Fay School

Fay School
Fay School
	Fay School's logo
Address
	48 Main Street; Southborough, Massachusetts 01772; United States
Coordinates	42°18′17″N 71°31′59″W / 42.30472°N 71.53306°W
Information
Type	Junior boarding school
Motto	Poteris Modo Velis; (You Can If You Will)
Established	1866
Founders	Eliza Burnett Fay; Harriet Burnett
Head of Upper School (7-9)	Jake Sumner
Faculty	80
Grades	K–9
Gender	Coeducational
Enrollment	475 total (325 day, 150 boarding)
Average class size	14
Student to teacher ratio	6:1
Language	English
Campus	30 acre main campus, 36 acre athletic campus
Campus type	Suburban
Color(s)	Red and white
Athletics	Yes
Athletics conference	New England Preparatory School Athletic Conference
Mascot	Moose
Newspaper	Moosepaper
Yearbook	Pioneer
Website	www.fayschool.org

Fay School, founded in 1866 by the Fay sisters, is an independent, coeducational day and boarding school located in Southborough, Massachusetts.

History

Founding and early years

Fay School was founded in 1866 by sisters Eliza Burnett Fay and Harriet Burnett in a former parsonage of the Unitarian church, across from St. Mark's School, where Fay students traditionally attended secondary school.^[1] In its first school year, the school had only seven students: five day students and two boarders.

Expansion

Under Eliza Fay's son, Waldo B. Fay, the school grew sizably, adding a new dormitory, school room, and library. In 1922, the school was officially incorporated,^[1] and the ownership of the school was transferred from the Fay family to the newly formed board of trustees.^[2] The school became fully coeducational in 1977, having previously implemented a pilot program for girls in 1972. Girls had previously attended the school as day students through the late 19th century.^[3] The Root Academic Building, the main academic building of the campus, was constructed in 2001. Fay opened its Primary School (pre-K to 2nd grade) in 2010^[4]^[5] and moved its 6th grade into the Lower School program (now 3rd to 6th grade) in the 2012–13 school year.^[6]^[3]

Headmasters

List of Fay School Headmasters
Name	Years in Office
Eliza Burnett Fay	1866-1896 (29–30 years)
Waldo B. Fay	1896-1918 (21–22 years)
Edward W. Fay	1918-1942 (23–24 years)
Harrison L. Reinke	1942-1969 (26–27 years)
A. Brooks Harlow Jr.	1969-1988 (18–19 years)
Stephen V. A. Samborski	1988-1990 (1–2 years)
Stephen C. White	1990-2008 (17–18 years)
Robert J. Gustavson Jr.	2008-2024 (15–16 years)
Susanna Whitaker Waters	2024-Incumbent (0 years) ^[2]

Campus facilities

The school is situated on a 30-acre main campus, with a 36-acre athletic campus 1.5 miles away in Marlborough. Apart from the Root Academic Building, there are multiple other buildings at Fay: the Center for Creativity and Design, the Picardi Art Building, the Reinke Building, and the Harris Event Center, which contains the theater.^[7] Below the theater is the Harlow Gymnasium, which contains the locker rooms, four basketball courts, an indoor rock climbing wall, and a fitness room. In addition, there are six soccer fields, four tennis courts, two swimming pools, a football field, and the multi-purpose MacAusland Field.^[8] For meals, students go to the Camp Family Dining Hall, which is currently operated by SAGE Dining.^[9] There are currently seven dormitory buildings: two boy dorms and five girl dorms, housing its 150 boarding students from 7th to 9th grade.^[10]

Root Academic Building
Harlow Gymnasium
Dining Hall
Steward Dormitory
Primary Building

Notable alumni

Doug Brown '1979, NHL right winger, 1986-2001
Stephen Chao '1970, entrepreneur and media executive, former president of Fox Television, 1992; former president of USA Network, 1998-2001
Victor Chapman '1903, first American pilot killed in World War I^[11]
Eric Chou '2010, Mandopop singer, songwriter^[12]
Michael D. Coe '1941, archeologist,Mesoamerican scholar^[13]
Robert Daniel '1949, US Representative of Virginia, 1973-1983^[14]
Tarah Donoghue Breed '1997, deputy press secretary to First Lady Laura Bush
Hamilton Fish III '1900, US Representative of New York, 1920-1945
Peter Fonda '1954, actor
George Foreman III '1998, boxer and entrepreneur
Glen Foster '1944, 1972 Summer Olympics sailing medalist
Topher Grace '1994, actor
C. Boyden Gray '1956, White House counsel, 1989-1993, US Ambassador to the European Union, 2006-2008
Prince Hashim Al Hussein '1996, prince of Jordan
Princess Iman bint Hussein '1998, princess of Jordan
Heyward Isham '1940, US Ambassador to Haiti, 1974-1977
James Simon Kunen '1962, journalist, lawyer, writer, author of The Strawberry Statement
Bruce Lawrence '1955, scholar, Duke professor of religion
David McKean '1972, US Ambassador to Luxembourg, 2016-2017
Nicholas Negroponte '1958, founder and chairman emeritus of the MIT Media Lab, founder of One Laptop per Child
Robert E. Sherwood '1909, four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
James Jeremiah Wadsworth '1918, US Ambassador to the United Nations, 1960-1961
Damian Woetzel '1981, principal dancer at the New York City Ballet, 1989–2008; seventh president of the Juilliard School
Ying Rudi '2014, professional KHL ice hockey player, Chinese representative in the 2022 Winter Olympics
Efrem Zimbalist Jr. '1931, Golden Globe-winning actor

References

^ ^a ^b Benson, Albert Emerson (1925). History of Saint Mark's School. Privately published for the Alumni Association.
^ ^a ^b "Fay School's 150th Anniversary, 1866–2016 History". fay150.fayschool.org. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
^ ^a ^b "The First Junior Boarding School in the US | Fay School Traditions". www.fayschool.org. Retrieved August 11, 2017.
^ Evan Lips/Daily News staff. "Fay School addition ahead of schedule". MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA. Archived from the original on April 2, 2010. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
^ Evan Lips/Daily News staff. "A sense of adventure at Southborough's Fay Primary School". Wicked Local. Retrieved February 26, 2015.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ "Fay School ~Fay Facts". fayschool.org. Archived from the original on December 4, 2014. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
^ "Campus Map | Fay School | Private K-9 School | Southborough, MA". www.fayschool.org. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
^ "Fields, Gym, Pools, Ropes Course | Athletics Facilities at Fay School". www.fayschool.org. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
^ "SAGE Dining Services | Fay School". www.sagedining.com. Retrieved November 9, 2023.
^ "Class Size, Enrollment, Facilities | Fay School Fast Facts". www.fayschool.org. Retrieved August 11, 2017.
^ "American Volunteers in the French Foreign Legion, 1914-1917: Victor Chapman". July 17, 2012. Archived from the original on July 17, 2012. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
^ "Singer-Songwriter Eric Chou '10 Releases Second Album". Fay School. September 9, 2016. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
^ "Michael Coe | Department of Anthropology". anthropology.yale.edu. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
^ Dodge, Andrew R.; USA; USA, eds. (2005). Biographical directory of the United States Congress, 1774 - 2005: the Continental Congress, September 5, 1774, to October 21, 1788, and the Congress of the United States, from the first through the one hundred eighth congresses, March 4, 1789, to January 3, 2005, inclusive. House document / House of Representatives, US Congress (2005 ed., closing date of compilation, January 3, 2005 ed.). Washington, DC: US Gov. Print. Off. ISBN 978-0-16-073176-1.