Peddie School

Peddie School
Location
Hightstown, NJ
Information
Type Private, Boarding
Religious affiliation(s) None
Established 1864
Headmaster John Green
Faculty 92.5 (on FTE basis)[1]
Grades 9–12
Enrollment 539 (as of 2009-10)[1]
Student to teacher ratio 5.8:1[1]
Campus Suburban, 280 acres (1.1-km²)
Color(s) Blue      Gold     
Athletics 20 sports
Mascot Falcons
Website www.peddie.org

The Peddie School is a college preparatory school in Hightstown, New Jersey, United States. It is a nondenominational, coeducational boarding school located on a 280‑acre (1.1-km²) campus, and serves students in the ninth through twelfth grades, plus a small post-graduate class. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1928.[2]

For the 2011-12 academic year, Peddie School enrolled 555 young men and women in grades 9 through post-graduate. Peddie has 62% of students in residence. The student body represents 22 states as well as 30 foreign countries. Peddie has an average class size of 12 and a student-to-faculty ratio of 6:1. The senior class of 2012 is composed of 143 seniors, including 14 post-graduate students.[3]

Contents

History

What is now the Peddie School was founded as an American Baptist school, The Hightstown Female Seminary, in 1864. Later that year, boys were admitted and it changed its name for the first time. In 1872, it became the Peddie School in honor of philanthropist and politician Thomas B. Peddie, who gave the school $25,000.

Peddie remained coeducational until 1908, when, for social and economic reasons, it decided to admit boys only. This was reversed in the early 1970s, and girls were readmitted. Today, the school is coeducational and non-denominational.

In 1993, former Ambassador Walter Annenberg (Class of 1927) gave $100 million to Peddie, the largest donation ever made to a U.S. secondary school at the time. [4]

While previous generous gifts by Annenberg helped the school build a library, dormitories, an athletic center, and a science center, the legendary gift of $100 million was made to see Peddie become accessible to all. This endowment was not earmarked for new buildings, but for financial aid. The endowment has enabled students from all backgrounds to pursue a course of study that would have been unattainable otherwise. Today, about 40% of Peddie students receive financial aid.[5]

At April 2007, Boarding School Review reported that the school has an endowment of over US$300 million, one of the largest among preparatory schools in the United States.[6]

Academics

The academic year is divided into three terms.The school offers Advanced Placement (AP) courses in AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics C, AP Environmental Science, AP European History, AP United States History, AP French Language, AP Spanish Language, AP Latin Literature, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Psychology, AP Computer Science, AP Art History, AP Music Theory, AP Studio Art and AP Chinese Language and Culture. An independent study program provides students with the opportunity to study a specialized subject in depth.

The Signature Experience allows Peddie juniors and seniors to pursue in-depth academic and co-curricular passions that promote their intellectual, social, and moral growth, through intensive summer programs or study over a longer period of time, or through in-depth courses of study housed within or between academic departments.[7]

Athletics

All students must participate in theater, on an interscholastic team, or in one of the elective physical-education classes after school.

The Ian H. Graham Athletic Center houses a swimming pool and separate diving tank; three basketball, volleyball, and tennis courts (surrounded by an indoor Tartan track); a wrestling room; an indoor soccer and lacrosse facility with Astroturf, a 2,000-square-foot (190- m²) fitness center with state-of-the-art equipment; a room housing eight ergometers; and a fully equipped 6-bed training room and sports-medicine center. Outdoor facilities include fourteen tennis courts, eight multipurpose fields, a specially equipped varsity football and lacrosse training field, a softball field, an Olympic-caliber ¼-mile all-weather track, a varsity football and lacrosse field, three baseball fields. A recent addition, the Hovnanian Fields, added another six fields, dedicated seasonally to the freshmen and junior varsity soccer and lacrosse teams.

The Athletic Center holds a replica of the Heisman Trophy donated to the school by Yale University lineman Larry Kelley (Peddie class of 1933), who won it in 1936, the second year in which it was given.

Peddie has its own 18-hole golf course, where the boys' and girls' golf teams compete. The course is a private facility of the Peddie Golf Club, but students and faculty have free access to the greens.

The school competes in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League, a sports league with participating institutions from preparatory schools in the New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania area.

Peddie is a member of the New Jersey Independent School Athletic Association (NJISAA), competing in the "Prep 'A'" division with Lawrenceville School, Hun School of Princeton, Blair Academy, Saint Benedict's Preparatory School and other New Jersey preparatory schools depending on the sport. Peddie has graduates competing at the collegiate level in swimming, wrestling, basketball, track, crew, baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse, golf, and tennis. The school mascot is the Falcon.

Football rivalry

Peddie's arch-rival is Blair, and the two schools compete every year during the second week of November for the Potter-Kelley Cup.[8] The day of the football competition, which alternates yearly between campuses, is known as Blair Day at Peddie (and Peddie Day at Blair). The game between the two schools is the oldest football rivalry in New Jersey and ranks among the oldest in the country.[9][10]

Crew

In 2006, the Peddie Girl's Varsity Four won the United States Youth National Championship, a regatta hosting the strongest club and scholastic teams in the nation. They won again in 2007, defending their U.S. Youth National Regatta title. In 2008, Peddie's Girl's Varsity Four placed third in their division at the Head of the Charles Regatta and returned to the Youth National in Ohio, placing second. The men's varsity four also traveled to Ohio, placing twelve in the Varsity Lightweight Four event. In 2009 the girls and boys returned to the National Championships. The girls regained their first place position, and the men placed sixth in the Petite Final of the Heavyweight Varsity Four. The women then continued on to the Henley Women's Regatta in England, setting a course record on their way to the final and eventually placing second.[11]

Swimming

Peddie also boasts a nationally acclaimed swimming program. The team has won the Swimming World Mythical National Championships eight times, including the inaugural boys' and girls' independent-school titles in 1977 and 1982. The teams in the early 1990s were among the most-dominant high-school swimming programs in history, winning back-to-back boys' and girls' Mythical titles in 1990 and 1991. The 1994-95 team was the only team ever to lead the nation in all six relays. In 2007 both the girls and boys teams claimed first place at the Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships held at La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the 2008 championships, Peddie broke three national independent-school records in the girls' relay events. In 2011, Peddie's boys swim team won the Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships, continuing their success.[12]

Basketball

In 2010, the Girls Basketball team won the ESPN National High School Invitational, defeating Oak Hill Academy by a score of 60-44 in the tournament final and finishing the season with a 25-2 record.[13] From 2000-2010 the girl's basketball program has been ranked one of the top 25 teams in the country seven times. During this same time period, three McDonald's All-Americans played for the Falcons including: Crystal Goring '05 (Richmond), Bridgette Mitchell '06 (Duke) and Haley Peters '10 (Duke).

Facilities

Annenberg Hall, formerly Memorial Hall, houses the English, Mathematics, and Foreign Language departments.

In fall 2005, The Walter and Leonore Annenberg Science Center opened. The 42,000-square-foot (3,900 m2), US$19-million facility features 11 laboratory classrooms, a fully equipped DNA and Special Projects laboratory, a dedicated advanced experimental physics facility, a psychology seminar room, and 10 "genius" Smart Boards. The "genius" SMART boards are normal whiteboard surface boards, unlike normal SMART Boards, though capable of capturing any drawing on the board using special barcoded markers. Ceiling-mounted mobile fume-hoods are located above each table in the Biology and Chemistry department laboratories.

The Annenberg Science Center replaced science classrooms at the previously modern Caspersen Science Building, originally built in the late 1960s. It was subsequently remodeled and renamed Caspersen History House in 2006; it houses History department facilities.

The Swig Arts Center facilitates the school's visual art, music and theater programs.

The William Mount-Burke Theatre in Geiger-Reeves Hall hosts both student performances and outside ones as well.

The Ayer Memorial Chapel has been host to a variety of speakers, including Martin Luther King, Jr., U.S. President Gerald Ford, Colin Powell and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger.

The Peddie Golf Club is an 18-hole, par 72 golf course located on the Peddie School campus.

Student life is centered around the Caspersen Campus Center which houses the dining hall, the bookstore, and the student grill.

Notable alumni

References

  1. ^ a b c Peddie School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed July 6, 2011.
  2. ^ Peddie School, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools. Accessed July 6, 2011.
  3. ^ Peddie School College Profile, Peddie School. Accessed October 19, 2011.
  4. ^ "Publisher Gives $365 Million To 4 Schools", The New York Times, June 20, 1993.
  5. ^ Financial Aid, Peddie School. Accessed October 19, 2011.
  6. ^ Largest Endowments, Boarding School Review, accessed April 19, 2007.
  7. ^ Signature Experiences, Peddie School. Accessed October 19, 2011.
  8. ^ Tatu, Christina. "Peddie School takes top prize at annual Peddie Day tradition", New Jersey Herald, January 23, 2009. Accessed June 26, 2011. "Not the chilly weather, the spitting rain or the four-hour drive from his home in Annapolis, Md., could keep 89-year-old Art Richmond from Blair Academy's 105th annual Peddie Day, a day of sporting events between its rival the Peddie School in Hightstown."
  9. ^ Staff. "Hill-Hotchkiss, Peddie-Blair Battles Head Important Schoolboy Football Card Today", The New York Times, November 13, 1936. Accessed July 6, 2011. "The Blair-Peddle contest at Hightstown. NJ. will extend the oldest prep school rivalry in New Jersey. Blair and Peddle will meet for the thirty-fourth time since their uninterrupted series began in 1903."
  10. ^ Staff. "Undefeated Blair Academy football team preps for 105th contest in annual rivalry against Peddie", Warren Reporter, November 7, 2008. Accessed July 6, 2011. "Since 1903, Blair Academy and The Peddie School have competed in football - a rivalry that constitutes New Jersey's oldest continuous prep football competition."
  11. ^ Cohen, Lynda. "Egg Harbor Township girls rowing team loses final race at England's Henley Regatta", The Press of Atlantic City, June 21, 2010. Accessed July 6, 2011. "The EHT girls lost at the Henley Women's Regatta on Sunday in a battle that pushed them and the winning crew past the finish line about 6 seconds faster than last year's record time set by the Peddie School of Princeton."
  12. ^ Staff. "Hill swimmers have record weekends", The Mercury (Pennsylvania), February 15, 2011. Accessed July 6, 2011. "The Hill School swim teams closed out the season with the 111th Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Divings Championships, last weekend at the La Salle University's Kirk Natatorium.... The Hill boys team placed 17th, and Peddie School won the boys team title."
  13. ^ Kallam, Clay. "Peddie School wins NHSI title: In the final game of Sean Casey's 17-year Peddie (Hightstown, N.J.) coaching career, the Belles cruise to the ESPN RISE NHSI championship.", ESPN.com, April 3, 2010. Accessed July 6, 2011. "Oak Hill Academy was justifiably concerned that Peddie School senior Haley Peters, a McDonald’s All-American committed to Duke, might take over the ESPN RISE National High School Invitational final Saturday at Coppin State.... Jackson had 14 points in the second quarter -- en route to 21 in the game -- and it was her 3-pointer-and-one that ignited what proved the game-winning rally in the Falcons' 60-44 victory.... Early on, it appeared Oak Hill (23-4) would avenge its 75-60 defeat Jan. 9 to Peddie (25-2, No. 27 in the ESPN RISE FAB 50)."
  14. ^ Steinberg, Jacques. "Prep School Gets $10 Million From 2 Alumni", The New York Times, February 14, 1998. Accessed February 5, 2011. "When Mr. Annenberg, a member of the class of 1927, gave his gift in June 1993, it was the largest ever received by a preparatory school."
  15. ^ Moylan, Kyle. "Ex-Peddie swimmer struck gold: B. J. Bedford set world record-beating pace for team, Princeton Packet, October 2, 2000, backed up by the Internet Archive as of April 2, 2008. Accessed February 27, 2011. "As a member of a United States swimming relay team, it wasn't a surprise that Peddie graduate B. J. Bedford was able to win an Olympic medal."
  16. ^ Peddie School, Swimming World Magazine. Accessed February 27, 2011. "A national swimming power, Peddie swimmers represented the U.S. in the last three Olympics including double gold medalist, Nelson Diebel in Barcelona and gold medalist BJ Bedford in Sydney."
  17. ^ Chingo Bling, MTV. Accessed February 5, 2011. "To keep him away from the city's turbulent city life, his parents sent him away to the prestigious Peddie School, a private boarding school in New Jersey, on a scholarship."
  18. ^ Staff. "Sport Quotes", The Miami News, April 17, 1946. Accessed July 7, 2011. "George Case, speedy Cleveland outfielder: 'Best season I ever had was when I was pitching for Peddie Prep school in New Jersey. I hit a home run in every park we played that year.'"
  19. ^ Staff. "EX-CIA OPERATIVE PLEADS NOT GUILTY A FOUNDING FATHER OF THE CONTRAS, HE WAS REVERED BY YOUNGER CIA OFFICERS.", The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 7, 1991. Accessed February 5, 2011. "Born in Nashua, NH, in 1932, the son of a prosperous dentist and a homemaker, Duane Ramsdell Clarridge graduated from the Peddie School."
  20. ^ Staff. "Pia Clemente '89 Nominated for Oscar", Peddie School, March 1, 2006. Accessed February 5, 2011.
  21. ^ "Star Swimmers", Time, July 27, 1992. Accessed February 27, 2011. "Nelson Diebel, U.S. - He lied his way into the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J., claiming swimming prowess he didn't have."
  22. ^ Kelly, Jacques. “Phil Evans, Evening Sun editor, dies”, The Baltimore Sun, May 17, 2011. Accessed May 26, 2011. “Born Philip Morgan Evans in New York City and raised on a Dorchester County farm, he graduated from the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J.”
  23. ^ Colin Ferrell, Indianapolis Colts. Accessed August 11, 2008.
  24. ^ Elmer Hendrickson Geran, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Accessed July 11, 2007.
  25. ^ Moylan, Kyle "Major leaguer steps to plate for Peddie School: Pitcher, alum Erik Hanson donates $365,000 for field house upgrade", Princeton Packet, January 9, 1999, backed up by the Internet Archive as of April 2, 2008. Accessed February 27, 2011. "When Erik Hanson left the Peddie School in 1983, he left behind a legacy of pitching greatness."
  26. ^ Staff. Richard Hornberger (Obituary), Variety (magazine), November 20, 1997, accessed February 27, 2011. "But in an interview last year with the Peddie News, the student newspaper of his prep school in New Jersey, Hornberger said he couldn't understand why the Robert Altman-directed film and the TV series were assailed for anti-war themes during the Vietnam War."
  27. ^ Goldstein, Richard. "Larry Kelley, 85, a Yale End Who Won the Heisman, Dies", The New York Times, June 29, 2000. Accessed February, 27, 2011. "Kelley, a native of Ohio, played high school football in Williamsport, Pa., then attended the Peddie School in Hightstown. The Princeton campus was nearby, but Kelley's football coach at Peddie was a Yale alumnus and steered him to New Haven."
  28. ^ "Heroes for Pay", Time, November 1, 1937, accessed April 15, 2007. "After being the most publicized Yale footballer since Albie Booth, Larry Kelley last summer turned down a fantastic offer from the Detroit Lions, supposedly because Yale alumni do not yet regard professional football as dignified. Instead, he went to The Peddie School at Hightstown, N. J., to teach history and coach Peddie's strictly amateur football team."
  29. ^ Howard W. Koch Collection, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, backed up by the Internet Archive as of December 3, 2007. Accessed February 27, 2011. "Howard W. Koch (1916-2001) was born in New York City. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in New York and Peddie Preparatory School in Hightstown, New Jersey."
  30. ^ Staff. "Lamberty '92: Founders Day Speaker", Peddie School, April 11, 2004. Accessed February 5, 2011.
  31. ^ Staff. "MCCLOY GETS ALDRICH POST: Chase Bank Picks Successor To Ambassador-To-Be", The Baltimore Sun, December 7, 1952. Accessed February 5, 2011. "McCloy, who is 57 years old, was born in Philadelphia and educated at Peddie School."
  32. ^ George Lloyd Murphy, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Accessed February 27, 2011.
  33. ^ Sheikh, Nadia. "Islamic scholar calls GW home", The GW Hatchet, February 20, 2007. Accessed February 5, 2011. "As a 12-year-old, Nasr came to the United States to study at the Peddie School, a New Jersey boarding school where he graduated in 1950 as valedictorian."
  34. ^ Nalbone, John. "Peddie product Perez in Garza deal", The Times (Trenton), January 8, 2011. Accessed February 5, 2011.
  35. ^ Staff. "Meet Thailand's New Idol", Peddie School, April 4, 2008. Accessed February 5, 2011.
  36. ^ Lieutenant General Alan Shapley, United States Marine Corps History Division. Accessed February 27, 2011. "His early schooling was received at Vallejo, California, and he was graduated from the Peddie School at Highstown, New Jersey, in 1922."
  37. ^ Staff. "Vampires to Appear on SNL", Peddie School, March 5, 2008. Accessed February 5, 2010.
  38. ^ Riess, Curt. They were there: the story of World War II and how it came about, p. 655. Ayer Publishing, 1971. ISBN 0836920295. Accessed February 27, 2011. "Richard Tregaskis was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on November 28, 1916, and educated at the Pingrie [sic] Day School for Boys, Elizabeth, New Jersey, at Peddie School, Hightston [sic], New Jersey, and at Harvard University."
  39. ^ Albert Lincoln Vreeland, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Accessed February 5, 2011.

External links