Hotchkiss School - History

History

Maria H. (Bissell) Hotchkiss founded the school in 1891 to prepare young men for Yale University. The first day of instruction was October 18, 1892. Maria originally had aspirations for the school to serve underprivileged students, and the original charter provided some scholarships, and reserved space for academically gifted Lakeville boys (regardless of family income). Maria Hotchkiss was the widow of Benjamin B. Hotchkiss, who founded the French arms company Hotchkiss et Cie, made famous by the use of its machine guns in World War I . This led to a nickname for the school, "son of a gun".

The current Head of School is Malcolm McKenzie, former principal at Atlantic College in Wales. McKenzie is a Rhodes Scholar, with degrees from the Universities of Cape Town, Oxford and Lancaster.

Read more about this topic:  Hotchkiss School

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Boys forget what their country means by just reading “the land of the free” in history books. Then they get to be men, they forget even more. Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books.
    Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)

    Man watches his history on the screen with apathy and an occasional passing flicker of horror or indignation.
    Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)

    When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?
    David Hume (1711–1776)