Friends' Central School
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Friends' Central School (FCS) is a Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) school located in Wynnewood, a section of Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. With more than 1000 students ranging from pre-kindergarten to grade 12, Friends' Central School is one of the largest friends schools in the Delaware Valley. "Friends' Central," as the school is casually referred to, was founded in 1845 in Philadelphia, near the current location of the United States Mint. The school contains three divisions: a lower school for grades pre-K through 4th, a middle school for grades 5th through 8th and an upper school for grades 9th through 12th. While the middle and upper school share the same campus, the lower school is on a separate location in Wynnewood. Friends' Central is well known for its good education and highly liberal and active community.
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[edit] History
Friends' Central was founded in 1845 as an upper school for the Quaker primary schools in Philadelphia, serving only grades 7 through 12 It was located at 4th and Cherry Streets. In 1857, the school moved to 15th and Race Streets. It remained at the Race Street campus (modern day site of Friends' Center) until 1925, when it moved to its campus on City Avenue, formerly the Wister-Morris Estate. The main administrative building of the school is still the main house of the estate. In 1988, due to continuing growth in the size of the school community, Friends' Central purchased the Montgomery School's property and relocated the lower school to that campus, where it still is today. Friends' Central continues to expand by renovating its buildings and building new, more modern buildings (i.e. Fannie Cox Center and Shimada Athletic Center) while still keeping some of the older ones such as the Wood Building, constructed as a house in 1862.
[edit] Quakerism
Quakerism as a religion plays a much less significant role in the community and education than it originally did. Only a small minority of students are actually Quakers. Students are, however, all required to attend weekly Meeting for Worship, the Quaker religious services. The meetings are relatively non-religious, as there are no clergy that regulate the meetings. The community convenes in one central room in silence, and individuals stand when "moved to speak" to express a thought to the community. This creates an atmosphere of tolerance and equality, where students must listen to the voices of others. Students are also required to perform service outside of the school. In the upper school, students are required to take two religious courses: one on Quakerism and one on the bible. However, both are taught from a non-religious perspective. In these classes students are taught the history of the Society of Friends, and the central philosophies of Quakerism. These philosophies are still the foundation of the school's close-knit small community and liberal and open-minded education.
[edit] Notable alumni
- Cynthia Shallcross Calhoun (Class of 1919) - Former President of the Pennsylvania Resources Council
- James Wolfenden - United States Congeresman from Pennsylvania
- Charlotte McAleer Kohler (Class of 1931) - Former First Lady of Wisconsin, wife of Governor Walter J. Kohler, Jr., who was also President of the Kohler Company.
- Jane Wooster Scott (Class of 1947) - Renowned American folk artist
- Gardner C. Hendrie (Class of 1950) - Designer of "microNova," the first commercial single chip, 16-bit microprocessor. Special Limited Partner, Sigma Partners - a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.
- Sylvia Hill Williams (Class of 1953) - former director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art
- Alexander L. Fetter (Class of 1954) - Professor of Physics and Applied Physics and Director of the Laboratory for Advanced Materials (LAM), Stanford University
- Elizabeth Osborne (Class of 1954) - Renowned artist
- Stephen A. Cozen (Class of 1957) - Founder and Chairman of Cozen O'Connor, a Philadelphia-based law firm with 21 offices throughout the United States and offices in London and Toronto.
- Richard B. Klein (Class of 1957) - Judge of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania
- Brian De Palma (Class of 1958) - Movie Director
- K. Barry Sharpless (Class of 1959) - 2001 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
- Maude Southwell Wahlman (Class of 1959) - Dorothy and Dale Thompson/Missouri Endowed Professor of Global Arts, University of Missouri-Kansas City
- A. Carter Pottash (Class of 1966) - Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at New York University and a Distinguished Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association
- Douglas G. Baird (Class of 1971) - Harry A. Bigelow Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago. Former Dean of the Law School from 1994-1999.
- Barry L. Zubrow (Class of 1971) - Former Chief Administrative Officer of Goldman Sachs
- Sonya Sklaroff (Class of 1988) - Artist
- Andy Greenwald (Class of 1995) - Author
- Zach Leibowitz (Class of 1997) - ESPN Personality
- Emil Steiner (Class of 1997) - Author, Journalist, The Washington Post
- Ben Wieland (Class of 1997) - Tamarkin Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Brown University
- Raphael DeSouza (Class of 2000)- 4th Place in the 18-25 class, '04 Boston Marathon; 2-time all Big East selection, Track & Field.
- Jim McKeogh (Class of 2000) - Holds Guiness' World Record mark for consecutive stamps licked, 84,627 over 9h:21m:18s.
- Hakim Warrick (Class of 2001) - NBA Player Memphis Grizzlies, former NCAA Player Syracuse University, and member of 2003 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship team.
- Mike Cook (Class of 2002) - NCAA Basketball Player University of Pittsburgh
- Mustafa Shakur (Class of 2003) - NCAA Basketball Player University of Arizona
- Benj Pasek (class of 2003) - Singer/Song writer University of Michigan
- Zack Malet (Class of 2006) - NCAA Track Runner Brown University
