IMPORTANT EVENTS IN WOOSTER'S HISTORY
March 2, 1710 General Wooster, Revolutionary War hero, father of Freemasonry in Connecticut, and Wooster's namesake, was born.
April 27, 1777 General Wooster dies in Danbury, CT of a mortal wound inflicted during the Battle of Ridgefield.
June 19, 1884 Aaron Coburn was born in Brooklyn, CT.
August 15, 1908 Long time teacher/coach/business manager James Hobart Warner was born. He died March 28, 1994.
1913 Aaron Coburn joined the Danbury Board of Education and served on it until 1932.
March 31, 1925 The Vestry of St. James' Church voted to endorse Rev. Coburn's proposal to establish a boys? school in Danbury.
October 15, 1925 Rev. Coburn and friends were given an option to buy the Hodshon Farm in Danbury. They had raised $30,000 to buy and put the buildings (the farmhouse and barn) in working shape. The Parks property on Southern Boulevard had been offered but the group could not raise the necessary funds fast enough to erect buildings and open the School the following September.
November 2, 1925 Connecticut State Legislature approves Wooster's Articles of Incorporation.
September 22, 1926 Wednesday, Wooster opened its doors to 10 students.
1928 East & West Cottages (Wellington & McAlister respectively) are completed.
December 14, 1928 The Headmaster's House is dedicated.
May 18, 1929 Flag Pole is formally dedicated.
June, 1929 Wooster's first commencement (last Sat. preceding 6/10/29), 2 graduates.
June 7, 1930 James Marshall Chapel cornerstone is laid.
November 6, 1930 Chapel is consecrated and dedicated to the memory of James Marshall who was a hat manufacturer in Fall River, Massachusetts. Mrs. Marshall, who moved to Newtown, Connecticut after her husband's death and became a member of the School's Board of Managers, gave Wooster $50,000 to erect the Chapel in her husband's memory.
June 1931 Silhouette of General David Wooster was first used on the masthead of the school newspaper, The Wooster General.
1936 Aaron Coburn receives an honorary Doctor of Letters from Hobart College.
December 2, 1942 Aaron Coburn died at 6:30 pm.
February 14, 1943 John D. Verdery becomes Headmaster and serves in that capacity until June 30, 1976.
Fall, 1945 Wooster's first undefeated football season.
May, 1948 Frank Young produces his first production of "Woosteria".
Winter, 1951 Don Seifert '51 won the National Preparatory School wrestling championship at Lehigh University, the greatest single athletic achievement in the history of the school's 25 years. Don had three undefeated years as Varsity Wrestling Captain. He served as Prefect of East Cottage and Valedictorian of the Senior Class.
June 9, 1952 U.S. Vice President Alben Barkley breaks ground for Coburn Hall.
1954 A Portrait of Dr. Aaron Coburn, founder of Wooster and its first Headmaster, is presented to the school by the Class of 1954. It hangs today in the Dining Room.
September, 1958 H. Korb Eynon begins his teaching career at Wooster after graduating with a BA from Williams College.
1961 Wooster is elected a member of the Cum Laude Society.
March 4, 1961 First game played in Alumni Gym : Varsity Basketball team defeats Gunnery 50-36.
April 29, 1961 Alumni Gym is dedicated.
1963 Student Radio Club founded in Lower Gym.
September, 1963 Soccer is offered for the first time as an alternate fall sport.
February 5, 1966 Wooster Community Art Center offers its first community program to 27 students from neighboring high schools with an emphasis on sculpture, drawing, and painting.
1966 First season of Wooster Debating Club.
Summer, 1966 Marian Anderson, renowned Metropolitan Opera singer, visits Wooster.
September, 1966 Josette Eynon joins the faculty (in the Language Department) as its first full-time female member.
September, 1966 "A School Year in France" is inaugurated for Wooster Fourth Formers (10th grade).
Fall, 1967 Wooster's second undefeated football season.
1968 Wooster News is born as a quarterly magazine; it went to three issues per year in 1969 and, since 1973, has been a semi-annual periodical.
The Stu-Fac Committee is founded as a forum for students and faculty.
February 20, 1968 The David M. Keiser organ, new to Wooster, is formally inaugurated in a recital given by Clyde Holloway.
