Kent School - Kent Yearbook (Kent, CT)

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5, . ': 1 Q .se .1 NNE. I to be learned. But a few of us, at any rate, appeared to survive. for when the marks were published nine of us had achieved honor roll or high honor standing. As a foretaste of what was to come in ,luly and November. a fierce campaign was started for various presidential candi- dates. Although several orators described in detail the merits of Taft and Kefauver, the school, following Bob Ward's bril- liant leadership and oratory, eventually selected Dwight ,Eisen- hower. After mid-year exams, when certain members of our form had nothing better to do, a new sport claiming many enthusi- astic participants was developed. It was the old art of tobog- gaming. with Chapel Hill selected as the trail. Tom Bliss, the owner of the toboggan. and Bud Holmes were enthusiastic devotees of this pastime. As the middle of the term drew near, we were asked to choose a new set of form officers. This time, Bill Wurts, George Wehmeyer, and Terry Putnam were elected. Chips Swallow had long been a little-appreciated member of the student body, or so he thought. He set out to remedy this sad fact by the most obvious and effective way possible. Consequently, one memorable day, each student received free one candy har from the Pop Tent, compliments of Mr. Swallow. Few of our form, or any form for that matter, will forget the memorable day when all did not go right in job assembly. Head Prefect Sandy Millspaugh had the misfortune to sit on a particularly noisy buzzer placed on his chair by one of his more ingenious tormentors. To the delight of all but Mills- paugh, the buzzer rang for several seconds before the victim discovered what everyone was laughing at. The Third Form this term presented its second dramatic endeavor, Lord Dunsany's The Lost Silk Hat, which stared Bob Schwartz, Vince Janke, and the old standby, Orrin Mac- Leod who as a poet particularly enchanted the student body with his poetic ejaculations. A hundred students crowded into the handkerchief-size Cun- nery gymnasium one Saturday of this term to see Kent lose a heart-breaking basketball game 57-56, thus abandoning its hold on the league crown. When we returned to Kent after Spring vacation, we dis- covered that the crew had acquired a new shell, the ,l.O.P. , which was shortly taken over by the second crew. We also found that the Rectory on Chapel Hill was nearing completion. Early in the spring, the league tennis candidates whose job it has always been to rake and roll courts for later use had their long-standing suspicions justified. Mike Ellis and several others triumphantly announced one day that they had found

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Q tt-, j 'ith s , , ' t, 4 THIRD FORM YEAR When the class of 1955 returned in the fall of 1051. it found that u great many significant changes had taken place at school. Not the least of these was the fact that the class enroll- ment had leaped to T2 with the admission of thirty-six new boys. Une new thing was that the new boys had been back for tl whole week. as the battle-scarred veterans of second form year arrived on the scene. Also the third form did not. as had third forms before. rule the North Dorm. for the rooming sys- tem was changed to divide all boys more evenly throughout the school. , Two new stars had arisen on the curricular horizon. First we found ourselves taking two lfnglish courses instead of one. being subjected to an tutorial reading program. In addition. we found that Jack Armstrong had deserted the plains of Marathon to teach study techniques to the two lower fornis in Mr. Evans' old olliee. We also discovered to our horror that our classes were each to be one hour long. The grounds and buildings had also been somewhat changed. l ootlJall games were now held on the upper field instead ol the more convenient Alumni lfield. lfr. Wrvst's house had been moved from Chapel llill. and left half a niile up the road. where it was occupied by Nlr. Kingsbury. The reason for this mow was soon made clear to us. as a great arehitectual project. to build hr. l'al's new home. was being undertaken by Matty Mills' father. During the fall term. each form undertook a form projectg our class did not escape. for the majority of our fellows spent the day picking potatoes in the fields south of the boat house. where a good many bloody potato battles were waged. ln spite of ourselves. however. we managed to have a record harvest. We chose Tim Loring. .lack llorner. and Bill lnee to lead us this year as officers. and we were pleased to learn that they were to attend the regular council meetings. During October. a revolutionary announcement was made which shocked but delighted even the most radical third former. Fr. Pat proclaimed that our Thanksgiving Holiday would be extended to the incredible length of four days. On October 31, the school presented us with the first Hal- low'e'en Carnival. This caused much merriment. since every form had its own small share of the fun. The doughnuts and cider were rapidly consumed by all but a few hopefuls who waited a few' days for the cider to turn hard. ,lust before Christmas vacation. an all-third form production. Four on a Heath. graced the Kent stage. The four were Dave Gillespie. Pint Goodbody. Mike lfllis. and Styvie Bearns. When we came back from vacation. we found no lack of scholastic work. for we were to be subjected in three weeks to the first mid-year exams in the school's history. Everyone. it seemed. groaned even more than usual about the great amount Q .P ,Aa in ful! U' i l .af

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several edible carrots growing in the vicinity of the service line. and even venerable Coach llumphreys couldn't argue away the tangible evidence that was presented to him. The third formers living in the Library Building have good reason to remember the water pistols flourished by members of the sixth form. llon Benjamin was especially renowned for his dead eye which could pick off underformers at incredible distances. The unfortunate part of the whole matter was that the underformers supposedly were not allowed to carry these dangerous weapons and therefore had to be careful when we used them. This spring, as before, the picnic lunches were greeted with a special favor. as boys eagerly grabbed at the chance to have a meal away from school while sitting by a brook or half way up Mount Algo. The only fault with this system was that it tended to encourage the slightly more illicit sport of swim- ming, which though banned. was nevertheless enjoyed by many of our form. Un May first, we watched in awc as the new prefects were chosen. This being the end of our second year at Kent, we now really felt as though we were getting somewhere. We loudly voiced our approval when Bob Ward was selected Senior Prefect to be assisted by Art Hodges, Howie Patterson, and Charlie Tighe. We listened with interest as Bob read us the statement of the aims of the Class of '53, together with several new rules to insure a just measure of respect for the sixth form. A little while later we were given our Hrst chance to put up a slate of oflieers for the entire school to vote on. We were all highly pleased when it was announced that Tim Loring, Bill Wurts, and George Wehmeyer were to be our Hrst voting student council members. 5-tu ki . 2 KQQQA with - - 17' Eu.. f 'F at During the year, our form had been unusually active in athletics with Treat Walker and Bubbles Shattuck making the second football team in the fallg Dave Drouet being on the basketball starting live, Matt Mills and Jimmie Grey being on the skiing team in the winterg while in the spring, Bubbles made baseball and Dave played with the tennis team and several other members starred in the leagues. ,lust before Prize Day, the class of 1952 put on a highly effective production of King Lear. Few of us who saw it could doubt that Jay Kohler gave an excellent performance as Lear. The next day, the Class of 1955 watched their second Prize Day. To our delight, the much loved Butch Wilson was the choice for the Columbia Cup, while Grubby Hoerle received the Headmaster's Cup.