Baylor School

Baylor School is a private, coeducational prep school on the outskirts of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The school was founded in 1893 and since 1915 has been located on the same hillside site by the Tennessee River. The school went through several incarnations: moving from an all-male military academy to today's coeducational college prep school. Today, Baylor attracts students from all over the world in grades 6-12, including boarding students in grades 9-12.

Finances

Baylor's endowment (or net fund balance) was $118.8 million as of June 30, 2007.^[3]

Baylor's tuition for 2009-2010 was $19,153 for day students and $39,010 for boarding students.^[4] It offers need-based financial aid, as well as scholarships to a select group in the Distinguished Scholars Program.^[5]

History

Baylor School was founded in 1893 by John Roy Baylor, who was hired from Virginia by leading men of Chattanooga to establish a college-preparatory school. The school was originally named the University School of Chattanooga. Gradually the name was changed to Baylor University School in honor of the founder, and was changed to Baylor School in 1925.^[6] Baylor began in a building at 101 McCallie Avenue in downtown Chattanooga, then moved to Palmetto Street in the city.

In 1915, Baylor moved to its current location on the banks of the Tennessee River, though still inside the current city limits of Chattanooga. That 30-acre (120,000 m²) campus has expanded to 670 acres (2.7 km²).

Baylor became a military school in 1917, during World War I, and remained so until 1971, during the Vietnam War.

Baylor was a boys school for most of its history (with the exception of a few girls attending during 1901-1912), and was popularly known as the Baylor School for Boys. Then, in 1985, it admitted 41 girls. (Because one of the girls dropped out, this group is commonly referred to as the Fab 40.)^[7]

The school maintains a rivalry with the crosstown McCallie School, which remains a boys-only school. Baylor historically had close ties with Chattanooga's Girls Preparatory School, until Baylor admitted girls in 1985. The two schools are now often rivals in girls' athletics.

Headmasters

Headmasters and presidents through the years:^[8]

• 1893-1926: John Roy Baylor, the founder.
• 1926-1929: Alexander Guerry moved up to headmaster upon the death of the founder. He went on to lead the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the University of the South.
• 1929-1964: Herbert B. Barks, Sr., led the school through the Depression, World War II, and a polio epidemic that killed one student.
• 1964-1970: Charles E. Hawkins, III, resigned as the school was debating dropping the military program. He was followed by an acting headmaster, teacher Bryce Harris.
• 1971-1988: Herbert B. Barks, Jr., son of the former headmaster and a 1951 alumnus, was headmaster when girls were admitted.
• 1988-1998: L. Laird Davis, Jr., saw the completion of the fine arts complex and groundbreaking for the science building.
• 1998-2004: Jim Buckheit added the sixth grade. He was followed by an interim headmaster, former Baylor teacher Jack Stanford.
• 2004-2009: Bill Stacy, former chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
• 2009-: Scott Wilson, a 1975 graduate and former teacher, coach and admissions director.^[9]

Programs

• Baylor students can participate in Baylor's Walkabout program, an outdoors program that takes students kayaking, rock climbing, bouldering, trekking, hiking, and caving. Walkabout also goes on an annual trip to Costa Rica for advanced kayakers and a biennial trip to India to trek.
• Baylor's community service program, which is known as "R.E.S.P.E.C.T." (Regard Every Soul Purely Embracing Compassionate Thoughts), goes to Jamaica every year to tutor children in a local orphanage and to Asheville, North Carolina twice a year to volunteer in a local homeless shelter.
• Baylor has more than 60 other extracurricular organizations, including the Round Table Literary Discussion Society, which began in 1942, the Peer Tutor Program, the Student Congress and Model United Nations Team, and the annual Periaktoi Art Magazine.^[10]
• Tenth and eleventh grade students can participate in a Student Exchange Program with schools around the world, such as the Southport School and St Hilda's School in Southport, Queensland, Australia.
• Seniors end their last year with a senior camping trip, a tradition begun in 1975.^[11]