1970 First woman, Mary-Belle Starr, is appointed to the Wooster Board of Trustees.
September, 1970 Wooster becomes a co-ed institution. Robin Kahn '73 is the first of 33 girls admitted. Upon graduation from Wooster, Robin became the first woman elected to the Alumni Council.
March, 1973 C. Richard Cadigan appointed Principal of Wooster by Headmaster John Verdery. Cadigan assumes the internal responsibilities of the school. He came to Wooster in 1970 as the School's Chaplain.
September, 1973 Tom Hackett and Carol Hackett begin their teaching careers at Wooster - Tom in English and Carol in Physical Education.
September, 1974 First female boarders are admitted to Wooster.
John Nader, English teacher, reinstitutes Wooster's Drama Department.
September 11, 1974 "Anonymous", the campus newspaper, is first published. Chris Witzky '75 is named first Editor-in-Chief.
May 10, 1975 Girls' Gym and Music Building are dedicated.
September 11, 1975 50th Anniversary Celebration begins. It ended December 31, 1976.
October, 1975 Major flooding of Miry Brook causes $5,000 in damages and serious problems in Lower Coburn.
May, 1976 Alumni Day : Donald G. Schwartz '36 receives Wooster's first Alumni Award from the Alumni Council. It consisted of a plaque in the Honor Room bearing the recipient's name, a resolution, and a medal from the Alumni Council. The medal stated "Presented to a member of the Class of 1936 whose selfless contributions to humankind most reflect the spirit of Wooster." The award was created in recognition of Wooster's 50th Anniversary.
July 1, 1976 C. Richard Cadigan becomes Wooster's third Headmaster.
May 14, 1977 Tiedemann Field is dedicated to the memory of Charlie Tiedemann '42.
Fall, 1977 Eunice Grover, Secretary to the Alumni Secretary, husband Joe Grover, becomes the first staff/faculty member to take a Wooster course-computer programming.
September 7, 1977 April Liljeback begins work as Wooster's first full time bookkeeper.
January, 1978 Wooster completes a multi-cultural and multi-racial educational evaluation, a pilot project of NAIS.
Spring, 1978 Streakers interrupt Talent Show, Don Quixote Day sponsored by 5th Form Council, First Annual Wooster School Egg-Drop Contest
April 19, 1978 R. Lee Waterman dies. Mr. Waterman was president of the Wooster Board of Trustees from 1954-1973. He was also president of Corning Glass Works and the father of George Waterman '54. Mr. Waterman served on the Wooster Board for 25 years, and, during that time, the School never bought a dish, cup, saucer, serving bowl, or platter - he supplied them all. He also donated most of the money for Whipple Science Building insisting it be named for Dr. Whipple, President of Wooster's Board of Trustees when Aaron Coburn died and John Verdery became the second Headmaster.
May 27, 1978 Alumni Day - Football field was named "Hobart Warner Field" in honor of long time teacher/coach. A plaque bearing the name and forged by Art Center Director Roger Prince, was mounted on a stone at the edge of the field.
September, 1978 Mickie Kahn, mother of Robin '73, Wooster's first female student, becomes associate librarian.
March 22, 1979 C. Richard Cadigan resigns as Headmaster, afffective July 1, 1979.
July 1, 1979 H. Korb Eynon becomes Acting Headmaster.
September 8, 1979 Maggie Jones is appointed Head Nurse.
May, 1979 Lisa Berglund '79 writes in the Anonymous, Wooster's newspaper, "Wooster students are trained to eat ten times faster than the average human being." Nothing has changed in 25 years.
January 17, 1980 Board of Trustees elects H. Korb Eynon as Wooster's fourth Headmaster effective July 1, 1980.
March 29, 1980 Robert Lee Tate, Wooster's chaplain, is ordained an Episcopal priest in the James Marshall Chapel.
March 7, 1981 Girls' Varsity Basketball Team beats Westover to become Wooster's first undefeated girls' team in the School's history. They end the season with a 15-0 record.
September, 1981 Janice "Missy"Van Syckle '76, becomes Assistant Director of Admissions and the first female graduate to return to Wooster to work.
September, 1981 The grading system changes from a 4 grade system of Honors, High Pass, Pass, Fail to a 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 system. The new system is deemed more exact; 4.5 and above were considered honors work.
