- McDonogh School
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Coordinates: 39°23′40″N 76°46′40″W / 39.39444°N 76.77778°W
McDonogh School 
Location Owings Mills, Maryland, United States Information Type Independent School, Boarding Established 1873 Headmaster Charles W. Britton Grades K-12 Enrollment 1,314 (2010) Color(s) Orange and Black
Mascot Eagle Tuition Lower School $21,000; Middle School $22,300; Upper School $23,370; Upper School Five-day Boarding, $31,420 (2010) Website www.mcdonogh.org McDonogh School is a private, coeducational, K-12, college-preparatory school founded in Owings Mills, Maryland, USA in 1873.
Contents
History
The school was established near Baltimore, Maryland in 1873 and funded by the estate of John McDonogh, a former Baltimore resident, who died in 1850. The other half of the McDonogh estate was used to fund over thirty public schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, where McDonogh lived and worked.[1]
Documents in the archives of McDonogh School include letters from his former slaves thanking John McDonogh (prior to 1850) for his program giving slaves the opportunity to work to buy their freedom and transportation back to Africa.
McDonogh was established as an all-white, semi-military school for orphan boys, who worked on the farm in exchange for their studies, room, and board. Tuition students arrived in 1922, and daily commuting students in 1927. African Americans were first admitted in 1960. In 1971, the military traditions of the school were discontinued. The school became coeducational 1975. Full and partial McDonogh scholarships continue to this date.
Charlie Britton is currently serving as the 12th head of school. He received this position beginning in 2007, succeeding W. Boulton "Bo" Dixon.[2]
Campus
The campus covers over 800 acres (320 ha) along McDonogh Road south of Owings Mills, Maryland. In the center of the campus, there are separate buildings for the Lower (K-4), Middle (5-8), and Upper (9-12) Schools, a non-denominational chapel, a performing arts center, Tuttle Gallery for student and professional art exhibits, athletic facilities, and housing for some upper school students. The remainder of the school lands include farming fields and woodlands, a horse barn with riding facilities, and a corporate campus.
The chapel houses a 48-bell carillon, one of only two of this size in Maryland.
One of several large ponds on the campus is home to the annual cardboard boat race at the end of the scholastic year for upper schoolers.
Athletics
The McDonogh School sports mascot is the Eagle, representative of the American eagle found on the McDonogh School seal. This mascot replaced the "Cadets" in 1972 commensurate with the abandonment of the school's military past.[citation needed]
McDonogh's men's teams compete in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA). Their chief rivals are the Gilman Greyhounds. The Eagles and Greyhounds conclude their respective men's football seasons against each other on the second Saturday in November. This highly competitive match-up is one of Maryland's oldest rivalries, and has been played since the early 1900s. The game typically caps a week of on-campus celebrations and festivities known as "Spirit Week".
McDonogh's women's teams compete in the Independent Athletic Association of Maryland (IAAM). Most men's and women's teams compete in either the "A" or "B" divisions of their respective sports conferences, and it is not unusual for McDonogh's teams to play for simultaneous conference titles in several sports in a single season. Notable past athletes include Pam Shriver, professional tennis player/commentator; Eric King, defensive back for the Tennessee Titans; current Detroit Pistons and former Georgetown Hoyas forward DaJuan Summers; Brandon Erbe, a pitching prospect for the Baltimore Orioles; and current Wide Receiver for the Oakland Raiders Darrius Heyward-Bey. McDonogh's men's and women's lacrosse teams are widely considered to be among the elite high school lacrosse programs in the nation, and McDonogh lacrosse alumnae are well-represented on NCAA Division I-A, I-AA and III rosters. In 2009 & 2010, the women's varsity lacrosse team won back to back IAAM championships. The team received the #2 national ranking in 2009 and the #1 national ranking in 2010.
International Exchange
McDonogh School has an international exchange program with Seijo Gakuen High School, Tokyo, Japan. Each year two students from Seijo Gakuen High School attend McDonogh School for a year, and McDonogh students attend Seijo Gakuen High School for two weeks every other year.
Every other year the school conducts an exchange with Faust Gymnasium, in Staufen, a town in the Black Forest Region. Up to twenty German language students from McDonogh travel to Germany in late June and early July, and the students from Faust Gymnasium come to stay with their exchange partners for the month of October.
Notable graduates
- Grant Aleksander (1978), actor, director, most famously appearing as Phillip Spaulding on The Guiding Light
- John R. Bolton (1966), former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
- Wallace E. Boston, Jr. President and Chief Executive Officer, American Public University System
- Bruce Davidson, world champion equestrian, Olympic gold medalist
- Brandon Erbe (2005), Baltimore Orioles pitching prospect
- Henry Gantt (1878), a mechanical engineer and management consultant. Most famous for developing the Gantt chart in the 1910s.
- Darrius Heyward-Bey (2005), former University of Maryland wide receiver, current NFL wide receiver
- Eric King (2000), Defensive back for Buffalo Bills and Tennessee Titans.
- James McDaniel (1976), actor, played Lt. Fancy on NYPD Blue
- Pam Shriver (1979), a former professional tennis player and current sports broadcaster
- Frederic N. Smalkin (1964), Maryland's Chief Federal District Judge and Brigadier General [3]
- DaJuan Summers (2006), former Georgetown University basketball player, drafted by the Detroit Pistons in the 2009 NBA Draft.
- Evan Taubenfeld (2001), Sire/Warner Bros. recording artist, EMI professional pop staff songwriter. Avril Lavigne's lead guitarist from spring 2002 to September 2004.
- Joseph D. Tydings (1946), a Democratic member of the United States Senate, representing the State of Maryland from 1965-1971
External links
References
- ^ ""The McDonogh Ode,"". The Gambit New Orleans. http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A32235. Retrieved 2010-02-23.
- ^ "McDonogh Announces the Appointment of Charles Britton as 12th Head of School". McDonogh School. http://www.mcdonogh.org/view.cfm?tFile=news/view.cfm&NewsBitID=791&CatID=495&ShowAbstract=0. Retrieved 2008-10-14.
- ^ Frederic N. Smalkin, U.S. District Court Judge (Maryland)
Categories:- Preparatory schools in Maryland
- Private schools in Baltimore County, Maryland
- High schools in Maryland
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