Academics

• Baylor School's mission is to foster in its students both the desire and the ability to make a positive difference in the world.
• Baylor offers 22 Advanced Placement courses. In 1954 it was one of only 38 secondary schools, and the only one in the South, invited to participate in the new AP program.^[12]
• Baylor's core curriculum consists of mathematics, English, science, history, and language classes. Baylor offers language classes in the following languages: Spanish, French, Latin, German, and Chinese (starting fall of 2007).
• 76% of Baylor's most recent senior class took at least one AP exam, while 48% of the most recent junior class took at least one AP exam and 8% of the most recent sophomore class took an AP class.^[13]

Campus

Baylor's 670-acre (2.7 km²) campus is located on the banks of the Tennessee River with red brick buildings scattered around the campus, some almost 100 years old. Some of the buildings and facilities include the following:

Academic facilities

• Katherine and Harrison Weeks Science Building, Baylor's science building, houses biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, forensic science, human physiology, environmental science, genetics, and Lower School science classes. Baylor's main computer lab, "the Bullpen," is located on the bottom floor of Weeks. This computer lab is open to the public and also hosts Baylor's computer science and computer applications classes in private computer classrooms. The building opened in 1999, named for its benefactors.
• Barks Hall is home to Baylor's Lower School. The top two floors of Barks belong to Hedges Library, Baylor's school library. The 1960 building is named for former headmaster Herbert B. Barks.^[14]
• Academic Hall, formerly known as the Lower School Building, is the home of Baylor's sixth grade. The bottom floor of Academic hosts Baylor's Spanish classes, one French class, and also contains Baylor's second largest computer lab.
• Trustee Hall, opened in 1936, was formerly a dormitory. It houses offices as well as classrooms for English, mathematics, and German. Baylor's Writing Center is also in Trustee Hall.
• An addition to Baylor's Alumni Chapel was dedicated in 1991 by Rev. Billy Graham. The main chapel is where weekly assemblies and chapel services are held. (The school began as a non-sectarian school; now not a religious school, it retains a chaplain and required "chapel" meetings that feature guest speakers. Electives are taught in ethics and religion.^[7]) The original 1927 chapel, now called Old Chapel, is now used for upper-school study hall. Beneath the main chapel is a majority of the mathematics department. The chapel also houses the Board of Trustees' board room.

Art facilities

• Ireland Fine Arts Center is Baylor's fine arts building. Ireland houses Baylor's pottery, drawing, painting, print making, and lower-school art classes. Ireland provides inspirational views for artists as it overlooks the Tennessee River. Named for the family of benefactor Bill Ireland, class of 1941.^[15]
• The Roddy Performing Arts Center is home to Baylor's performing arts. Dance, drama, photography, and film classes are located in Roddy. Roddy has a 148 seat black box theater, equipped with a state of the art Strand Lighting system. The building also houses a large scene shop, dance studio, photo studio, screening rooms, and a darkroom. Roddy is also used by outside production companies throughout the year to bring special productions to the Baylor community. Named for the benefactors, the Roddy family of Knoxville, Tenn.
• Baylor's Music Building is a music studio with acoustically engineered rehearsal rooms, private practice rooms, a piano room, and a music library for Baylor's instrumental and vocal programs. The Music Building houses Baylor's choir, band, orchestra, and lower-school music classes.

Residential facilities

• Lowrance Dorm is one of Baylor's four girls' dorms. Lowrance overlooks the Tennessee River, and is home to students of all grades. Lowrance, built in 1990, also houses the infirmary.
• Hunter Hall is home to Baylor's admission and administrative staff. Hunter is located at the center of campus and houses a girls' dormitory as well as two classrooms in Hunter. Built in 1917 as Academic Hall, it is named for 1907 alumnus and trustee George T. Hunter.^[16]
• Probasco Hall is one of four boys' dorms. It is named for benefactor Scott L. Probasco.
• Riverfront Dorm is Baylor's newest girls' dorm. It overlooks the Tennessee River. Riverfront, along with Harrison Hall are Baylor's only dorms that are fully residential (i.e. no classrooms or offices).
• Lupton II, III, and Lupton Annex are the home to Baylor boys from all grades. Lupton III is known for having the largest dorm rooms on campus. Lupton also overlooks the Tennessee River. Latin, French, English, mathematics and history classes are also held in the bottom two floors of Lupton. Lupton Annex and Lupton are connected at the third and fourth floors. The buildings are named for Coca-Cola bottler John Thomas Lupton, the largest benefactor of the school.^[17]
• Harrison Hall is the newest addition to Baylor's residential life facilities. The $3.1 million LEED certified dormitory, which houses 24 male students and two dorm parents, was dedicated on May 8, 2009.

