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Worcester Academy
Address
81 Providence Street
Worcester, Massachusetts, 01604
United States
Information
Type Independent, day and boarding
Motto Ἐφικνοῦ τῶν Καλῶν
(Achieve the Honorable)
Established 1834; 190 years ago (1834)
Enrollment 450 upper school
65 middle school
Average class size 14
Student to teacher ratio 8:1
Campus size 71 acres (290,000 m2)
Color(s)      Maroon
Athletics 24 Interscholastic sports
54 Interscholastic teams
Athletics conference NEPSAC
Mascot Oskee
Team name Hilltoppers
Average SAT scores 600 Verbal
629 Math
611 Writing
Newspaper Vigornia
Yearbook The Towers

Worcester Academy is a co-ed private boarding school in Worcester, Massachusetts serving grades 6-12. It is the oldest school founded in Worcester, Massachusetts, and one of the oldest day-boarding schools in the United States. A coeducational preparatory school, it belongs to the National Association of Independent Schools.

Demographics

As of 2018, 451 out of 600, or 68% of the school's students were white, 66 (11%) were Asian, 32 (5%) were Black, and 15 (2.5%) were Hispanic or Latino. The corresponding numbers for the community were 56% white, 8% Asian, 12% black and 21% Hispanic or Latino.

Clubs

In the springs of 2010 and 2011, the We the People club won the Massachusetts championship and traveled to Washington, D.C. to participate in the national championship.

In 2011, Worcester Academy's math team won its seventh (and fourth straight) Worcester County Mathematics League championship, its seventh (and sixth straight) state championship, and its fourth New England championship (the third in six years).

Notable alumni

Notable faculty and alumni include:

  • John Barrett 1883, American diplomat
  • William H. Bates 1936, U.S. Congressman
  • H. Jon Benjamin 1984, actor, comedian
  • Aliyah Boston 2019, first overall pick of the 2023 WNBA Draft
  • George Boardman the Younger, 1846, missionary
  • George B. Boomer 1847, Civil War General
  • Bernard Briskin 1943, businessman, philanthropist
  • Albert H. Bumstead 1894, Chief Cartographer, National Geographic Society, and inventor of sun compasses
  • Kimberly Burwick 1993, poet
  • Ralph A. "Doc" Carroll, 1909, Major League Baseball player, Philadelphia Athletics, 1916
  • Edwin W. Clark, 1841, Missionary to Nagaland, India
  • Bill Cooke 1970, National Football League player
  • Major General Norman Cota 1915, portrayed by actor Robert Mitchum in the 1962 movie classic The Longest Day
  • Lou D'Allesandro 1956, educator, coach, and elected official
  • Jim Davis 1962, chairman, New Balance Athletic Shoe
  • William Stearns Davis 1896, historian and educator
  • Dane DiLiegro 2007, actor and professional basketball player
  • Clarence Dillon 1904, co-founder of investment bank Dillon, Read & Co., father of C. Douglas Dillon
  • John F. Dryden 1857, Founder Prudential Insurance, U.S. Senator
  • Arthur Duffey 1899, Olympic Sprinter, 1900 Paris
  • Mark Fidrych 1974, former Detroit Tigers pitcher
  • Bernie Friberg 1919, Major League Baseball player
  • Jim Forbes 1978, multiple Emmy, ALMA, AP and Golden Mic award-winning writer, producer, correspondent and narrator of VH1's Behind the Music
  • Major General Hugh J. Gaffey 1916, Patton's Chief of Staff
  • Robert Gilchrist, 2010, professional basketball player
  • Willis Goldbeck, 1910, movie producer and writer
  • Robert Goldwyn, 1948, surgeon and health care advocate
  • Kaz Grala, 2017, stock car racing driver
  • Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor 1893, founder and first editor of National Geographic magazine
  • Herman Gundlach 1931, Harvard football captain, Boston Braves lineman, NFL
  • Bruno Haas 1915, Philadelphia Athletics pitcher and NFL player
  • Alan Haberman 1947, supermarket executive credited with popularizing the barcode
  • Ned Harkness 1939, college and professional hockey coach
  • Brian Herosian, 1969, former NFL player with the Baltimore Colts and CFL player
  • Louis Jean Heydt, 1921, stage and movie actor
  • Arnold Hiatt, 1944, American businessman and election reformer
  • Abbie Hoffman 1955, social and political activist in the 1960s
  • Tom Holland 1962, film director
  • John Hope 1890, educator and president of Atlanta University
  • Ernest Martin Hopkins 1896, President of Dartmouth College
  • Frank Reed Horton 1914, founder Alpha Phi Omega fraternity
  • Tony Hulman 1920, Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner
  • Lyman Jewett 1840, Baptist missionary who translated the Bible into Telugu
  • Edward Davis Jones 1873, co-founder of Dow Jones
  • Arthur Kennedy 1932, stage and screen actor
  • Stephen Knapp 1965, artist
  • Stefan Lano 1970, symphonic conductor
  • Dick Lasse 1954, NFL football player and college coach
  • Armand LaMontagne 1958, sculptor of prominent athletes
  • Andy Lee, 1998, actor, singer, and rapper of South Korean band Shinhwa
  • Doug Leeds 1965, advertising/media executive and Broadway benefactor
  • Lou Little 1912, college football coach
  • Andrew Mamedoff, Battle of Britain pilot
  • John W. Mayhew 1904, All-American football player and coach
  • Roy McGillicuddy 1915, a.k.a. Roy Mack son of Connie Mack; co-owner of the Philadelphia Athletics
  • Rep. Jim McGovern 1977, U.S. Congressman
  • Charles E. Merrill 1904, co-founder of Merrill Lynch
  • Alfred Henry Miller, 1923, NFL football player Boston Bulldogs, 1929
  • Paul Mitchell, 1968, Major League Baseball pitcher
  • Robert Munford, 1944, artist
  • Jim O'Day, politician
  • Neil Patel (political advisor), 1987, publisher of The Daily Caller
  • Jessica Phillips, 1989, actress
  • Arthur Pope 1899, Persian art scholar and administrator
  • Cole Porter 1909, Broadway composer
  • Sidney Hollis Radner, 1937 magician and expert on Houdini
  • Joseph Raycroft 1892, college basketball and football coach; considered the "father of intramural athletics" at Princeton University
  • Frank Rooney 1940, business executive
  • Donald "Dee" Rowe 1947, basketball coach
  • Thomas M. Salmon 1982, Vermont State Auditor
  • John Edward Sawyer 1937, President of Williams College
  • Canaan Severin 2012, NFL Player
  • Dennis Shulman 1968, clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, author, rabbi, and Democratic Party nominee for the United States Congress in New Jersey's Fifth Congressional District
  • Mark Slade 1957, TV actor
  • Jonathan Starr 1994, financial executive and philanthropist
  • Charles Starrett 1922, the "Durango Kid"
  • Robert Waring Stoddard 1924, businessman and benefactor
  • Ira Stoll 1990, author and former managing editor of The New York Sun
  • Jacob Stroyer 1872, ex-slave, minister, and author
  • Prince Nandiyavat Svasti 1927, member of the Thai Royal Family and grandson to King Rama IV (1851–1868), a.k.a. Mongkut, the king of Siam depicted in the musical, The King and I
  • Royal C. Taft 1872, Governor of Rhode Island
  • Stanley F. Teele 1924, fourth dean of Harvard Business School
  • Eli Thayer 1840, founder of the Oread Institute and the New England Emigrant Aid Company
  • Webster Thayer 1876, Massachusetts judge, presided over the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti in 1920.
  • Michael Tien 1968, Deputy, National People's Congress, Hong Kong and International clothing retailer
  • Willard Tibbetts 1922, bronze medalist in the 3000 meter race in the 1924 Paris Olympics
  • William Toomey 1957, gold-medal winning decathlete in the 1968 Summer Olympics
  • Cyril G. Wates 1902, mountaineer, amateur astronomer, and author
  • Lawrence Whitney 1911, Olympic athlete
  • Walt Whittaker 1913, Major League Baseball pitcher
  • Lewis Wilson 1939, actor

