PINGRY SCHOOL

'The Pingry School' is a coeducational, independent, college preparatory country day school in New Jersey, with a Lower School (K-5) campus in the Short Hills neighborhood of Millburn, and a Middle and Upper School campus in Martinsville. The school was founded in 1861 by Dr. John F. Pingry.
As of 2007, the Headmaster is Nathaniel E. Conard, and the school has an endowment of $58 million.
''The Wall Street Journal'' ranked Pingry the best high school in New Jersey according to its college matriculation rate for the class of 2003. Pingry’s 146 full-time faculty have 11 doctorates and 67 master’s degrees, with an average tenure at Pingry of 12 years. The school also has a student-initiated Honor System, which dates back to 1925, and requires its students to complete ten hours of community service each school year.

Contents

Student body

History

Athletics

Facilities

Student publications

Accreditation

Notable alumni

References

External links

Student body

The school currently enrolls 1,020 students; 319 at Short Hills and 701 at Martinsville; 182 in the Middle School and 519 in the Upper School. Students come from 99 area communities in twelve counties and over ninety municipalities in New Jersey.^[1]

History

Dr. John Francis Pingry founded the school in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1861 to provide both scholastic training and moral education for boys.
The School remained at its original site until 1953, when the Pingry School moved from Elizabeth only a few blocks away to the edge of Hillside, New Jersey.
Early in 1970s two important changes occurred: Pingry began the transition to a coeducational school. The first female students, who graduated in 1976, were succeeded by other young women who today represent half the student body.
Secondly, Pingry grew again by merging with the Short Hills Country Day School to become a school with grades from Kindergarten through grade 12. Today over 300 children attend the Pingry Short Hills Campus.
In 1983, the School moved to Martinsville, a rural area in the Watchung and Somerset Hills. The campuses are approximately 25 minutes apart, and both are located near the New York metropolitan area, which continues to provide many outside resources to supplement the classroom.^[2]
Since Dr. Pingry's day, there have been 15 headmasters. Currently, Nathaniel E. Conard holds the post, his appointment effective July 1, 2005. The previous headmaster, John L. Neiswender, had begun his term on July 1, 2000.
Pingry's motto is ''Maxima reverentia pueris debetur'', a Latin phrase literally meaning "the greatest respect is owed to the boys." Since becoming co-educational, the school has modified the motto's translation to "the greatest respect is due to the students." Dr. John Pingry's personal motto, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," hangs as a sign in the Martinsville campus library.

Athletics

The school offers 28 varsity teams, with a total of 70 teams covering seventh to 12th grade. Many of the school’s athletes have been recognized as athletic scholars, and some have gone on to play for college teams.
Pingry School competes in the Colonial Hills Conference which is composed of eighteen public and parochial high schools covering Essex County, Morris County and Somerset County in west central New Jersey, under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).
Pingry is a dual member of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association and the New Jersey Independent School Athletic Association.
The girls soccer team won the 2001 Parochial North A state sectional championship with a 1-0 win vs. Immaculate Heart Academy.^[3]
The 2003 team won the Group I State championship with a 2-1 win over New Egypt High School in the tournament's final match.^[4] The 2004 team repeated as Group I champion, defeating New Egypt High School in the tournament final.^[5]

Facilities

Pingry has recently added a new middle school building to the Martinsville Campus. In early 2007, Forms I and II (grades 7 and 8) moved into the new building. Grade 6 will be moved from the Short Hills campus to this new facility at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year. The building's most notable feature is its specially designed large common area, which will be used for assemblies of the middle school. This new wing, however, still shares the cafeteria, the library, the arts wing, and the athletic facilities with the main building.
The Pingry school's Martinsville campus has a modern-looking turquoise and pink architecture. The turquoise bricks that compose the school's central clock tower were originally supposed to be navy blue, but by the time the incorrectly colored paint arrived it was too late to make a change. The main building was designed by the architecture firm Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates.

