Brooks School is a private, co-educational, preparatory, secondary school in North Andover, Massachusetts on the shores of Lake Cochichewick.

History

The school was founded in 1926 by the Reverend Endicott Peabody, the headmaster of Groton School at the time, and was named after Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), a well-known clergyman and author from North Andover, Massachusetts, who briefly served as Bishop of Massachusetts in the Episcopal Church during the 1890s.

The school opened on September 29, 1927, with fourteen boys in the first and second forms (seventh and eighth grades), two masters, a headmaster and headmistress, and one dormitory. The school added one form (grade) each year thereafter until it comprised grades 7–12, denoted by the British educational notations, Forms I, II, III, IV, V and VI, respectively. Forms I and II (seventh and eighth grades) were later dropped. Today, Brooks consists of Forms III, IV, V and VI, or grades 9–12, corresponding to the U.S. public educational system's equivalent of a high school. Students entering Brooks in the third form are colloquially referred to as Beagles, in honor of the first headmaster's famously disoriented pet.

Brooks School is unique among schools for the continuity of its leadership, having had just four heads of school in over 80 years. The School's first headmaster, Frank D. Ashburn (a graduate of Groton School, Yale University and Columbia Law School), was appointed at the age of 25 and served for 46 years until his retirement in 1973. He was succeeded by H. Peter Aiken who served until 1986, when he was succeeded by Lawrence W. Becker, the school's most recent headmaster who stepped down in 2008. He is succeeded by John R. Packard, the previous Dean of Faculty.

The school started admitting day students in the early 1950s and became co-educational in 1979. Today, the school enrolls 185 boys and 160 girls who come from many states and foreign countries. There has been a steady increase of students of color and of international students, and the school aspires to achieve gender equality. In addition, approximately 20 percent of students receive financial aid.

Brooks has many student clubs and organizations on campus. They include the A Capella, Art Association, Ashburn Society, Brooks Brothers and Sisters (BBS), Chamber Ensemble, Cheese Club, Debate Team, Environmental Club, Fins and Feathers Club, Film Auteurs Club, Gay-straight alliance (GSA), Gentlemen's Club, Glee Club, Gospel Choir, Harry Potter Club, International Club, Irish Club, Jazz Band, Jewish Student Organization (JSO), Math Club, Model United Nations (Model UN), Peer Tutoring, Phillips Brooks Society (PBS), Rock Band, Rugby Club, Sushi Club, Students Embracing Culture (SEC), Ski Club, and Weekend Activities.

The academic program at Brooks focuses on a college preparatory curriculum. Community life at Brooks includes bi-weekly chapel services (with a third service on Sundays for boarding students) in a non-denominational setting, community service programs serving locally and beyond, and extracurricular activities in the arts and athletics. Athletically, Brooks competes in the Independent School League. Its traditional rival is The Governor's Academy (formerly Governor Dummer Academy). However, recently, rivalry has been struck up with The Middlesex School.

The school's motto, "victuri te salutamus," is Latin for "we, who are about to live, salute you." This is a variation of the famous motto of the Roman gladiators, "nos morituri te salutamus," meaning "we, who are about to die, salute you."

Campus

Academic Facilities

Most classes are held in the three leveled, academic building, known to students as the Link. Mathematics courses are taught on the first floor, Language courses are taught on the second floor, and English courses are taught on the third floor. The Link also includes a history wing and the former science wing.

The New Science Building, which will open in the fall of 2008, will be a tremendous addition to the school. The building will add thousands of additional academic space and will be attached to the south end of the Link, where the current science wing resides. This eco-friendly facility will have three state of the art science laboratories, a university-like lecture hall, and plenty of open space for students and faculty to interact.

Also attached to the academic building are the Portico (the main entrance to the Link where students interact in between classes), the Kingsbury Computer Center, Room X (a small movie theater), the Coffee House (a lounge attached to the Portico for the sixth formers), and three of the ten dormitories (Gardner, Merriman, and Peabody) on campus.

