CHOATE AT THE TIME WAS NOTCHING FEATHERS IN ITS CAP AS A RELATIVELY YOUNG SCHOOL , just 50 years
old in 1946, with outsized aspirations to train top leaders. Under the direction of Choate English master Bob Atmore, the campus became a destination for big-name speakers, including former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, poet Robert Frost, evangelist Billy Graham, and baseball hero Jackie Robinson, the sport’s first black major leaguer. Alumni raised the School’s profile further. From 1952 through 1960, all of the Democratic Party’s presidential nominees were Choate men: Adlai Stevenson ’18 in 1952 and 1956, then Kennedy ’35 in 1960. Even though a straw poll taken by the Current History Club in October 1960 showed 82% of the boys favoring Nixon and only 18% for Kennedy, never was the School prouder than when he was inaugurated President on January 20, 1961. Choate’s reputation grew internationally, attracting students from more than a dozen countries in the early 1950s. But the School still saw itself as accountable to more than tuition-paying parents and students from across the globe. It remained focused on preparing young men to lead at top levels of business and government.
In 1957, Seymour St. John recruited the School's first Russian teacher, Johannes van Straalen. The program was launched just weeks before Sputnik made world news. In 1959, following a visit to the Soviet Union, St. John and van Straalen created a summer abroad program for Choate students.
St. Andrew's Camp, 1951. Located a mile from campus, it welcomed 25-30 boys from urban areas to enjoy nature, wholesome food, and help shape moral character.
One exemplary trip reflected that ethos. At the height of the Korean War in April 1951, Seymour St. John traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with the U.S. Navy’s director of training and the Department of Education’s director of secondary schools. He went to ask one question: how can Choate help America win the war? “He was prepared to make any schedule changes and to put in any new courses so desired,” reported the Choate News. He returned with a mandate to “teach in broad patterns the basic courses that are necessary to all specialization,” as summarized by the News. “Physics is more important than electronics; biology is more important than medical technology. Seymour welcomed the government’s affirmation, but he kept pushing the envelope of what it could mean to serve students and nation alike. Indispensable would be a keen, nuanced understanding of the world. An avid traveler himself, St. John encouraged Director of Summer Programs Hubert Packard to bring an international dimension to the Choate Summer School. Between 1959 and 1962, summer programs sent students to Russia, Mexico and six European countries. During the academic year, opportunities emerged in three new foreign language tracks: Russian, Arabic, and Chinese. As the Cold War upped the ante for containing Communism and winning the space race, Choate students were once again training to help America win. In hopes of shaping compassionate as well as worldly leaders, Choate encouraged its students to serve at the yearly St. Andrews Camp for disadvantaged boys from New Haven and New York. From its founding in 1913 to its last year in 1971, Choate students raised funds to run the camp and served as its counselors. They helped boys learn outdoor skills, enjoy games in the country and build moral character, as per the mission of Choate’s St. Andrews Society.
c o m m o n r o o t s
s h a r e d p u r p o s e