Admiral Farragut Academy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Admiral Farragut Academy is a college preparatory school with Naval training founded in 1933 in Pine Beach, New Jersey by, among others, Admiral Samuel Robison, one-time President of RCA.
In 1945, a second campus opened in St. Petersburg, Florida, occupying the famous "Jungle Hotel," a landmark in the Tampa Bay Area. In 1946, Admiral Farragut Academy was designated a "Naval Honor School" by Act of Congress, making it the only such secondary school in the United States.
The original campus in Pine Beach, NJ closed in 1994 and most buildings were demolished in 2003, but the St. Petersburg campus continues to operate, enrolling some 450 cadets from pre-kindergarten through the twelfth grade. In 1990, the previously all-boys Academy began accepting female students for the first time.
The Academy is perhaps most notable for graduating two of the twelve men to walk on the Moon. RADM Alan Shepard, USN was the first American in space and in 1971, during the Apollo 14 mission, became the fifth man to walk on the Moon. Shepard graduated in 1941 from the New Jersey campus. BGEN Charles Duke, USAF, was a class of 1953 graduate of the St. Petersburg campus, and in 1972 became the 10th man to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 16 mission.
Admiral Farragut Academy is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Florida Council of Independent Schools.
