The Leelanau School
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The Leelanau School is a coed non-profit boarding high school located in Glen Arbor, Michigan. The school was founded in 1929, and is a small, college-preparatory school with 42 acres of land with 13 year-round and 9 seasonal building structures. The school has a teacher-to-student ratio between 1:6 and 1:10 for most classes, ranking among the top 20 American boarding schools in that category. It has a diverse student body, boasting an international enrollment of over 10%.
The school is located on the shore of Lake Michigan just outside of Glen Arbor, with the Crystal River running through the property. The Lanphier Observatory, with a 13-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector telescope, is also located on the grounds.
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[edit] History
Leelanau School for Boys was founded in 1929 by William "Skipper" Beals and his wife Cora, faculty members of Principia College, in response to the popularity of their summer camps for Christian Scientist boys. Unlike the camps, the school had no official religious denominational focus; it was (and is) open to all faiths. The school weathered the Great Depression and its popularity necessitated the opening of Pinebrook School for Girls in 1940. The two schools grew rapidly after World War II and were eventually combined. The school, previously privately owned, became a non-profit corporation in 1963, easing fundraising efforts. At its peak in 1970 the school enrolled 167. The school grounds were exempted from eminent domain associated with the formation of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which today surrounds the campus.
The 1973 oil crisis and its effect on the American economy devastated the school as enrollment plummeted. To survive, a significant portion of the school's grounds, including the historic Homestead Lodge, were sold to developers who built The Homestead Resort. Enrollment stabilized at close to 100 students as the 1970s drew to a close. The Christian Science camps were separated from the school completely in 1987 and continue under separate management.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, boarding schools became less popular to American parents and Leelanau was no exception. Faced with enrollment levels below 60 pupils, school officials in 2004 embarked on a radical change of mission, repositioning its focus from serving the traditional boarding school student to serving pupils with language-based and attention deficit-related learning differences. This refocus proved particularly controversial to its traditional alumni.
[edit] Athletics
Traditionally nicknamed Indians, Leelanau students chose to abandon the now-controversial moniker and adopted the name Thunderbirds in 2003 after consultation with members of Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. [1][2] It competes as a Class D (smallest of four classes) school in the Michigan High School Athletic Association. In past years, the school fielded teams in cross country, football (until 1975), soccer, volleyball, basketball, alpine skiing, baseball, softball, tennis, golf and track and field, but in recent years has only fielded tennis, golf and volleyball squads. Leelanau was a charter member of the Northwest Conference and garnered most of the Northwest's track titles during its tenure, including every single one in the 1950s, but was forced to leave that organization for the Cherryland Conference when its enrollment dropped in the mid-1970s. Traditional Cherryland rivals include Lake Leelanau St. Mary and Northport. A newer rivalry has begun with Traverse City Christian School since that school's founding in 1995.
Leelanau pioneered alpine skiing as a Michigan high school varsity sport during the 1950s and was instrumental in its adoption as an official MHSAA championship sport, but was forced to abandon the sport when the nearby Sugar Loaf Resort closed in 2000. Leelanau was the MHSAA boys' skiing state runner-up (open classification) in 1992, beaten at the state finals only by Traverse City (now Traverse City Central), a school over 30 times larger. [3] Leelanau is by far the smallest school in Michigan ever to place so high in an MHSAA open (unrestricted by enrollment) state championship. Other accomplishments include:
- 1945 state Class D boys' track and field champions
- 1944 state Class D boys' track and field runners-up
- 1940 state Class C boys' track and field runners-up
- February 17, 1989: Michigan state record for most points in a boys' basketball game (171) against Free Soil
During the summer months, the campus' comfortable temperatures and north woods setting plays host to several NCAA varsity squads' preseason training camps, including cross-country and volleyball squads from the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, as well as the University of Virginia women's soccer team, among others. [5]
[edit] Alumni
"The Leelanau Alumni Organization" was formed in late 2005 by alumni concerned over the lack of alumni contributions to the school and the potential of closure. This organization is independent from the school and intends to serve alumni interests, and hopes to facilitate the school's growth as well.[citation needed]
Notable alumni include:
- Najeeb Halaby, Federal Aviation Administration director, chairman of Pan Am and father of Queen Noor of Jordan
- Willis Hawkins, aeronautical engineer, designed the C-130 Hercules and other Lockheed aircraft
- Ralph Meeker, film actor, best known for his role as Mike Hammer in Kiss Me Deadly
- Walter Netsch, architect, designer of the United States Air Force Academy chapel
- Jay Nordlinger, conservative columnist, managing editor of National Review magazine
- Lane Smith, film and television actor, played Perry White on the television series Lois and Clark
