Germantown Friends School (GFS) is a private, coeducational PreK–12 school in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States under the supervision of Germantown Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). It is governed by a School Committee whose members are drawn from the Meeting membership, the school's alumni, and parents of current students and alums. The head of school is Dana Weeks.
History
Germantown Friends School was founded in 1845 by Germantown Monthly Meeting. The school was founded in response to a request from the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Until the early 20th century, Germantown Friends was a "select" school, meaning that only the children of Quaker parents were admitted. Germantown Monthly Meeting was an Orthodox meeting and valued classical education. Athletics and the arts were considered a diversion from the essentials young people needed.
Notable alumni This list includes graduates and non-graduate former students. Emily Bazelon, 1989, journalist"GFS grad gets personal while discussing the book she wrote on bullying", WHYY-FM, February 25, 2013. Accessed May 5, 2024. "About 100 parents, students, alumni, and faculty gathered at Germantown Friends School's Yarnell Auditorium on Sunday night to hear GFS grad Emily Bazelon discuss her new book, Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy." Eric Bazilian, 1971, musician and songwriter"Founding Hooters member and GFS grad Eric Bazilian teaches students to write songs", Chestnut Hill Local, June 10, 2014. Accessed May 5, 2024. "The Hooters co-founder and Germantown Friends School graduate Eric Bazilian '71 recently gave a lesson in songwriting to ninth-grade music composition students at GFS." Jesse Biddle, 2010, baseball playerLauber, Scott. "Former top Phillies prospect Jesse Biddle returns home with Braves", The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 27, 2018. Accessed May 5, 2024. "While baseball continues to buzz over the arrival of Braves phenom Ronald Acuna, Germantown Friends product Jesse Biddle will complete his first week in the majors by facing the Phillies." Sandra Boynton, 1970, cartoonist and songwriter"Sandra Boynton shares her story", Harvard Gazette, February 21, 2016. Accessed May 5, 2024. "Boynton grew up in Philadelphia, and attended kindergarten through 12th grade at Germantown Friends School, a Quaker school where her father, educational publisher Robert W. Boynton, M.A.T. '47, taught English." Sarah Chang, violinistHoffman, Jan. "After Child's Play, What Comes Next?" , The New York Times, October 3, 1993. Accessed May 5, 2024. "But Sarah, a seventh-grader at the Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia, has discovered swimming, horseback riding and roller-blading." Owen Chamberlain, 1937, physicistIn Memoriam: Owen Chamberlain , University of California. Accessed May 5, 2024. "After the family's move to Philadelphia in 1930, Owen attended school there, including high school at Germantown Friends School, and then went on to Dartmouth." Walter Cope, architectWalter Cope , University of Pennsylvania Archives and Record Center. Accessed May 5, 2024. "Walter Cope was born in Philadelphia in 1860. After attending Germantown Friends School, Cope opted to learn architecture in the office of Addison Hutton, who designed buildings for Lehigh University and Bryn Mawr College." Erica Armstrong Dunbar, 1990, historian and author, National Book Award FinalistBrooks, Emily. "Social-justice ‘teach in’ effort took over Germantown Friends School on Friday" , WHYY-FM, December 15, 2014. Accessed May 5, 2024. "Keynote addresses were delivered by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, GFS alum and associate professor of Black American Studies and History at the University of Delaware and Michael O'Bryan, a humanitarian artist and youth-housing advocate." Garrett Dutton III, aka G. Love, 1991, musician and front man of the band G. Love & Special Sauce"Tuned In to G Love & Special Sauce" , WLS-TV, January 28, 2010. Accessed May 5, 2024. "Garrett Dutton III, better known as G Love, is a former student of the Germantown Friends School." Jennifer Fox (born 1959), film producer, director, cinematographerGray, Ellen. "In HBO's 'The Tale,' Narberth's Jennifer Fox turns to fiction to tell her own