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Graduate Bill Powers get a hug from a Carlisle faculty member as he leaves Saturday’s graduation ceremony. (Photo by Steve Sheppard) |
Sunday, May 31, 2009
By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer
The most diverse class in the 40-year history of Carlisle School became the most recent graduates during a ceremony Saturday.
“Forty years, 40 graduates and 40 dreams,” said Simon Owen-Williams, head of school at Carlisle, during its 36th commencement.
Carlisle students are in “all colors, shapes and sizes” and they come from areas that range from Chatmoss to Vietnam, from South Korea to Texas, Owen-Williams said.
“We represent the best of what our world offers. Our once small promise has grown,” he said, adding that the graduating class is the “most diverse class in the school’s history.”
Charles Cumiskey Sr., head of school from 1969 through 1980, traveled from Georgia to introduce the speaker, L. Dudley Walker.
Cumiskey said there were 28 students in the first graduating class when he was head of school.
He told Saturday’s graduates that they owe “a debt of gratitude” to the school’s founding trustees, who “went out on a limb” to create Carlisle.
Twelve founders, including Walker, signed the articles of incorporation in 1968. Walker and his wife, Elizabeth, traveled to Norfolk to persuade Cumiskey, who was at the time head of the Lower School at Norfolk Academy, to move to Martinsville and head the school, Cumiskey said.
“It was a hard decision, but they were so impressive and so dedicated, I couldn’t say no,” Cumiskey said.
Only five founders remain: Lucy B. Andrews, G. Slaughter Fitz-Hugh, Walter W. Flythe Sr., Patricia B. Wallace and Walker.
Discussions of organizing an independent, co-educational school began in the early 1960s, Walker said. Organizers wanted the school to “have no restrictions on admissions other than that the child was mentally fit and morally and emotionally acceptable” to attend.
Although it served a number of religious denominations, the school would “give special adherence to a Christian viewpoint as a basis for moral integrity and spiritual growth,” Walker said.
An independent school is unique in that it is independent in governance and finance, Walker said.
Four independent freedoms “make independent schools strong: The freedom to define their own mission” and the freedoms to regulate admissions, define teacher credentials and teach what teachers feel is important, Walker said.
The group bought an 8-acre tract of land for $10,000 from the Chatmoss Corp. Later, 22 acres were added, Walker said.
The first building was constructed in the summer of 1968 and housed seven classrooms, two offices, two bathrooms and a multi-purpose room, Walker said.
Cumiskey turned down the initial offer to head the school, and Gabrielle Roy agreed to a one-year term as head of school. She asked for $100 per month in return, Walker said.
Cumiskey started in the summer of 1969 and remained at Carlisle for a decade, Walker said.
Jim Lipke then served as headmaster from 1980 to 1983. He was succeeded by Anne Vipperman, 1983-84, and then Dick Hensley, 1984-1991, Walker said. Colin Ferguson succeeded Hensley and served from 1992 to 2004.
Ferguson was followed by Owen-Williams, “who has a contagious enthusiasm,” in 2004, Walker said.
This year’s 40 graduates join more than 600 in the school’s history, “so as to clichés or advice about your future, I’ll offer nothing. Zip. Because, after all, you’re Carlisle graduates,” Walker said. “You’re ready to commence the rest of your life. Go Chiefs!”
Virginia Hamlet, a permanent member of the school’s board of trustees, received the Carlisle Alumni Award to honor her efforts on behalf of the school. |
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