Loomis Chaffee
The Loomis Chaffee School is a college preparatory school located in Windsor, Connecticut. It has a total enrollment of 700 boarding and day students, and 150 faculty members.
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History
Loomis Chaffee was chartered in 1874, when the five Loomis siblings had seen all of their children pass away. They decided to pool their assets and create a school to benefit the children of others. The founders were insistent that no religious or political views, national origin, or lack of financial resources would preclude any student from admission.
In 1914, the Loomis Institute accepted its first class of 39 boys and five girls. In 1926, the girls division split off to form The Chaffee School. The two schools reunited in 1970 to create The Loomis Chaffee School. Since then, the school has expanded greatly.
Overview
The school is set on a 300+ acre (1.2 km²) campus at the confluence of the Farmington and Connecticut Rivers known informally as "The Island." Students may choose from more than 180 courses in subjects including mathematics, science, social studies, economics, English, Chinese, French, German, Latin, Russian, and Spanish. The school has 60 interscholastic boys and girls sports teams in 19 sports, and 40 other extraurricular organizations. The Katherine Brush Library contains more than 60,000 volumes. The school's endowment was recently valued at $110 million.
Loomis Chaffee's mascot is the Pelican. The school motto is the Latin phrase written by Ovid: "Ne Cede Malis," which means "Do not yield to adversity."
Loomis is part of an organization known as The Ten Schools Admissions Organization. This organization was founded more than forty years ago on the basis of a number of common goals and traditions. Member schools include Loomis, Choate Rosemary Hall, Deerfield Academy, The Lawrenceville School, The Taft School, The Hotchkiss School, St. Paul's School, The Hill School, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Phillips Andover Academy.
Distinguished Alumni
- Jesse Camp, former MTV VJ
- Ella Grasso, former Governor of Connecticut, first woman elected governor of a U.S. state in her own right
- Henry Kravis, corporate financier and partner in Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
- John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War
- John D. Rockefeller III, industrialist and philanthropist
- Eliot Rosewater, title character of the Kurt Vonnegut novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
- George P. Shultz, former U.S. Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury & Secretary of Labor
- Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, former publisher of The New York Times
- William Weld, former Governor of Massachusetts