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2015 SESSION


HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 758
Commending Virginia Episcopal School.

 

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, February 13, 2015
Agreed to by the Senate, February 19, 2015

 

WHEREAS, in 2014, Virginia Episcopal School, a private, coeducational boarding and day school for students in grades nine through 12, celebrated 100 years of helping students thrive academically, spiritually, ethically, and personally; and

WHEREAS, in 1906, the Reverend Robert Carter Jett, founder and first rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Staunton, proposed to the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia that a secondary school be established to provide “leadership in the matter of education” and for a quality education for students from all walks of life, with special consideration for the children of clergy; and

WHEREAS, over the next eight years, Reverend Jett worked tirelessly towards the goal of establishing such a school; on February 4, 1914, Virginia Episcopal School, located in Lynchburg, was incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth; and

WHEREAS, as a result of the work of a number of other interested individuals, including the Reverend Joseph B. Dunn of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lynchburg, Colonel William King of Lynchburg, and Wilton Egerton Mingea of Abingdon, on September 25, 1916, Virginia Episcopal School opened its doors with an enrollment of 63 male students, primarily from Virginia; and

WHEREAS, the Reverend Robert Carter Jett served as rector and the Reverend Thomas Kinloch Nelson, Ellis Nimmo Tucker—each of whom held master’s degrees from the University of Virginia—Charles E. Gerould, William R. Abbot, and Malcolm W. Gannaway served as faculty; in its early days, the Virginia Episcopal School had one building, which housed classrooms, the chapel, dormitories, and the dining hall; and

WHEREAS, Virginia Episcopal School has helped to develop more than 4,000 students in their moral, intellectual, spiritual, and physical lives; many of these students have made significant contributions in the areas of business, education, government, law, medicine, and religion; and

WHEREAS, the Virginia Episcopal School campus, originally designed by noted architect Frederick H. Brooke in the Georgian Revival style, has made many significant strides forward in its history, including the consecration of the Langhorne Memorial Chapel, given by Chiswell Dabney Langhorne in memory of his wife, Nancy Witcher Keene—they were parents of Lady Astor—on May 11, 1919; the completion of Barksdale Memorial Gymnasium in 1920; and many other additions to the campus; and

WHEREAS, Virginia Episcopal School now has more than 15 buildings, including on-campus residences for faculty and eight athletic playing fields; in 1992, the school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places of the United States Department of the Interior; and

WHEREAS, in 1967, Virginia Episcopal School was the first private, preparatory boarding school in the South to racially integrate, and in 1986, it was one of the first private, preparatory boarding schools in the South to accept female students; and

WHEREAS, Virginia Episcopal School has a current enrollment of 230 students from 20 states and foreign countries, and it is dedicated to continuing the mission of helping develop students, in the words of Reverend Jett, “Toward Full Stature”; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend the Virginia Episcopal School for its many contributions to the Commonwealth on the occasion of its 100th anniversary; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the Virginia Episcopal School as an expression of the General Assembly’s admiration for the school’s storied history and rich traditions.