tough, true story" , The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 18, 2018. Accessed May 5, 2024. "The story in The Tale, which makes its HBO debut on May 26, belongs to Narberth native and veteran filmmaker Jennifer Fox, who was a seventh grader at Germantown Friends School when she wrote a short story about 'two very special people'..." Michael Friedman, 1993, composerStearns, David Patrick. "Brilliant songwriter Michael Friedman, out of Germantown Friends, is being memorialized in an audacious 9-album project" , The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 13, 2019. Accessed May 5, 2024. Janet Brown Guernsey, 1931, physicist Nathaniel Kahn, 1981, filmmaker, writer and director of My Architect, a film about his father, Louis KahnVitarelli, Alicia. "Chestnut Hill director takes close look inside the art world in HBO documentary" , WPVI-TV, November 9, 2018. Accessed May 5, 2024. "Kahn, a proud graduate of Germantown Friends, says it means the world to be recognized for his work here at home." Rob Monster, Dutch-American technology executive. Tom Myers, 1976, sound engineer nominated for two Academy Awards. Saul Perlmutter, 1977, astrophysicist; winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the accelerating universe"Former Mt. Airy native and Nobel Prize winner Saul Perlmutter featured on Fresh Air" , WHYY-FM, November 14, 2011. Accessed May 5, 2024. "Saul Perlmutter, a graduate of Greene Street Friends School, Germantown Friends School, is an astrophysicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley." Edmund R. Purves, 1914, architect and executive director of the American Institute of Architects. Esther Biddle Rhoads, educator, relief worker Merrie Spaeth, Political public relations consultant; appeared in the film The World of Henry Orient while a sophomore at GFS."The Girls of Henry Orient", Time, May 15, 1964 Daniel Spielman, 1988, Sterling Professor of Computer Science at Yale, MacArthur FellowAvril, Tom. "A mathematician and computer scientist with area ties wins a MacArthur fellowship" , The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 3, 2012. Accessed May 5, 2024. "Spielman attended Episcopal Academy for ninth grade, then switched to Germantown Friends for the rest of high school - where, because of his modesty, his math abilities remained a secret to many." Makiko Tanaka, 1963, Japanese Foreign Minister, 2001–2002Halloran, Richard "Japanese Premier's Daughter Takes a Modern Role" , The New York Times, January 14, 1974. Accessed May 5, 2024. "Some have studied in Western-style schools at home while others, like Mrs. Tanaka, have been abroad. She spent three years at the Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia and was graduated from high school there in 1963." Rebecca Traister, 1993, Journalist (New York Magazine, Elle)Sasko, Claire. "Q&A: Feminist Writer Rebecca Traister on How Anger Shapes Philly Politics" , Philadelphia, December 14, 2018. Accessed May 5, 2024. "Then I attended the Abington school district through sixth grade and Germantown Friends School from seventh to 12th grade." Kristen Welker, 1994. NBC News journalist"GFS grad named co-anchor of Weekend Today" , Chestnut Hill Local, January 17, 2020. Accessed May 5, 2024. "NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker, 43, who graduated from Germantown Friends School in 1994, became co-anchor of the Weekend Today show last weekend." Dan Wolf, 1975, Massachusetts state senator, founder of Cape Air"Mass. State Senator and GFS alumnus speaks at the school" , Chestnut Hill Local, October 15, 2014. Accessed May 5, 2024. "After graduating from GFS in 1975, Wolf attended Wesleyan University, and his passion for aviation won out over his interest in public service, and he studied to become a pilot."
Notable staff
Entertainment The main character from the TV series Twin Peaks, FBI Agent Dale Cooper, supposedly grew up in Germantown and attended Germantown Friends School (as created by director David Lynch, who spent many years in Philadelphia).Frost, Scott: The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes, page 1, Pocket Books, 1991. They were also referenced in The Goldbergs''' spinoff show, Schooled'', in the fifth episode of the first season, "Money for RENT".
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