Across from the academic building lies the Henry Luce III Library, which holds a collection of about 36,000 items. The building is open during study hours and has area for either silent or group-based work.

The Robert Lehman Arts Center, attached to the Henry Luce III Library, houses monthly exhibitions open to students and the public. Throughout the year, many artists show their work in a variety of forms, including paintings, sculptures, photography, and more.

The Frank D. Ashburn Chapel is considered by many as the heart of the school. It hosts tri-weekly chapel services and is located in the center of campus, across from the Frick (old) Dining Hall, Dalsemer Room, and Headmaster's House. Theology courses are taught in the basement of the Frank D. Ashburn Chapel and in the school reverend's office located in the Danforth Room.

The Arts Building includes three giant rooms for ceramics, paintings, photography, and art courses.

The Auditorium hosts all-school meetings once a week, the winter and spring music concerts, the fall, winter, and spring play, and other special events. Below the Auditorium is home to the Music Center, including rooms for music courses, private music lessons, and the many school bands, and Black Box, a small theater for smaller plays and skits.

Dormitories

Boys Dorms	Blake	Peabody	Russell	Thorne	Whitney
Girls Dorms	Gardner	Hettinger East	Hettinger West	Merriman	PBA

The school has 10 dormitories, five for girls and five for boys. At least two faculty members live in each dormitory, and dormitory prefects are appointed each year to work with the younger students as they adjust to living away from home. On weeknights and Sunday evenings, dormitories are quiet for study hours between 8 and 10. Third formers have assigned study hall in the Wilder Dining Hall, and sixth formers are free to study outside of the dormitories.

Dormitories include a common room that usually has a microwave, refrigerator and television.

For your first year at Brooks, the housing committee chooses a roommate for you, according to your submitted rooming questionnaire. Every year after that, the choice is up to you.

Athletics

Brooks has been very successful in winning many championships in the Independent School League and in New England over the recent years, including:

Fall Sports

• Boys Cross Country - 2005 New England Division 4 Champions
• Girls Field Hockey - 2004 New England Class B Tournament Champions, 2005 New England Class B Tournament Champions, 2006 New England Class B Tournament Champions
• Boys Soccer - 2003 ISL Champions, New England Class A Tournament Champions, 2004 ISL Co-Champions, 2005 ISL Tri-Champions, 2007 New England Class B Tournament Finalists
• Girls Soccer - 2001 ISL Champions, New England Class B Tournament Champions, 2002 ISL Champions, New England Class A Tournament Champions, 2005 ISL Champions, New England Class A Tournament Finalists, 2007 ISL Co-Champions

Winter Sports

• Girls Basketball - 2003 New England Class B Tournament Champions, 2006 New England Class B Tournament Champions
• Boys Ice Hockey - 2004 ISL Eberhart Division Champions, 2005 ISL Eberhart Division Champions, 2006 ISL Eberhart Champions
• Girls Ice Hockey - 2004 New England Division 2 Champions
• Girls Squash - 2006 New England Class B Champions - two players
• Boys Wrestling - 2005 ISL Graves-Kelsey Co-Champions, 2006 New England Champions - two wrestlers, 2007 New England Runner-ups, Champions - two wrestlers, National Prep Champion, Sean Bilodeau

Spring Sports

• Girls Crew - 2004 NEIRA Regatta Winners, National Champions, 2005 NEIRA Regatta Winners, National Champions
• Girls Lacrosse - 2004 ISL Champions, 2005 ISL Champions, 2006 ISL Champions
• Softball - 1999 ISL Champions, 2000 ISL Champions, 2001 ISL Champions, 2002 ISL Champions, 2004 ISL Champions, 2005 ISL Champions, 2006 Big East Tournament Champions, 2007 ISL Champions

Advance Placement

Brooks offers 19 AP courses in the following subjects listed below. In addition to AP's, student are also granted the option of applying for an independent study with the head of department.