Athletic facilities

• The Field House is Baylor's main home for athletics. It has three basketball courts made of a multi-versatile surface, a cardio-weight room, several men's and women's locker rooms, several coaches' offices, the training room, James C. Duke Arena (Baylor's main basketball court), and the meeting room for Baylor's Honor Council. The newest addition to the Field House is Baylor's Aquatic Center, the school's multi-million dollar, Olympic-sized swimming pool, which opened in 2006.
• Baylor's Alexander Guerry Tennis Center, completed in 1987, includes 12 outdoor courts and 7 indoor courts. Named for the benefactor.
• The Luke Worsham Memorial Wrestling Arena is Baylor's new wrestling facility. It was built in the structure of Baylor's former swimming pool, but is now a state-of-the-art wrestling arena. Named for the former teacher and wrestling coach.
• Heywood Stadium is home to Baylor's football team in the fall, track and field and lacrosse teams in the spring. Built in 1971, it was named for former coach Humpy Heywood. The field is named for former football coach E.B. "Red" Etter.
• Baylor also has its own Short Game Center where Baylor's boys' and sixteen-time state champion girls' golf team practice.
• The Lower Fields are home to Baylor's varsity and junior varsity baseball, softball, lacrosse and soccer teams. Baylor's cross country loop and crew boathouse are also located at the Lower Fields.
• The Parry Center, located near the Tennis Center, is home to Baylor's Walkabout program. There is also an indoor climbing gym located directly behind the Parry Center. Until moving to the Field House in 2010, the crew teams' ergs were housed in the same building as the Parry Center in a room commonly known as the Erg Shack.

Athletics

In 2005, Baylor was named the leading high school sports program in Tennessee and in the top 25 nationwide by Sports Illustrated.^[18] For the 2006/07 school year, SI once again named the Baylor athletic program as the top program in the state of Tennessee.^[19] Baylor's 1973 football team was tabbed mythical national champions by the National Sports News Service, and both men's and women's swim teams have been named national champions by Swimming World magazine.^[20][21] Baylor's teams are nicknamed the Red Raiders and Lady Raiders. Baylor competes in the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) and its varsity sports are:

The Honor Council

Baylor students must abide by the rules of Baylor's honor code, established in 1916.^[22] Baylor School's honor code is based on the honor code at the University of Virginia. When students enter the school, they sign a pledge: "the Honor System is an understanding among Baylor student that they do not want among them one who will lie, cheat, or falsify information. I understand this principle, and I recognize that I shall be expected to live in accordance with it." After entry to Baylor, before every test, Baylor students sign their name, pledging "I pledge that I have upheld both the letter and the spirit of the Baylor Honor Code, neither giving nor receiving unauthorized assistance on this assessment." Students who are charged with violating the honor code must stand trial with the Honor Council, consisting of two freshman, three sophomores, four juniors, and five seniors. Punishments for violation of the honor code range from a warning to expulsion.

