Charlotte Country Day School - Postscript Yearbook (Charlotte, NC)

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spending the night in one motel room in Spartanburg- Susan Saunders and her group recall it taking 14 hours to get to Atlanta. They stopped under a bridge on I-85 and listened to a whole ACC basketball tournament game before they could move on. She says that all they had to eat was a loaf of homemade bread Sally Dowd had sent to one of the occupants of the car. To meet the needs of a larger student body and im- prove educational methods, Country Day launched a Program of Progress divided into three phases. Phase l called for raising S1 ,350,000, and by November 1 , 1971 , a total of 51,380,000 had been pledged toward the objectives of Phase I. These objectives consisted of building a Learning-Teaching Center, a Student Center, and an addition to the gym, and renovation of the dining Top The cafeteria now doubles as a student hangout during free periods Below Country Day tries to keep its comraderle despite its large size by means of weekly assemblies Involving the whole Upper School Right New traditions like last years Medieval Day are always welcome Opening X C.. hall and administration building. Renovation of the Administration Building was the next thing to a circus or a nenlous breakdown. You could take your choice. The staff would continue to work while air hammers, roofers, carpet layers, paint- ers-you name it-worked around them. Indeed-a time to remember! Since we were building a Learning Center it could house the Library. Therefore, the area which had been used in the Barnhardt as a library was redesigned by Mr. Watson Burts to accommodate nu- merous staff and administrative offices and a space for a Board Room. The arrangement at the back of the building at present is the outcome of the growth of the business end of running the Mini-General Motors CCDS has become! William B. Pfeifer became head of Charlotte Country Day during the summer of 1972. He had not been a headmaster before but came to us from the Administra- tive division of the Williamsburg Foundation in Virginia. His senstivity to the problems of staff, and faculty per- sons, and people in the parent body was uncanny. He was the first person on the scene in a crisis, and there are people still associated with the school who will say,

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and Workman's Compensation covered the injuries. lt would have been priceless to have been a mouse-in- the-corner when a claim was opened: Name..Age: ESO-Female Occupation: Teacher Injury: 2 sprained an- kles. How did the injury occur? Doing the May Pole Dance!!! May Day sort of faded away after that year. Mr. Howe came to Country Day from North Shore Country Day in 1955. Under his leadership the school population grew from 150 students to become a student body of 554. Dr. A. Emerson Johnson succeeded Mr. Howe as headmaster in July 1969-coming to us from North Cross School in Roanoke, Va. Under his leadership the school started the papenNork to accreditation Qno small jobj by SACS. There were meetings on top of meetings: there were forms to be filled out half-a-dozen times giv- ing the same information in six different ways. Yes, we had arrived! We were now part of the great Red Tape Brigade. Also in 1969 the Board of Trustees appointed a Planning Committee charged with projecting curricu- lum, space needs, enrollment and capital fund require- rnents for the decade of the 70's. This report was adopt- ed unanimously by the Board and is contained in a clocument know as Aims. While Dr. Johnson was at Country Day the question of dress code arose-a very conservative man--he had insisted that the faculty have a dress code and set a good example for students. Ladies would not wear pants suits and men would wear ties and jackets. Much harder to control, however was the student dress. jThey really had no specific dress code.j This poor man inherit- ed the mini-skirt era, and academics were more or less put on the back burner while teachers ran around with rulers measuring skirt lengths and sending young ladies home who were judged to be dressed inappropriately for an academic atmosphere!! Wonder if Dolly Hickman still has that ruler? In 1970 NAIS was to be held in Atlanta. lt is very seldom so near, and Dr. Johnson decided as many fac- ulty as wanted to could attend. About 8 or 10 car loads planned to attend, but Mother Nature had a little mon- key wrench to throw into the works-namely a freak, enormous March snow storm. Some cars were on their way when they hit the snow and returned to Charlotte. Dr. Johnson's car ended up with five or six people Bottom Hard work often after hours by the staff at Country Day often Parental concern and involvement is a major factor in Country Days pursuit of excellence goes unrecognized, but it is vital to the functioning of the school. Below: Opening

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I never could have gotten through it without Bill Pfeifer. He worked personally with parents who wanted to do something special and different for the school. The results were-the furnishing of the Board Room andthe establishment of our typing program through the dona- tion of the equipment now found in our typing room. He also realized the need for the faculty to get together now and then to let their hair down and relax. He and his charming wife, Sandy, would give periodic parties- enjoyed by all. However, one Christmas party brought on a catastrophe for one of the guests. It took almost a month to solve the mystery of the Wrong Mink Stole. :Someone had picked up the wrong wrap as she left the party and the owner was just devasted! Notices in the daily bulletin brought no results-until-the solution fi- nally came to light. One of the guests was wearing a :stole borrowed from her sister. When she returned it, her sister said- This isn't my stole! The exchange was finally made, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief 'that there real? wasn't a thief among us! Under Mr. P eifer we established a real office of De- velopment to handle fund raising and public relations for the school. During this time Phase ll of the Program of Progress was undertaken and the monies used to en- large the Science facilities and to build our Fine Arts Building. In the past, ingenuity was the prime requisite for belonging to the Drama Workshop. Plays were pre- sented either in Floom Tor in the Learning Center where building sets-moving them-and storing them during the day while the areas were used for other purposes, posed a real challenge. lt was, therefore, a real shock when the first play presented in the new magnificent facility was presented on a stage with no set except a bare scaffolding and a bunch of wadded up newspa- pers! Guess they couldn't handle prosperity! God is great, God is good, and we thank Him for Mark Hagerman! During the school year before Mr. Pfeifer resigned, it became necessary to hire both an Assistant Headmaster and a Head of Lower School. Mr. J. R. Williams, a young history instructor at Taft School, was hired as Assistant Head, and this time the Board decid- ed he would be groomed and trained to take over the leadership of the school when next we needed a head- master. Mr. Hagerman was former headmaster at For- syth Country Day in Winston Salem and would become Head of our Lower School which was floundering .K xx, :art Y L X N'-1 f f Top The Learning Center houses the libraries audio visual equipment teachers offices com puter room archives and student study carrels Above School spirit is an integral part of life at Country Day Left The Fine Arts Building is the most recent addition to the Cannon Campus lt houses music art and dance rooms as well as the theatre Opening