• AP Art History
• AP Biology
• AP Calculus AB
• AP Calculus BC
• AP Chemistry
• AP Computer Science A
• AP English
• AP Environmental Science
• AP European History
• AP French Language
• AP French Literature
• AP Latin: Vergil
• AP Latin Literature
• AP Physics B
• AP Spanish Language
• AP Spanish Literature
• AP United States History
• AP United States Government and Politics
• AP World History

Study Abroad

Brooks offers several opportunities for students to study abroad, including:

• African Exchange - with four non-racial institutions in Botswana, Kenya, and Uganda
• Hungarian Exchange - began in 1990 as the first and only United States-Hungary exchange program at the secondary school level and funded by the Samantha Smith Memorial Exchange Fund, a program of the United States Information Agency and Soros Foundation; students attend the Deák Ferenc Gimnázium in Szeged, Hungary.
• Scotland Exchange - with Glenalmond College in Perth, Scotland
• School Year Abroad (SYA) - founded in 1964 by Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and now a consortium, including top independent schools across the United States; SYA is the only secondary school level program, which allows students to live with a foreign family for an entire academic year while earning United States secondary school graduation credits and preparing for selective United States colleges and universities.

School Hymn

Written by Phillips Brooks

Father of all below, above,

Whose Name is Light, Whose Name is Love,

Here be Thy truth and goodness known,

And make these fields and halls Thine own.

Thy temple gates stand open wide;

O Christ, we enter at Thy side,

With Thee to consecrate our pow'rs,

And make our Father's business ours.

For days of drought which yet shall be,

On untrod land, on unsail'd sea,

We kneel and fill our cup of youth

At these fair fountains of Thy truth.

O world, all bright and brave and young,

With deeds unwrought and songs unsung,

For all the strength Thy task will give

We greet Thee, we, about to live.

Father, Thy children bless the care

Which shed Thy sunlight ev'rywhere,

Shine on our school and let us be

Teachers and scholars taught by Thee.

Notable Brooksians

• Barry Bingham, Jr. (1933-2006), United States newspaper publisher and television and radio executive, the last descendant of the Bingham family that controlled Louisville, Kentucky's daily newspapers, a television station, and two radio stations for much of the 20th century
• Barry M. Bowen '63, environmentalist, entrepreneur, statesman
• Henry M. Buhl '48, humanitarian
• Johnnie Kesselman '04, socialite
• Kier Byrnes '91, founding member and front man for the punk/country band Three Day Threshold
• Jake Burton Carpenter, founder and chairman of Burton Snowboards
• Charlie Davies '04, United States professional football (soccer) striker who currently plays in the Swedish Allsvenskan for Hammarby IF, olympian
• William R. Ferris '60, United States author and scholar, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, co-founder of the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, Tennessee, co-founder of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture
• Charles H.W. Foster '45, environmentalist, author
• Steve Forbes '66, son of Malcolm Forbes, president and CEO of Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, former Republican candidate in the United States presidential primaries in 1996 and 2000
• William W. Kellog, Ph.D. '35, geophysicist, meteorologist
• Elle Logan '06, United States rower, Olympic gold medalist
• Henry Lyman '33, conservationist, publisher
• Charles P. Lyman, Ph.D. '32, biologist, educator
• Edward F. MacNichol, Dr. '36, research scientist, educator
• Samuel P. Peabody '44, humanitarian, educator
• Anthony Perkins, actor
• Thomas Collier Platt, Jr. '43, son of Thomas C. Platt, federal judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, former chief judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
• Mark Shuttleworth, South African entrepreneur, first African in space, founder of Canonical Ltd., providing leadership for the Ubuntu Linux distribution
• Huntington Sheldon, Dr. '47, medicine
• James Spader, actor
• Wells Stabler, Ambassador '37, foreign service
• Parker Stevenson, actor
• Sam Waterston, actor
• Michael Weatherly '86, actor

References