shaking the person's hand next to him, then he moves on to the next until each person has shaken the hand of all others.
Field Day
Field Day also began at Ferry Hall, starting in the spring of 1903 with "classes competing in races, the high jump, and a five-pound shot put, among other events." Field Day would die out in the 1970s as a result of the merger between Ferry Hall and Lake Forest Academy.
The House Cup
The House Cup Competition would be re-established in 2004. The students are divided up into four houses (Bird, Lewis, Sargent, and Welch) and compete in various events throughout the year. The house with the most event points at the end of the year have their name inscribed on a trophy that is displayed in Reid Hall; the colors of the winning team are used in the student handbook cover for the following year. This is based on the House system which is found in British schools; however unlike British schools, students are not divided up based on what dorm they are in. This is similar to the house system in the Harry Potter series, and as such the students often debate which LFA house corresponds with that in the series; there is never any consensus on this.
Reputation
All graduates attend a 4-year college or university, and many past alumni have attended Ivy League schools, "Little Ivies", and other respected colleges, though the trend has declined as such schools have been becoming very selective.
Ties to the leading colleges and universities with the Academy date back to its very first graduating class. Innovation has been the school's hallmark particularly under strong headmasters such as William Mather Lewis (later president of George Washington University and thereafter Lafayette College), John Wayne Richards, E. Francis Bowditch (later dean at MIT), and Harold Harlow Corbin Jr. It was Richards' pioneering instructional plan that Time Magazine's inaugural issue featured in its "Education" section (August 18, 1930).
One of the fundamental strengths of the school is the potential for strong relationships that form between students and faculty. Faculty, approximately three-quarters of whom live on campus, also serve as coaches and dorm supervisors. This aspect of the Academy is often promoted by the Admissions Department and others as a feature that sets the school apart from other institutions. Head of School Dr. John Strudwick mentions that "LFA prides itself on its small classes and its Advisory system which both promote a unique and productive relationship between faculty and students."
On film
The campus has been used as a shooting location for several films, among them: Damien: Omen II, Ordinary People, The Babe, and The Package.
Notable alumni
See also: Ferry Hall School for alumnae graduating prior to 1972.
Arts
- John Agar was an actor (Sands of Iwo Jima, Tarantula, Revenge of the Creature), formerly married to Shirley Temple.
- Bix Beiderbecke, jazz cornet player (expelled; attended 1921-22).
- David Bradley was a film director (Julius Caesar, They Saved Hitler's Brain).
- Temple Hoyne Buell (1914) was an architect, viewed as the father of the modern indoor shopping mall (Denver's Cherry Creek Shopping Center in 1949).
- Jay Chandrasekhar is a comedian and film director (The Dukes of Hazzard,Super Troopers, Beerfest, Club Dread).
- Camilla Chloe Cleese (2001), comedienne and actress, daughter of John Cleese and Barbara Trentham.
- Max Demián (2005), performance artist.
- Jean Harlow, actress (attended 1926â€"1927).
- Jesse Hibbs (1925), film director, associated with Audie Murphy in several films, including To Hell and Back; also a College All-American football player on USC's first national championship team
- Brad Morris (1993), actor
- Robert Myhrum (1944) Emmy nominated television director
- Tom Neal, actor.
- Kelly Perine (1987), actor.
- McLean Stevenson was an award-winning actor best known for his work on television (Henry Blake on the television series M*A*S*H).
- Stephen Wade (1970), folk musician.
- Melora Walters (1979), actress, Cold Mountain, Boogie Nights, Magnolia.
Business and law
- Sam Adam, Jr. (1991) is a prominent lawyer who has defended high-profile clients such as R. Kelly in his child pornography trial and Rod Blagojevich against corruption charges.
- James Aubrey (attended 1931â€"32) was the president of CBS and MGM.
- Charles Edmund Beard (1916) was an aviation pioneer and president of Braniff Airlines.
- Andrew T. Berlin (1979) Chicago businessman and philanthropist; minority stakeholder in the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team.
- Ralph Bogan co-owned baseball's Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves.
- James R. Cargill (1941) was a billionaire scion of Minnesota's Cargill family; pioneered in the computerization of animal feed formulations, work done in conjunction with University of Chicago professor Thomas Caywood.
- Gaylord Donnelley (attended 1923-24) is the former chairman of R. R. Donnelley & Sons.
- Charles Gelatt(1935) Wisconsin businessman and philanthropist,early co-owner of the Milwaukee Brewers,National League baseball team.
- George N. Gillett, Jr. (1956) is a communications mogul, former coâ€"owner of the English Premier League team Liverpool F.C. and NASCAR auto-racing team Richard Petty Motorsports, and also once owned the Montreal Canadiens, Miami Dolphins and the Harlem Globetrotters.
- Ellmore Clark Patterson, Jr., Class of 1931, as chairman and CEO of J. P. Morgan & Co. shaped the financial community's response to New York City's fiscal crisis of the 1970s.
- Walter Byron Smith, class of 1895, banker, philanthropist, and director of the Northern Trust Company and the Illinois Tool Works (both founded by his father).
- Louis Upton (1907) was co-founder of Whirlpool Corporation.
- Rawleigh Warner, Jr. (attended 1935â€"36) was chairman/CEO of Mobil Oil.
Government and public service
- Robert G. Abboud, Illinois politician
- Richard L. Conolly (1910) was an Admiral of the United States Navy during World War II. The destroyer USS Conolly (DD-979) was named after him.
