History in the Making FVS Heads of School

In 1929, Elizabeth Sage Hare sent a letter to her friend, Francis Froelicher, in Baltimore. “Do, do come to us,” she wrote. “We’ll put something over here that will be really fine, and you shall have a free hand.”

“Something over here” was Hare’s vision for a progressive boarding school in her adopted home of Colorado Springs. And Froelicher was her choice for the School’s first headmaster.

Francis Mitchell Froelicher was born in Baltimore in 1892, the son of Swiss emigrants who were devoted to both education and the Quaker faith. He graduated summa cum laude from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, where he was captain of the football and track teams and president of the student body and glee club. After receiving a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, Froelicher became a leader in the progressive education movement, which emphasized individualized instruction, experimentation in the classroom, and friendly relationships between students and teachers. Froelicher met Hare while he was provost of a progressive school in Connecticut, and her son lived with him and his family during the 1920s. Froelicher was intrigued by Hare’s request to start a progressive school, but skeptical about moving out West. And yet, when he and his wife, Elizabeth, visited Colorado Springs in September 1929, he fell in love with the area—particularly the mountains. In fact, he eventually climbed each of the state’s 14,000-foot peaks. Two months after his initial visit to Colorado, Froelicher was appointed Fountain Valley School of Colorado’s first headmaster at a princely (for that time) salary of $12,000 a year. Froelicher immediately began creating the school Hare envisioned. He hired six teachers from the East Coast who were dedicated to progressive education. He developed a strong academic program complemented by robust extracurricular activities like music, drama and athletics. His Great Dane, Duke, even served as inspiration for the FVS mascot. Froelicher traveled extensively to recruit the 57 boys who made up the first FVS class of 1930. But the Great Depression soon decreased class sizes and caused financial hardships for the School. Froelicher countered by creating the first FVS student scholarships, and by the beginning of World War II, enrollment was up to more than 90 students a year. America’s entry into the war had significant impacts on FVS, and Froelicher was forced to pivot. With support staff hard to find, students began doing chores around campus. Seniors took accelerated classes in preparation for being drafted or entering officer training programs. And as teachers signed up for military service, Froelicher competed with other schools to find replacements. Post-war, FVS flourished. The School’s first day students were admitted, and the FVS Annual Fund was established. On Dec. 18, 1950, Froelicher submitted his resignation. He and his wife moved back to Baltimore, where he worked as a consultant in the public school system. He died of cancer in 1960, at age 68. At the memorial service, C. Dwight Perry, who served as acting headmaster after Froelicher left, called Froelicher an “educational pioneer” who was gentle, sensitive, generous and understanding, loved books, mountains, music and poetry, and “gave short shirt to superficial thinking and to social sham.”

Henry Benjamin Poor quickly became the Board of Trustees’ choice for Fountain Valley School’s second headmaster. They admired his work as assistant to the headmaster of Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, which specialized in education of the “whole boy.” Poor was born in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1917. After two years of public high school, he transferred to Deerfield, graduating in 1935. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College in Massachusetts and then returned to Deerfield, where he worked as a math teacher and coach before being named assistant to the headmaster, Frank Boyden. Unlike FVS, Deerfield was not a progressive school. Students followed a strict schedule, wore coats and ties to class, and had formal relationships with their teachers. Because Poor’s FVS recruitment and interview were cursory, he had no idea how much FVS differed from Deerfield. But he was eager to leave the East Coast, so he accepted the FVS headmaster job without visiting the campus. Poor, his wife, Tink, and their four children moved into the Hacienda in the summer of 1951. Poor started implementing more formal relationships between the boys and their teachers, strict on-time attendance at meals and all-school meetings, and dorm duty every weeknight and weekend for teachers. Poor also oversaw construction of a new gymnasium, helped create more scholarships to boost student diversity, substantially increased enrollment and advocated for higher faculty salaries. In addition, he was skilled at alumni and community relations. He was involved in a variety of Colorado Springs organizations and helped form the Association of Colorado Independent Schools. Poor believed religion should be an important part of FVS education. He hosted Sunday chapel services in the Hacienda and required all students to attend church services of their choice every week in Colorado Springs. He also oversaw the beginning of the construction of the FVS chapel. Most importantly, Poor helped prioritize preservation of FVS’ land and water holdings. During his tenure, FVS consolidated school lands, purchased shares in the Fountain Mutual Irrigation Company, drilled more wells on campus and created a reservoir to store the water.