September, 1982 G. Peter O'Neill becomes Director of Admissions (from Assistant Headmaster of Marvelwood School in Cornwall, CT).
1983 Boys' Lacrosse begins at Wooster.
September, 1983 "The Year in Spain" is inaugurated for Wooster 10th graders.
September 7, 1984 General News, the student newspaper, made its debut : it revived the name of the original Wooster paper, the Wooster General.
October 21, 1984 John Cheeseman and Vivien Brown are wed by John D. Verdery.
January 8, 1985 H. Korb Eynon resigns as Wooster's fourth Headmaster.
July 1, 1985 The Board of Trustees elects G. Peter O'Neill Wooster's fifth Headmaster. Peter had served as Director of Admissions from September 1982 to July 1985.
July 16, 1985 John D. Verdery dies.
Fall, 1989 Sixth Grade is added to the Middle School.
1990 Boarding program is eliminated.
July 1, 1990 Beth Kukla is hired as Lower School Coordinator to begin the process of establishing a Lower School at Wooster.
1991 John D. Verdery Library is opened.
October 19, 1991 E. John Effinger becomes Wooster's sixth Headmaster.
September 3, 1991 The Lower School opens with a Kindergarten, and a combined Grades 1-and-2; 32 children comprise the student body taught by Lois McCormick in Kindergarten, and Nancy Craig, in the First/Second Grade.
Fall, 1992 Grades 3, 4, and 5 are added to the Lower School.
April 24, 1992 7th Grade students Noah Coburn (son of Michael '67, grandson of John '31, and great grandson of the founder), Eric Apt-Dudfield, and Nelson Tamakloe complete the Tuna Tower in the Honor Room. The Tower consisted of 6500 cans of tuna which the three had collected, enough to feed the hungry of Danbury for one year. The cans were donated to Dorothy Day Hospitality House, Danbury's shelter for the homeless.
June, 1995 E. John Effinger resigns as Wooster's sixth Headmaster.
July, 1995 John B. Cheeseman '57 is appointed Acting Headmaster by the Board of Trustees.
January 5, 1996 Wellington Cottage former East Cottage is dedicated in honor of Bradley '94, Abigail '96, and Benjamin '98, through the generosity of their father Cary Wellington, as the new home of the Middle School. The Middle School moved to Wellington Cottage in September 1995.
October 15, 1996 The Board of Trustees appoints John B. Cheeseman '57 Wooster's seventh Headmaster - the first graduate to serve as Headmaster.
November 4, 2000 Wooster celebrates its 75th Anniversary. Neal Rudenstine '52, President of Harvard University and Thomas Wilcox '66, Headmaster of Concord Academy, return to campus to speak at the gala celebration. Benjamin Verdery '74 performed on the guitar in the James Marshall Chapel. The 25th Alumni Award is presented to Thomas Elliott Wilcox '66.
September 10, 2001 Wooster newspaper reinvents itself as The General: Student Voice of Wooster.
Friday, September 14, 2001 Jazz tenor saxophonist, Jimmy Heath opens the Wooster Jazz Series in the Schwartz Reception Center. Heath closes the first set with a duet performed with Jeb Patten on piano, of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." At the end of the concert, Wooster presents Heath with a candle-filled birthday cake to celebrate his 75th birthday.
January 9, 2002 John Cheeseman '57 announces his retirement from the position of Headmaster effective June 30, 2003.
March 21, 2002 Wooster's Madrigals perform at Carnegie Hall.
November 18, 2002 Board of Trustees announces the appointment of George N. King, Jr. to the position of Headmaster.
January 11, 2003 Forever Young Gymnasium is dedicated and celebrated with a faculty vs. parent basketball game following the Boys' and Girls' Varsity games in the new gym. Former San Francisco 49er quarterback, Steve Young, founder of the Forever Young Foundation, and ex-Boston Celtic, Danny Ainge, played with the two teams.
June 30, 2003 John Cheeseman '57 retires from the position of Headmaster. The Board of Trustees appoints him Headmaster Emeritus.
September 4, 2003 George N. King, Jr. is officially installed as the eighth headmaster of Wooster School at Convocation/Installation ceremonies.
September 2, 2004 Wooster's new Middle School building opens for use.
July 1, 2007 Timothy B. Golding is appointed as the ninth Headmaster of Wooster School.