- Jan Crull, Jr., Native American rights advocate, filmmaker, attorney.
- Geoff Diehl, class of 1988, was elected as the State Representative for the 7th Plymouth District of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in November 2010.
- A. Gilmore Flues, Class of 1922, Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury in the Eisenhower Administration.
- Howard Frank Gillette, class of 1890, banker and Boy Scouts of America promoter; founding member of the Chicago World's Fair Centennial Celebration of 1933; national commodore of the Sea Scouts.
- Rodney Glassman, class of 1996, was the Democratic candidate for John McCain's US senate seat in Arizona in 2010.
- John Francis Grady (1948) is a United States District Court Judge; currently the senior judge for the Northern District of Illinois.
- Charles T. Hollingshead, class of 1950, was the original voice of NASA Space Center.
- Melvin R. Laird (attended 1938-39) was a U.S. Congressman (1952â€"69) and Secretary of Defense (1969â€"73).
- Edward Everett Nourse was a theologian.
- George H. "Barney" Ross, class of 1937, World War II PT boat captain, John F. Kennedy friend who accompanied him on the PT 109 excursion. He later returned to help Kennedy win election to the presidency. Kennedy then named him to the President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth. He also created the draft proposals for the Peace Corps.
- Nauman S. Scott, class of 1934, was one of the first Louisiana U.S. District Court Judges to advocate desegregation.
- Charles H. Wacker (1872) was the chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission, organized in 1909 to beautify Chicago along modern lines. For his leadership, he was awarded the Medal of Honor by France's Societe des Architectes in 1921. Chicago's Wacker Drive is named in his honor.
Journalism and letters
- Bill Ayers is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who co-founded the Weather Underground. In 2008, his relationship with presidential candidate Barack Obama was the subject of media coverage.
- Ward Just, noted Washington Post Vietnam War correspondent and author who attended LFA from 1949 to 1951 and left because of poor grades. He subsequently enrolled in Michigan's Cranbrook School, from which he graduated.
- Michael Leonard, class of 1966, feature reporter for NBC's Today show.
- Rebecca Makkai, class of 1995, author
- Ralph J. Mills, poet and critic.
- Robert Wilson Patterson, class of 1867, newspaper publisher.
- Bill Schulz, class of 1994, Fox News.
Science
- Cristopher Moore, class of 1983, computer scientist, mathematician, and physicist.
- Karl Patterson Schmidt, herpetologist.
- Paul Starrett, class of 1883, pioneering structural engineer whose NYC based company built the Empire State Building, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and many other structures.
- Charles Thom, microbiologist and mycologist.
Athletics
- Peter Baron, owner and team manager of LeMans and world championship-winning Starworks Motorsport
- Neil Blatchford (1964), speed skater who competed in the 1972 Winter Olympics.
- Angus Brandt, Australian professional basketball player
- Alfred Eissler, NFL player
- Tyler Ennis, NBA player for the Milwaukee Bucks. Attended Lake Forest Academy for a semester.
- Babe Frump, NFL player with the Chicago Bears.
- Genevieve Lacasse, Olympic gold medalist goalkeeper, Canadian national women's hockey team.
- David Levine, ARCA Racing Series race car driver for Lira Motorsports.
- Victor Pineda, soccer player for Chicago Fire and United States U-18 national team.
- Teddy Purcell, right winger for NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning.
- Paul Schuette, NFL player with the New York Giants, Chicago Bears, and Boston Braves
- Alex DeBrincat, right winger for NHL's Chicago Blackhawks.
Other
- Robert S. Hartman, logician and philosopher who taught at Lake Forest Academy in the early 1940s
- James L. Prestini, internationally known sculptor and craftsman; long time University of California (Berkeley) professor; taught at Lake Forest Academy during the 1930s
- Stephen B. Small, class of 1966, UPI heir kidnapped and buried alive in 1987; his death drew national attention
- Corwith Cramer (ship), a tall ship named in honor of a former Lake Forest Academy master,Corwith Cramer Jr. (taught at LFA from 1964 to 1971) who along with a Lake Forest Academy alumnus, Edward S. Mac Arthur (class of 1939), of the insurance clan and nephew of playwright Charles MacArthur, founded the Sea Education Association
References
- Arpee, Edward (1944). The History of Lake Forest Academy. Chicago: R.F. Seymour. OCLCÂ 3165440.Â
- Pridmore, Jay; Megan C. McGuire '88; Martha Briggs (1994). Anne Gendler, ed. Many Hearts and Many Hands: The History of Ferry Hall and Lake Forest Academy. William A. Seabright, John A. Scrapes, Dan Grayson, Alan Shortall. Brookfield, Wisconsin: Burton and Mayer. p. 264. ISBN 0-9643350-0-X. OCLC 32152179.Â
- Thompson, Jacqueline (1981). "Eight Sure-Fire Upper Class Indicators: Coed Prep Schools for Patrician Adolescents". The Very Rich Book: America's Supermillionaires and Their Money, Where They Got It, How They Spend It. New York: Morrow. ISBNÂ 0-688-00072-X. OCLCÂ 6707747.Â
External links
- Official website
- Mission Statement
- Strategic Plan
- 2008/2009 Lake Forest Academy Day Planner
- 2008/2009 Lake Forest Academy Handbook