Poor left campus during the spring break of 1958, moved back East and took a job as executive secretary of the Amherst College Committee on Endowment. He later served as headmaster of Montclair Academy, a day school in New Jersey. Poor died in 2009, at age 91, in Philadelphia.

If there were a royal family of boarding school educators, the Perrys would certainly qualify. Lewis Perry Sr. was headmaster of Phillips Exeter Academy for more than 30 years. Lewis Jr. attended Milton Academy and

Exeter, graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree in English, and earned a master’s degree from Oxford University in 1938. He then began a long teaching career at Lawrenceville

Academy in New Jersey.

Like his father, Lewis Perry Jr.’s goal was to be a headmaster. But it wasn’t until he was 45 years old that he got his opportunity.

Perry was named Fountain Valley School’s third headmaster in the spring of 1958. He served for 20 years, presiding over the school as it morphed during the rebellious 1960s from a New Englandstyle male, all-white prep school to a coed, more diverse institution that manifested the character and spirit of the American West.

Perry embraced Francis Froelicher’s progressive, collegial vision for FVS, but he felt the School also needed to grow. During his tenure, he increased the number of students, teachers and administrators, and substantially upgraded academic admissions criteria. He oversaw construction of a new swimming pool, library, administration building, infirmary and state-of-the-art classroom building, which he insisted be named the Froelicher Academic

Building. He also helped develop the mountain campus (now named the Class of ‘69 Mountain Campus).

In addition, Perry instituted long-range fundraising goals and was the first headmaster to balance the School’s budget—an accomplishment he repeated every year of his tenure.

Perry’s initiatives were quickly recognized. In 1962, Time magazine named FVS one of the top three boarding schools in the West.

But soon afterward, FVS was affected by the rebellion and turmoil sweeping through American colleges and prep schools. Perry and the faculty and staff grappled with how to handle a new generation of students with a new set of values.

Perry was also committed to diversifying the student body. FVS’ first minority student, Duane Yellowtail, a Crow from Montana, enrolled in 1967. The first African American student, Eric Barry, enrolled in 1968. By 1969, FVS had students from 32 states and nine countries. Perry was also pivotal in making FVS coeducational. He feared enrollment and academic integrity would decline if girls weren’t admitted. At Perry’s urging, in 1969, the Board of Trustees approved the formation of a faculty committee to study coed schools. Six years later, 16 female boarders and 19 female day students began classes. Three new female teachers also joined the faculty. In 1976, 77 girls enrolled, making FVS a truly coeducational school.

Perry only presided over three coed classes. He retired in June 1978, having served the 20 years as headmaster that he had planned when he first took the job. Perry and his wife, Mary, lived in Colorado Springs after he retired. He died in 2010, at the age of 97.

Lewis Perry announced his retirement a year and a half in advance, giving the Board of Trustees plenty of time to find a successor. After an interview process that also involved faculty, the Board opted for Timothy Knox. Knox was born in New Hampshire and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1961. He received a master’s degree from Columbia University two years later, and then taught at Carnegie Tech and the Merchant Marine Academy. After that, he taught at The Dalton School in New York before becoming assistant headmaster of Saddle River Country Day School in New Jersey. He held that job for two years before being hired as Fountain Valley School’s fourth headmaster in January 1978. Knox said one of the reasons the Board hired him was to provide more supervision, discipline and professionalism for the faculty, which had been devising and implementing their own curricula without input from department chairs. Even before Knox, his wife, Liz, and their two sons settled into the Hacienda, he began a campaign to increase academic rigor and tighten discipline throughout the School. Some students protested Knox’s implementation of structured weekend programs and Saturday classes—but Knox thought too much free time was creating problems. There was more cooperation during Knox’s second year, and students and faculty eventually became supportive of his goals. The last four years of Knox’s tenure brought impressive improvements in college placements and academic qualifications of new students. There was also more emphasis on special programs like Interim, sports and riding. And there was more use of the mountain campus for student activities. But Knox was spending about 40 percent of his time traveling to meet with donors around the country. He began feeling out of touch with the campus and grew weary. As a result, he took a six-month sabbatical during the 1985-86 academic year. Assistant Headmaster Eric Waples took over as acting head, and was popular with the faculty and administration. Knox returned to FVS at the beginning of 1986, and oversaw the School’s reaccreditation that spring. He spent much of his remaining time that year working on the School’s capital campaign that was adopted early in his tenure. The five-year fundraising goal was $8.7 million; the final total was $7.6 million—the most the School had ever raised. Some consider this capital campaign the greatest legacy of the Knox administration.

