The Webb Schools

Coordinates: 34°7′31″N 117°44′22″W / 34.12528°N 117.73944°W / 34.12528; -117.73944
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Webb Schools
Claremont, CA 91711
United States

Coordinates34°7′31″N 117°44′22″W / 34.12528°N 117.73944°W / 34.12528; -117.73944
Information
TypePrivate
MottoWSC: Principes non Homines ("Leaders, not Ordinary Men")
VWS: Sapientia Amicitia Atque Honor ("Wisdom, Friendship, and Honor")
EstablishedWSC: 1922
VWS: 1981
DeanWSC: Rick Duque
VWS: Sarah Lantz
Head of schoolTaylor B. Stockdale
Faculty58
Grades9–12
Enrollment410 (2019-2020)
Average class size16
Campus size150 acres (61 ha)
Color(s)Blue and gold
Blue and white
Athletics44 teams in 15 sports
Athletics conferenceSan Joaquin League of the California Interscholastic Federation
MascotGauls
AccreditationsWestern Association of Schools and Colleges
SchoolsWebb School of California
Vivian Webb School
Websitewebb.org

The Webb Schools is the collective name for two private schools for grades 9–12, founded by Thompson Webb, located in

is a part of The Webb Schools.

The schools share a campus of approximately 150 acres (610,000 m2) in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. In 2018, Webb purchased undeveloped land next to the existing campus and will now preserve the hillside and create a buffer between the campus and suburban development. There are 410 students and 57 faculty members, of which 25% hold doctorates, 80% hold advanced degrees and 74% live on campus (as of the 2018-2019 school year).[2] Annual tuition (as of the 2023-2024 school year) is $76,985 for boarding students and $54,750 for day students, including meals, books, and fees.[3] For the 2019–20 school year, Webb offered $5.5 million in need-based aid to 35 percent of the families, with awards ranging from several thousand dollars to nearly the full cost of tuition.

The majority of ninth- and tenth-grade classes are taught in a single-sex environment. Co-educational courses are introduced to upperclassmen.[4]

The official student newspaper of The Webb Schools is the Webb Canyon Chronicle.[5]

History

The Webb School's founder, Thompson Webb, was born in 1887 as the youngest of eight children. His father,

Webb School in Tennessee in 1870.[6]

Webb Baseball Team 1927
Webb Track Team 1927


Campus

Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology

The exterior of the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology located on The Webb Schools campus, Claremont, CA.

Webb is the only high school in the United States with a nationally accredited museum,[7] and the only high school in the world with a paleontology museum on campus.[8] The Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology is named for long-time Webb science teacher Raymond M. Alf (1905–1999). In the late 1930s, Alf and several students found a fossil skull in the Mojave Desert in the Barstow area. This discovery of a new species of Miocene-age peccary, Dyseohyus fricki,[8][9] inspired additional fossil-hunting trips in the western United States with student groups.

Alf continued his pursuit of paleontology by earning his master's degree from the

fossil animal footprints in the world,[10] and includes the original peccary skull found in 1937. The Alf Museum continues to sponsor paleontology field excursions over the summers and has contributed to the discovery of new species like Gryposaurus monumentensis, in the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. The fossils were removed and identified in collaboration with the University of Utah and the national monument.[11]

The latest in the museum's impressive discoveries includes "Joe," the baby Parasaurolophus.[12] The dinosaur's 75 million-year-old fossilized remains were found by Webb student, Kevin M. Terris, in the summer of 2009. It took three years to completely excavate "Joe" from a ridge deep in the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument in Utah, including a helicopter lift out of the region. This extremely rare and important discovery provides groundbreaking information on how Parasaurolophus grew up.[13]

Vivian Webb Chapel

The Vivian Webb Chapel

Fascinated by

cement mixer and two hired workers, Thompson began making 60-pound (27 kg) adobe bricks. After a year of turning out more than 10,000 mission-style bricks and drying them in the sun on the school's tennis courts, he began building the chapel's foundation in 1938, and laid the chapel's first brick in 1939. He built the walls of the chapel with the help of students, parents, visitors, prospective students and even the governor of Tennessee.[14]

Near completion of the structure, Webb learned that

sculptor Alec Miller was in the United States because of World War II, and lacked the funds to return to his native Scotland. Miller was well known in England because of his carvings for the cathedral at Coventry.[15]

Thomas Jackson Library

The parents of Thomas Jackson donated the Thomas Jackson Library to the school as a memorial to their son, who graduated from Webb in 1930 but died of a heart attack while in his sophomore year at the

Mediterranean style with small balconies on the second floor and a mezzanine balcony around the interior, won an Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects soon after its dedication.[16]

Notable alumni

Related schools

The original Webb School founded by Thompson Webb's father still operates in Tennessee. A son of Thompson and Vivian Webb, Howell Webb, founded the Foothill Country Day School in Claremont in 1954.[26] A nephew, Robert Webb, started the Webb School of Knoxville in Tennessee in 1955.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Webb Schools: Day Applicants". Archived from the original on 2019-06-04. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
  2. ^ Webb website: Just the Facts Archived 2019-06-04 at the Wayback Machine (accessed June 4, 2019)
  3. ^ [url=https://www.webb.org/admission/affording-webb (accessed January 1, 2024)
  4. ^ "Innovative Curriculum at The Webb Schools". The Webb Schools. 2011-03-03. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  5. ^ "Webb Canyon Chronicle – The Student News Site of The Webb Schools". Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  6. ^ The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, "WILLIAM R. "SAWNEY" WEBB[permanent dead link]; McMillin, Laurence, "The Schoolmaker; Sawney Webb and the Bell Buckle Story," Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press (1971)
  7. ^ Los Angeles Times, "Raymond Alf; Teacher at Webb Schools, Founder of Paleontology Museum," October 2, 1999
  8. ^ a b Donald L. Lofgren, Students as Museum Scientists
  9. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
    , 1937.
  10. ^ About the Alf Museum Archived 2007-07-01 at the Wayback Machine, Alf Museum website.
  11. ^ Linnean Society of London, "Toothy dinosaur newest to come out of southern Utah," October 3, 2007
  12. ^ "Joe the Dinosaur". Joe the Dinosaur. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  13. ^ "Joe the Dinosaur". Joe the Dinosaur. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
  14. ^ "Webb website: Vivian Web Chapel". Archived from the original on 2008-12-25. Retrieved 2009-02-13.
  15. ^ "About the Sculptor Archived 2007-06-21 at the Wayback Machine," The Coro, Ulverston, Cumbria, England
  16. ^ Architect DB[permanent dead link], University of Washington
  17. ^ The Webb Schools, [1] Archived 2011-07-28 at the Wayback Machine, March 16, 2010
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Notable Alumni". The Webb Schools. Archived from the original on October 15, 2012. Retrieved April 12, 2012.
  19. ^ "John R. Davis, Jr. '45". The Webb Schools. April 10, 2017. Archived from the original on April 11, 2020. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  20. ^ HR 80 Assembly House Resolution – INTRODUCED Archived 2009-05-31 at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ "Meet Judge Maame Frimpong '93". The Webb Schools. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
  22. ^ "Astros hire Jeff Luhnow as GM". Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  23. ^ John Scalzi, Webb School of California Class of '87 RULEZ!, March 18, 2007
  24. ^ John Scalzi, A Brief Biography of John Scalzi, accessed January 6, 2009
  25. ^ Oral History Project of The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, Transcript of the Videotape-Recorded Interview with James D. Watkins Archived 2007-07-03 at the Wayback Machine, May 11, 2000; Interviewer: Gary Weir.
  26. ^ Foothill Country Day School website

External links