In certain instances, student-athletes attend Worcester Academy solely for their senior year, or for a single postgraduate year, to increase their exposure to college coaches or to improve their academic standing. Notable student-athletes include:

Headmasters of Worcester Academy

Number Name Years
1st Silas Bailey, D.D. 1834–1838
2nd Samuel Stillman Greene, LL.D. 1838–1840
3rd Nelson Wheeler, A.M. 1840–1847
4th Eli Thayer 1840, A.M. 1847–1849
5th Charles C. Burnett, A.M. 1849–1852
6th Eleazer J. Avery, A.M. 1852–1854
7th William S. Greene, A.M. 1854–1858
8th Werden Reynolds, A.M. 1858–1860
9th James R. Stone, D.D. 1860–1862
10th Ambrose P. S. Stuart, A.M. 1862–1864
11th Charles Ayer, A.B. 1865–1866
12th Albert Prescott Marble, PhD 1866–1868
13th William C. Poland, A.B. 1868–1870
14th Willard T. Leonard, M.A. 1870
15th Rev. David Weston, A.B. 1870–1871
16th John D. Smith, A.B. 1872–1875
17th Nathan Leavenworth, A.M. 1875–1882
18th Daniel Abercrombie, Litt.D., LL.D. 1882–1918
19th Samuel Foss Holmes, A.M. 1918–1933
20th Harold H. Wade 1933–1942
21st LeRoy A. Campbell, PhD 1942–1950
22nd Paul K. Phillips, A.B. 1950–1954
23rd William S. Piper, Jr., Ed.D. 1954–1968
24th Harold G. Rader, Ed.D. 1968–1969
25th David R. Jefferson, B.A., B.D. 1969–1970
26th Robert A. LaBranche 1946, M.S. 1970–1974
27th John A. Bloom, M.A. 1974–1985
28th Ben Williams, M.A. 1985–1991
29th John Mackenzie, M.A. 1991–1997
30th Dexter P. Morse, M Ed., C.A.G.S. 1997–2012
31st Ronald M. Cino 2012–2021
32nd Kevin Breen 2021–Present

See also

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