William Penn Charter School
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The William Penn Charter School, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was established in 1689 by William Penn as a day school and is the oldest Quaker school in the world. It is also the third oldest grade school in the nation, after Boston Latin School (1635) and Roxbury Latin (1645). Originally located on the east side of Fourth Street below Chestnut, the school officially consolidated in 1874 as an all-boys college preparatory school and moved to successive blocks of Twelfth between Chestnut and Walnut. It finally moved to its current forty-four acre East Falls campus in 1925. In 1980 the school became co-educational in principle by allowing girls to continue past the second grade. In 1992 the first co-ed class graduated from Penn Charter. It is considered to be an exclusive private school in terms of admission criteria. In keeping with the school's Quaker heritage, the twenty-one Overseers, a board of trustees established by William Penn, still governs the affairs of the school through Quaker consensus. In addition, all students still attend a mandatory weekly Meeting for Worship.
Currently there are 865 students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Of the 100 faculty members, approximately 70% hold advanced degrees. The school newspaper, The Mirror, is the oldest secondary school student newspaper in the United States, having been published since 1777. In addition, the school shares the nation's oldest continuous football rivalry with Germantown Academy, celebrated every year with PC/GA day, which will celebrate its 120th anniversary in 2006.
The school motto is "Good Instruction is Better Than Riches." This motto is prominently displayed on the front of the Lower School (Grades K-5).
In the summer months the school runs a very popular day camp for children of all ages that offers activities like swimming, tennis, archery, computers, team sports, art, music, a talent show and an end-of-camp fair.
[edit] Alumni
- Bobby Convey, did not graduate, '98 turned pro after his freshman year, US National Soccer Team, World Cup 2006
- Chris Albright, OPC ’97 Current MLS and US National Team soccer player
- Daniel Spink, OPC '96 Actor of the American Pie film franchise
- J.C. Spink, OPC '90 Golden Globe nominated producer of A History Of Violence
- Browning Nagle, '86, did not graduate, NFL Quarterback for NY Jets, Indianapolis Colts, and Atlanta Falcons
- David Berkoff, OPC ’84 Won both silver and gold in 1988 Olympic Games and bronze in 1992 Olympic Games
- Rubén Amaro, Jr., OPC '83 Former Philadelphia Phillies MVP and current Phillies Assistant GM
- Mark Gubicza, OPC '81 Former All-Star pitcher for the Kansas City Royals from 1984 - 1994
- William Guttentag, OPC '75 Academy Award winning filmmaker
- Robert Picardo, OPC '71 The Doctor, on UPN's Star Trek: Voyager
- Joe Hoeffel, OPC '68 Pennsylvania 13th District Congressman
- David Montgomery, OPC '64, President of the Philadelphia Phillies 1988 - present
- Charles Gwynne Douglas, III, OPC '60 Former Supreme Court Justice from the state of New Hampshire. Former US Congressman
- Richard B Fisher, OPC '53 Chairman emeritus of Morgan Stanley
- General Frederick F. Woerner Jr., OPC '51 Former Commander-in-Chief, US Southern Command (1987 - 1989)
- John Robert "Jack" Meyer, OPC '50 Former pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1955 - 1961
- John B. Kelly, Jr., OPC ’45 Former bronze medal olympian and President of the U.S. Olympic committee
- Howard Head, OPC ’32 founder of Head Ski Company & Prince Manufacturing Inc. 1914-1991
- David Riesman, OPC '26 Former Harvard University Sociology professor and lawyer
- Crawford H. Greenewalt, OPC ’18 Chemist, Head of DuPont Corp. '48-'67, developed Nylon fabrics
- Henry Joel Cadbury, OPC '99 (1899) Quaker Scholar, teacher, Harvard divinity chair 1934-54
- Colonel Raynal Cawthorne Bolling, OPC '96 (1896) The first high-ranking U.S. officer to be killed in combat in World War I
