St. Bernard's School is a private, all-male elementary school in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood of Manhattan's Upper East Side. It was founded in 1904 by John Card Jenkins, along with Francis Tabor.www.stbernards.org - the school's website The school shield depicts an eagle (representing the United States of America), a lion (representing Great Britain), a book (symbol of education), and a cross (representing a tradition of Christianity).

The school's name is not pronounced the same way as that of the breed of dog with the same spelling, which is also its mascot. It was named for the rue St-Bernard in Brussels, Belgium, where a relative of one of St. Bernard's founders had also founded a school.

History

The school was founded in 1904 by John Card Jenkins and Francis Tabor. Both graduates of Cambridge University, they had met after knocking heads on a soccer pitch. Originally on the upper floors of a small Midtown building, the school relocated to its current location on 98th street in 1915. The original 1915 building by Delano and Aldrich still stands, although it has undergone significant expansion and renovation, most recently in 1997.

In April 2021, it was announced that Joy S. Hurd IV had been appointed to serve as the school's next headmaster, starting his role on July 1, 2022. Mr. Hurd taught at St. Bernard's for several years and was most recently the head of Lake Forest Country Day School. He is a graduate of Harvard College and has master's degrees from Columbia University's Teachers College and the Bread Loaf School of Middlebury College.

Students The school has three divisions: the Junior (or Lower) School consists of grades K through 3, the Middle School grades 4 through 6, and the Upper School grades 7 through 9. Mondays through Thursdays, boys in the Junior School must wear St. Bernard's polo shirts (polo shirts with the school shield emblazoned upon the chest) in either red, white, or blue, khakis, and a blazer. Boys in the Middle and Upper Schools must wear a polo or oxford shirt, accompanied by khakis and blazers as well. On Fridays, all boys wear jackets and ties (with the exception of the kindergartners).

St. Bernard's alumni, known as Old Boys, earn admission to a wide range of secondary schools in the United States and the United Kingdom, both day and boarding. The schools attended with greatest frequency include Andover, Collegiate, Deerfield, Exeter, Groton, Horace Mann, Lawrenceville, St. Paul's, Stuyvesant, and Trinity.

Notable people Headmasters John C. Jenkins (1874-1958) – 1904 – 1949 - School founder R.I.W. Westgate (1905-1988) – 1949 – 1971 - Stuart H. Johnson, III - 1985 – 2020 Evan Moraitis - 2020 – 2022 Joy S. Hurd IV – 2022 - Present

Alumni Alumni of the school are called “Old Boys”. Notable alumni include:

Prince Aristides-Stavros of Greece and Denmark, son of Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece and Marie-Chantal Miller Louis Auchincloss, novelist, winner of the National Medal of Arts Andrew Bernard, economist Bartle Bull, novelist Billy Bush, journalist Matt Cohler, venture capitalist Greg Daniels, television writer, four-time Emmy winner Avery Dulles, Jesuit priest, theologian and author, member of the College of Cardinals Theodore Dunham Jr., astronomer and physicist Larry Fessenden, actor Anthony Gardner, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union from 2014 to 2017 Elbridge T. Gerry Sr., businessman and polo champion John Hammond, record producer and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Arthur M. Jolly, playwright Roger Wolfe Kahn, jazz musician Bill Keenan, author and former professional ice hockey player Paul Klebnikov, investigative journalist and historian Jonathan Levine, film director and screenwriter Peter Magowan, former managing general partner of the San Francisco Giants Skizzy Mars, rapper Peter Matthiessen, co-founder of The Paris Review, only writer to have won the National Book Award in both nonfiction and fiction. James Merrill, poet Gifford Miller, politician Seth Morgan, novelist Peter Pennoyer, architect Michael Grace Phipps, businessman and polo champion George Plimpton, co-founder of The Paris Review, notable "New Journalist" Fuller Potter, abstract painter John P. Roberts, organizer of the Woodstock Festival Benno C. Schmidt Jr., 20th President of Yale University, founder of Avenues: The World School David Silkenat, historian James W. Symington, four-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Chief of Protocol of the United States Antonio Weiss, senior fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School, Counselor to the Secretary of the US Treasury from 2015 to 2017 Tom Werner, current chairman of Liverpool Football Club and the Boston Red Sox Tim Zagat, publisher of the Zagat Survey

Notable faculty Julius Mutekanga, track and cross country coach David King-Wood, longtime former faculty member, directed the school's Shakespeare play and is the namesake of an auditorium in the school Gordon Bradley, former coach of the school's soccer team Edgar G. Crossman, past president of the board of trustees Don M. Wilson III, former trustee

In popular culture The film Prince of the City referenced the school as the alma mater of one of the prosecutors charged with investigating police corruption. The film's cop protagonist remarks, "St. Bernard's. That's in the 2-3, that's, uh, little blond boys in blazers, right?" In Season 2, Episode 13 ("The Whole Truth") of Lie To Me, Victor Musso, best friend and business partner of the deceased victim, takes to the stand to say, "We've been best friends since we were ten at St. Bernard's." In 1936, James Merrill played the First Herald ("a small part...but an important one") in St. Bernard's production of Richard II. Merrill recalled the experience in his 1985 poem "The School Play".Merrill, James. Collected Poems. New York: Knopf, 2001, p. 422. Originally published in Late Settings, New York: Atheneum, 1985. Merrill's 1986 reading of "The School Play" is available for MP3 download.

Affiliated organizations Sources: New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS) International Boys' School Coalition (IBSC) National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Independent School Admission Association of Greater New York (ISAAGNY)

References

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