Student publications

★ ''The Pingry Record'' - School Newspaper

★ ''Vital Signs'' - Current Events Magazine

★ ''The Bluebook'' - School yearbook

★ ''Polyglot'' - Foreign language magazine

★ ''Calliope'' - A collection showcasing the writing and artistic ability of Pingry School students

★ ''The Broken Wreckord'' - The school's parody newspaper

Accreditation

The Pingry School is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, the National Association of Independent Schools, the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools, and the New Jersey Department of Education. The Pingry School is a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

Notable alumni

''5 people on the 2006 Forbes 400 list graduated from the Pingry School''

★ Chris Bender, producer of the ''American Pie'' series of movies

★ Miller Bugliari, Pingry faculty member and winningest boys' soccer coach in the U.S.; in 2006, was elected to the NSCAA Hall of Fame

★ Michael Chertoff, Secretary of United States Department of Homeland Security (2005– )^[6]

★ William A. Conway, former CEO of Garden State National Bank (note: Conway missed his last year at Pingry due to illness)

★ Mark Donohue, race car driver, winner of the 1972 Indianapolis 500 and the 1973 Can-Am Championship^[7]

★ Jeffrey N. Edwards, CFO and senior vice-president of Merrill Lynch

★ Steven Elmendorf, deputy campaign manager for Presidential candidate John Kerry, and longtime campaign aide to Richard Gephardt

★ Adam Gardner, guitarist for the rock band Guster

★ Howard Georgi, emeritus professor of physics at Harvard University

★ Adam Goldstein, computer book author

★ Halley Wegryn Gross, TV and Broadway actress named one of the College Vanguard fifteen undergraduates

★ William Halsey, Fleet Admiral in the United States Navy

★ Andrew Horowitz, songwriter and keyboardist in the band ''Tally Hall''

★ Amos Hostetter, Jr., former CEO and founder of MediaOne, billionaire on ''Forbes'' Magazine list

★ Jamie Johnson, documentary film maker, whose film ''Born Rich'' appeared on HBO

★ Steven Johnson, senior analyst at Microsoft and leading developer of Internet Explorer 5

★ Adam Kalkin, innovative architect

★ Thomas Kean Jr., New Jersey State Senator and 2006 United States Senate candidate^[8]

★ Daniel Kellner, top U.S. foil fencer, 2004 Greece Olympian

★ Micah Kellner, New York State Assemblyman

★ James C. Kellogg III, former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

★ Chris Lear, successful runner and author of two books, including Running With the Buffaloes

★ Earl Levine, notable Silicon Valley engineer and inventor (note: attended, but transferred out before graduation)

★ Therese Lizardo, Miss District of Columbia 2004

★ Douglas Macrae, writer of Ms. Pac-man and the interactive TV listings menu that originated on satellite TV

★ N. Gregory Mankiw, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers^[9] and Harvard Professor of Economics

★ Dean Mathey, investor who made millions for Princeton University

★ Thomas N. McCarter, CEO of PSE&G Corporation, developer of Penn Station in Newark, and original benefactor of the McCarter Theatre in Princeton

★ Andrew McCarthy, actor^[10]

★ Stephan Newhouse, former president of Morgan Stanley

★ Ryohei Richard Okamoto, keyboardist and vocalist in the band ''Houston Calls''

★ Charles A. Potter, III, engineer who worked on designing the Nautilus submarine

★ Jon Sarkin, artist and stroke survivor, whose life story is to be portrayed in a movie by Tom Cruise

★ Dani Shapiro, novelist

★ C. Lee Shelley, U.S. top épée fencer, 2-time Olympian in 1984 Los Angeles and 1988 Seoul

★ Fred Small, musician, songwriter (note: attended, but transferred out before graduation)

★ Park B. Smith, philanthropist and textile magnate

★ Todd Solondz, filmmaker

★ Richard Tregaskis, journalist, author of ''Guadalcanal Diary''

★ Jen Trynin, musician

★ Bruce Tunkel, singer, songwriter, and former lead of the group ''The Red House''

★ Carl Van Duyne, Ph. D., junior member of the Council of Economic Advisors, commissioned naval officer, economics professor at United States Naval Academy, 1968 Olympian in sailing

★ Gillian Vigman, actress

★ Edward A. Weeks, Jr., former editor of ''The Atlantic Monthly'' magazine

★ Lyric Wallwork Winik, ''Parade'' magazine columnist

★ Jack Youngelson, documentary filmmaker

★ James E. Hughes Jr. auhthor

References

External links

★ The Pingry School official website

★ College profile for the class of 2007

★ Pingry School Overview

★ WSJ High School Rankings