The Year Homecoming Came Home

In 2020, Colorado Academy Homecoming was just a fantasy, with all events canceled by COVID-19. Perhaps that is why this year so many students, parents, faculty, staff, and alumni found their way to CA for an enthusiastic weekend of spirit, bike riding, baked goods, athletic contests, and to top it off, the dedication of the Upper School which has been renamed the F. Charles Froelicher Upper School. It’s been more than 50 years since Joel Knight ’67 graduated from Colorado Academy, but stories about the legendary Froelicher are still fresh in his mind.

Knight was a student at CA in the days when CA was an all-male boarding and day school. At Thanksgiving, he ended up staying at school, rather than flying home to Alabama.

“There were a group of us who were left on campus, and I will never forget Chuck Froelicher picking us up in his Bentley and driving us to the Brown Palace for Thanksgiving dinner,” Knight says. “We thought we were very sophisticated. And I remember thinking, ‘Please let me use the right fork!’” That Chuck Froelicher mix of serious sophistication and high expectations made an indelible impression on years of graduates. Many alumni from the years 1961 through 1976 returned to CA this year for Homecoming weekend to witness the dedication of the Upper School building. “Chuck died in 2014, but his presence is felt every day on campus,” said Head of School Dr. Mike Davis at the dedication ceremony on Saturday, September 18, 2021. “I am proud to say that he was also my mentor,” Davis told a gathering of alumni, faculty, and members of the Froelicher family. “He left a legacy unmatched, and those of us who follow can only try to live up to his ideals.” n

Dr. Mike Davis speaks at the dedication of the F. Charles Froelicher Upper School.