After leaving FVS, Knox had a lengthy stint as headmaster of Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire. He retired in 2003, and he and Liz currently divide their time between their homes in New Hampshire and Wales.

After urging from faculty colleagues, Eric Snowden Waples applied for the headmaster job. He was named Fountain Valley School’s fifth headmaster on Feb. 7, 1987. Waples was born in 1944 in Lafayette, Indiana. After earning a BA in history from Dartmouth College, he began his teaching career at The Loomis School in Windsor, Connecticut. In 1972, he was awarded a master of arts in teaching in history from Colorado College, and that fall, he became a member of FVS’ history faculty. In 1980, Waples was named FVS’ academic dean, and in 1983, he was promoted to assistant headmaster. Waples and his wife, Carolyn, raised their two children at FVS, and were integral parts of the Colorado Springs community. Compassionate and sensitive, Waples was wildly popular among the faculty. As headmaster, he was determined to restore a sense of community to the School after Knox’s tenure. This included creating “big sibling” and peer counseling programs to help integrate new students. During Waples’ tenure, FVS renovated the Tuft Visual Arts Center, renovated and expanded the physical plant, and built the Frautschi Campus Center and a new science building. But admissions numbers dropped, although the academic quality of the new students remained relatively high. Teachers had large workloads and were underpaid, which Waples tried to solve by advocating for bigger salaries. There were also concerns about ethnic and gender diversity among students, faculty and the administration. Waples worked hard to improve this, starting an English as a Second Language program and prioritizing the recruitment of students of color. Throughout his tenure, Board of Trustees members wanted Waples to spend more time visiting alumni and parents and working on fundraising, but Waples was a teacher at heart who was loath to leave campus. He announced his resignation in April 1994, effective June 1995. After Waples left FVS, he became head of the upper school history department at the Potomac School in McLean, Virginia. The 1995 Bulletin remembers Waples as modeling “good teaching and good scholarship, encouraging us to take intellectual risks, to love learning for learning’s sake, and to infuse that love in our students” during his 23-year tenure at FVS.

About 60 people nationwide applied for the headmaster job that Waples vacated. The Board of Trustees was looking for someone with creative ideas who could give FVS a fresh start, and despite his lack of boarding school experience, John E. (Jack) Creeden fit that vision. Creeden was born in Boston in 1952. After earning a BA from the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, and an MA and a PhD in educational administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM), he was named assistant dean of UWM’s College of Letters and Science.

In 1986, Creeden was hired as assistant provost for student affairs at Rutgers University in New Jersey. In 1993, he was promoted to associate provost for faculty personnel & planning. His wife, Carole Martin, PhD, taught in Rutgers’ psychology department during this time. Despite his background in higher education, Creeden believed the most formative years for students were before they entered college. “We lay the foundation at the secondary level for acquiring the skills that are essential for success in college and later life,” he wrote in the 1995 Bulletin.

Creeden was committed to making FVS the preeminent boarding school in the West, and he tackled this with an institutional mindset. Five years after he was hired, he developed FVS 2000: A Strategic Plan, which ushered in a period of great change and improvement. FVS 2000 had three goals: a more selective student body, a more rigorous curriculum within the Western tradition, and excellence in the residential life program. To achieve the first goal, Creeden and the Board of Trustees implemented a five-year plan to reduce class size and boost admission standards.

To meet the second goal, Creeden formed a committee of faculty, students and trustees to critically review academic programs, assessment techniques, use of technology, advanced placement offerings and the most innovative teaching methodologies. He also advocated for a comprehensive study of the American West, with the Western Immersion Program as the cornerstone of the revised curriculum.

For the third goal, Creeden called for increased and better training for faculty in the residence life program, along with more varied weekend activities. He also made plans to construct a new residence hall complex (Figge House, Ballantine House and Sinclaire House), renovate the Boies Penrose and Sage residence halls, and build new faculty residences (including Naumburg House) and the Howe headmaster’s residence.

Of course, to achieve all of this would take a substantial amount of money. The capital initiatives for enhancing campus life were estimated at $15.4 million. Other capital initiatives, including a sports facility annex, tennis court construction, riding program improvements, renovation of the mountain campus and refurbishment of campus infrastructure, totaled $5.6 million. There were also $2 million in endowments proposed for student financial aid and scholarships, and an $8 million endowment for faculty. By 1998, FVS’ overall endowment was more than $20 million—the largest ever. The Board also authorized the School to issue $9 million in tax-exempt bonds under a new state of Colorado program. But despite this success, Creeden wasn’t finished. He launched the FVS@75 initiative, and by 2003, the School had completed its largest capital campaign in history, raising $24 million. He also launched a new marketing campaign to strengthen student recruitment efforts nationwide.

While the Board of Trustees offered Creeden a five-year contract extension in 2006, he decided it was time to move on. He submitted his resignation, effective June 30, 2007. After leaving FVS, Creeden was named headmaster of Providence Day School in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 2011, he became president of School Year Abroad, and in 2016, he was chosen as the head of school at Chadwick School near Los Angeles. In 2020, Creeden was named head of Whitby School in Greenwich, Connecticut.

In 1963, 12-year-old Craig Larimer and his father drove from their home in the Broadmoor neighborhood of Colorado Springs to the Fountain Valley campus. Larimer’s father was eager for his son to attend FVS, and had set up an admissions interview with Headmaster Lew Perry.

Larimer remembers being impressed that an adult was interested in hearing his opinions. And those opinions (not to mention his appearance) must have impressed Perry. His interview notes read:

“Good looking boy. Short haircut. Glasses. Looks like a good boy.”

Larimer became a member of the FVS class of 1969. He excelled during his five years at the School, making the dean’s list and serving as varsity co-captain of the soccer team, a member of the debate and investment clubs, and the Day Boy representative on the student council.

Larimer’s years at Fountain Valley also influenced his career vision. He decided he didn’t want to be a doctor like his father and grandfather. Instead, he earned a BA in international relations from Pomona College in California, with the goal of becoming a foreign service officer. He followed that up with an MA in international relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and then became an economist and policy official for the U.S. Treasury Department. In 1980, the Treasury Department sent Larimer to London as a financial attaché, where he helped facilitate the release of the Americans held during the Iran hostage crisis. But when his Treasury bosses wanted him to return home, Larimer balked. He had met his future wife, Irene, in England, and had finally achieved his dream of working abroad. Larimer left the Treasury Department to become a banker, traveling extensively in Europe and the Middle East. Fifteen years later, he, Irene, and their four children moved back to the States, and he reconnected with FVS. He became a class agent and president of the alumni association.

In 1999, Larimer was elected to the FVS Board of Trustees, and was named president of the Board in 2003. When Jack Creeden submitted his resignation in 2006, the Board didn’t have to look far for their new headmaster. Not only was Larimer the first alumnus to serve as FVS headmaster, but he was also the first headmaster with a business background. Larimer quickly introduced a five-year strategic plan that called for a strong financial foundation for the School. He approached FVS as a business that needed a mission statement and a plan of how it fit into the boarding school marketplace. His goal was to build on Creeden’s accomplishments rather than make radical change. During his tenure, Larimer was instrumental in renovating and expanding the Lewis Perry Jr. Chapel; constructing more faculty housing; and building the Hanna Family Equestrian Center, the Welcome Center and a 400-meter track. He also implemented campus sustainability measures, including creating a holistic landmanagement program and installing or restoring solar panels on campus buildings. Larimer’s academic advancements included introducing new Mandarin, robotics, AP computer science and economic classes, along with Global Scholar, Round Square, Transitions and Onward programs. The School’s instrumental music program was expanded, and the Dominique Dunne Film Competition was revived. Larimer also helped reestablish the boys’ golf and ice hockey programs, and established the girls’ lacrosse and mountain biking teams. Impressively, Larimer was able to do this in the midst of a global recession. He not only achieved the highest annual fund-giving total in FVS history, but also helped raise $10.2 million in capital gifts. Larimer left FVS at the end of the 2013 school year and retired in Colorado Springs. From 2014 to 2020, he volunteered as a trustee for the Palmer Land Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that helps preserve open lands in southeastern Colorado.

Following the announcement of Craig Larimer’s resignation, FVS conducted an extensive search for what it was now calling the head of school. Nearly 100 candidates around the world were screened, and the Board of Trustees unanimously chose William V. Webb. Webb graduated from Groton School in Massachusetts in 1993, and then earned a BA in English from the University of Vermont. He began his boarding school career at The Gunnery in Connecticut as a teacher and assistant dean of students.

After returning to the University of Vermont as a development officer, Webb earned a master’s degree in independent school organization and leadership from Columbia University in 2004. Following a short stint as assistant dean of students and English teacher at Athens Academy in Georgia, Webb returned to Groton in 2005 as the associate director of development and director of alumni affairs, and later as associate director of admission and assistant varsity lacrosse coach. In 2011, Webb and his wife, Sarah, moved to Oklahoma City after he was hired as assistant head of school for external affairs at Heritage Hall School. A year later, their daughter, Maggie, was born, and a year after that, the young family arrived at FVS. Although Webb hadn’t previously been a head of school, he had earned a reputation as a brilliant fundraiser and a leader in external affairs at his previous schools. The FVS Board felt the School was ready to grow, and tasked Webb with coming up with the next “big idea” to accomplish that. FVS was still carrying debt from capital projects dating as many as 20 years before. It was also operating without a master plan for building construction and placement. Webb and the administrative team developed an ambitious, 20-year campus and ranch master plan, including input from engineers and land and water-use experts. The first stage of Webb’s master plan encompassed updating the campus infrastructure, including electricity, water pressure and traffic routes. This stage also included a new facilities and transportation building, an athletic center and more faculty housing. The second stage included a plan to make the center of campus pedestrian-only, and construction of a new performing arts center. The third stage included construction of a new academics building. Webb was clear that he didn’t want to begin any construction until FVS had the necessary financing in hand. During his tenure, he spearheaded the largest capital campaign in FVS history, raising over $25 million. He also helped the School raise more than $50 million in contributions. All of this allowed phase one of the master plan to be completed by 2018. Webb also prioritized developing an FVS brand and culture. He wanted academics that were process-driven (focusing on the joy of learning and teaching) rather than product-driven (focusing on “teaching to the test”). Webb was also concerned about FVS departments operating in silos, so he oversaw a communications audit of the entire School. The result was Team Fountain Valley, Webb’s vision for a cohesive School focused on the core values of courage, curiosity, compassion, self-reliance and open-mindedness. Webb’s communications and fundraising skills were put to the test in early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit FVS. His Team Fountain Valley infrastructure helped create a cohesive administration that could make hard decisions about school closures and quarantines and communicate them quickly and accurately. And the School’s strong financial base encouraged donations, meaning that unlike some other boarding schools, FVS was able to weather COVID-related tuition losses.

In October 2021, shortly after FVS resumed regular, post-COVID operations, Webb announced that he had been hired as the next head of school for Salisbury School in Connecticut, effective July 1, 2022. He said the decision to leave FVS was difficult, but he and his wife yearned to return to their East Coast roots. An FVS Search Committee conducted a global search for Webb’s replacement. In March 2022, the board unanimously chose Megan Harlan as FVS’ ninth head of school and the first female head of school.