Notable alumni and faculty

Alumni

• David M. Abshire, 1944, former ambassador to NATO, former director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and adviser to president Ronald Reagan.
• Thomas J. Anderson, 1930, author, farmer and American Party candidate for president.
• Coleman Barks, 1955, poet and translator of the Sufi poet Rumi.
• Hugh Beaumont, 1930, actor who played Ward Cleaver on Leave it to Beaver.^[23]
• Shelby Coffey, 1964, journalist, former editor of the Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, and U.S. News and World Report.
• Robert E. Cooper, Jr., 1975, Tennessee attorney general.
• Bill Dedman, 1978, journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner.
• William E. Duff, 1945, author, FBI counterintelligence specialist.
• Francis M. Fesmire, 1978, emergency physician, heart research scientist, "hero" of the American College of Emergency Physicians,^[24] winner of the Ig Nobel Prize.^[25]
• Geoff Gaberino, 1980, swimmer, Olympic gold medalist.
• Devin Galligan, 1990, founder of the charity Strain the Brain.
• Arthur Golden, 1974, author, Memoirs of a Geisha.
• Jo Conn Guild, 1905, electric utility manager and anti-TVA campaigner.^[26]
• Zan Guerry, 1967, CEO of Chattem, national champion amateur tennis player
• John Hannah, 1969, NFL football player for the Patriots, Hall-of-Famer. (After three years at Baylor, Hannah graduated from high school in Albertville, Alabama.)
• Herman Hickman, 1928, College Football Hall of Fame member (University of Tennessee); head football coach for Yale University from 1948-1951
• George Thomas Hunter, 1907, Coca-Cola bottler and philanthropist. Hunter Hall on campus is named for him.^[16][27]
• Morgan Jahnig, 1997, musician, Old Crow Medicine Show.
• Fob James, 1952, former governor of Alabama^[28]
• Tom Jolly, 1973, sports editor, The New York Times.^[29]
• Jon Kinsey, 1972, former mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• David Lowance, 1958, kidney transplant specialist, Emory University.^[29]
• Sandlin (Sandy) Mattice, Jr., 1972, judge, U.S. District Court.^[29]
• Jacques McClendon pro football player. Attended Baylor, graduated from Walker Valley High School in Cleveland, Tenn.^[30]
• Albert Hodges Morehead, 1925, bridge editor, The New York Times.
• Philip David Morehead, 1960, head of music staff, Lyric Opera of Chicago.
• Barry Moser, 1958, artist, illustrator, publisher.
• Alan Murray, 1973, assistant managing editor and columnist, The Wall Street Journal.^[31]
• Blaire Pancake, 2000, Miss Tennessee.^[32]
• Donald Pippin, 1944, former music director, Radio City Music Hall,^[33] Tony Award winner for Oliver.
• Wendell Rawls, Jr., 1960, journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner.
• Ronnie Saha, 1998, co-founder, International Fund for Rwanda^[10]
• Robert Taylor Segraves, 1959, psychiatrist, author.
• Isaac Tigrett, Co-Founder, Hard Rock Cafe and House of Blues
• Roscoe Tanner, 1969, professional tennis player, Australian Open winner, Wimbledon runner-up.
• Morris "Sandy" Weinberg, Jr., 1968, former federal prosecutor, corporate attorney.^[29][34]
• Randolph "Randy" Weinberg, 1970, Rhodes Scholar, national prep wrestling champion, Buddhist monk now known as Kittisaro, founder of the Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa ^[35][36][37].
• James "Jamy" Wheless, 1982, designer and animator for Industrial Light & Magic on Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and other films.^[38]

Faculty

• Dan Kennedy, Cartter Lupton distinguished professor of mathematics, only high school teacher to chair the AP Calculus test development committee, author of five mathematics textbooks.

Colleges attended

A recent graduating class (2010) sent five students to Ivy League schools (one to Yale University, two to Harvard University, one to Columbia University, and one to Dartmouth College). The colleges chosen most often by the 193 members of that class were the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 25; the University of Alabama, 10; Middle Tennessee State University, 8; the University of Georgia, 6; and Auburn University, 6.^[39]

Traditions

As an outgrowth of the Baylor/McCallie rivalry, the school week prior to the football game is referred to as Spirit Week. During this time, students may forgo wearing the uniform to wear themed costumes. The most commonly recurring of these themes is "Red Day," which typically is on the Friday of the Baylor/McCallie football game, in celebration of the school's color, in which the theme is to dress in as much red as is humanly possible. Prizes are awarded to whichever student is deemed by the school to be wearing the most red. In 2009 Baylor won the well-known rivalry football game against McCallie for the first time in eleven years, and has won the game against McCallie four times since (in three regularly scheduled Baylor-McCallie games as well as a TSSAA playoff game).

Other campus features

Perched in the quadrangle in the heart of the campus is a statue of the mythological character Icarus, placed in memory of a student, Johnson Bryant, who died in a 2003 car wreck while a student at Baylor. The statue stands as a reminder to students to always find balance to avoid a similar fate.

References

External links

• Baylor School website
• Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture