Columbus Academy Spring2011 : Page 7
14. Spring 1920 – First presentation of the Cornell Cup for excellence in mathematics; and, seeing a need for more space, school directors authorized construction of a large study hall. 15. Spring 1921 – George Horton ’21 and James Seymour ’21 were inducted as the first two members of Columbus Academy’s Cum Laude Society. 16. Fall 1922 – Columbus Academy and Bex-ley High School began a yearly football rivalry that lasted until 1948 and then not renewed again until 1975. 17. December 18, 1923 – Columbus Academy became a not-for-profit corporation. 18. 1925 – Financial aid endowments created the school’s first scholarships. 19. 1928 – The Academy Life was started by Sol Morton Isaac ’29 and quickly supplanted School and Field as the school’s prominent stu-dent publication. 20. Fall 1929 – George Edwin “Geddie” Smith II ’41, son of Paul M. Smith ’14, became the first legacy (child of an alumnus) to attend Academy when he entered the first grade. 21. 1930 – Another addition was completed, providing room for language classes and master’s room, and later renovated to become the science building and nicknamed the “cheese box.” 22. 1932 – Students voted for the nickname Vikings over Panthers, Grey Wolves and other suggested options. Academy had been known only as the Maroon and Gray until this point. 23. Late 1930s – Columbus Academy began of-fering summer school classes to combat lean economic times following the Depression. 24. July 1941 – Founding Headmaster Frank P.R. Van Syckel retired and was succeeded by Charles Hodges Jones, whose short tenure was affected by his wife’s passing during his first year as Headmaster. 25. January 1942 – Junior School enrollment had dropped to 20 students and was moved into the Nelson Road buildings from East Broad Street. 26. Spring 1944 – After 24 years of service at the Academy, Sumner F. Dennett was appointed acting Headmaster and the “acting” title was dropped in 1945. “Stubby” Dennett was a de-manding, hard-working teacher who steered the school through difficult financial times to a su-perior academic stature. 27. 1946 – The Columbus Academy Mothers’ Association (CAMA) was officially formed, which eventually came to be known as the Par-ents’ Association of Columbus Academy (PACA). 28. June 1947 – After the war years had hin-dered its development, the Columbus Academy Alumni Association was reorganized into three main departments: the Athletic Committee, the Alumni Committee and the School Committee. 29. April 12, 1948 – Upon recommendation from the Alumni Association, the Board of Trustees established the Alumni Memorial Scholar Program as a way to honor those alumni who died in service to their country. 30. Winter 1949 – A cheerleading squad was officially organized at Academy with Rod Will-cox ’51 chosen as head cheerleader. 31. December 18, 1953 – Academy’s Board of Trustees approved a plan to initiate the Future Fund, which evolved into the Annual Fund. The first year’s goal was $5,000. 32. Winter 1957 – Tom Caldwell ’57, Nick Goodman ’57 and Harry Patterson ’57 became the school’s first National Merit Finalists. And the swimming team’s 200-yard freestyle relay squad of Tim Bigelow ’57, Larry Lacksen ’58, Steve Brown ’58 and Phil Carlin ’58 won Acad-emy’s first state championship. 33. Fall 1959 – When the gymnasium flooded and its fine maple floor buckled into large waves, the Academy community came together and gathered more than $60,000 for renovation. 34. Spring 1960 – Bruce Draudt ’62 won the school’s first track state championship in 100-yard dash, the first of his four state titles be-tween 1960-62. 35. Summer 1960 – William Shackelford Put-nam became the school’s fourth Headmaster, and he later introduced the Advanced Place-ment program as well as – following the move to Gahanna – senior seminars, which evolved into Senior Projects. 36. 1961 – John Detrick ’53 became the first Academy graduate to return as a teacher and the school celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a weeklong forum on education at the Athletic Club of Columbus featuring Saturday Review editor Norman Cousins and nationally renowned educators. 37. 1962 – Computers were first introduced to Columbus Academy by Dana Whiting’s pur-chase of a MiniVac 601, which operated on six volts, had a storage capacity of six bytes and was capable, among other things, of working simple logic problems and playing tic tac toe. In No-vember that same year, 21 students met to dis-cuss the formation of a chess club at Columbus Academy. 38. May 7, 1963 – Just days after television footage aired of fire hoses and police dogs being unleashed on segregation protesters in Birm-ingham, Ala., and over a year before the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Columbus Academy’s Board of Trustees officially and unanimously voted to admit members of the “non-white” races. 39. 1964 – The Board of Trustees was given the option to purchase 202 wooded acres for $200,000 from the Woodhull family trust, opening the way for Academy to relocate its campus to Gahanna a few years later (two other purchases eventually brought the campus to its current 231 acres). 40. September 1964 – James Walker ’68 and Charles “Trey” Brewer ’68 became the first African-Americans enrolled at Columbus Acad-emy when they joined the freshman class. 7
Publication List
