Pingry School

This article is about the K-12 school in New Jersey. For the secondary school in Massachusetts, see Pingree School.

Coordinates: 40°37′11.9″N 74°34′02″W / 40.619972°N 74.56722°W / 40.619972; -74.56722

The Pingry School

Maxima reverentia pueris debetur
The greatest respect is due to the students.
Location
Basking Ridge and Short Hills, NJ
Information
Type Private Day school
Established 1861
Headmaster Nathaniel E. Conard
Faculty 177 (on FTE basis)[1]
Enrollment 1,027 (as of 2009-10)[1]
Average class size 14 students[2]
Student to teacher ratio 5.8:1[1]
Campus 240 acres (970,000 m²)
Color(s) Blue and White
Athletics 20 varsity sports
Athletics conference Skyland Conference
Mascot Big Blue (bear)
Average SAT scores Middle 50%: 620-730 critical reading, 630-760 math, 630-760 writing[3]
Endowment $86.9 million[4]
Budget $46,084,899[4]
Tuition $29,000 - $35,000[5]
Website pingry.org

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 the Basking Ridge section of Bernards Township. The school was founded in 1861 by Dr. John F. Pingry. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1998.[6]

Pingry's headmaster is Nathaniel E. Conard. The school has an endowment of $86.9 million.[4]

Pingry's 200 full-time faculty have 13 doctorates and half have master's degrees, with an average tenure at Pingry of 13 years.[7] The school also has a student-initiated Honor Code, which dates back to 1925, and requires its students to complete ten hours of community service each school year.

Student body

The school currently enrolls 1,062 students; 257 at Short Hills and 806 at Basking Ridge; 270 in the Middle School and 536 in the Upper School. Students come from 100 area communities in twelve counties and over ninety municipalities in New Jersey.[8]

As of the 2009-10 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,027 students and 177.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 5.8:1.[1]

History

Pingry was founded by Reverend John Francis Pingry, a Presbyterian minister, in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1861 to provide both scholastic training and moral education for boys. The outbreak of the American Civil War that year caused enrollment to dry up at the Pingry Select School for Boys, an academy John Pingry had founded in 1854 in Roseville. After learning that Elizabeth's only professional educator had decided to enlist in the Union Army, John Pingry moved to Elizabeth where he founded the Pingry School.[9] Although Dr. Pingry gave talks on Proverbs and used the Bible for instructional purposes, the school has never been affiliated with any church or denomination. After more than 90 years at its original site, Pingry School moved a few blocks away to the edge of Hillside, New Jersey in 1953.

Early in the 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 250 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.[10] The old campus in Hillside is now used as a campus of Kean University. In 2013, the Martinsville location was renamed to "Basking Ridge" in an effort to make it easier to locate the campus using automated mapping tools.[11]

Since Dr. Pingry's day, there have been 15 headmasters. Currently, Nathaniel E. Conard holds the post, his appointment effective July 1, 2005.

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" (Prov. 1:7), hangs as a sign in the C.B. Newton Library located at the Basking Ridge Campus.

Athletics

The school offers 33 varsity teams, with a total of over 70 teams covering seventh to 12th grade. Many of the school's athletes have been recognized as athletic scholars, and many have gone on to play for college teams. In addition, the school's facilities include 2 full court gymnasiums, a 25 meter indoor pool, a state of the art weight and aerobics room with full-time trainers, athletic training room with full-time staff, full locker rooms for women, men and visiting teams, The Miller Bugliari '52 World Cup Field (which has hosted World Cup practices for the '94 Italian National team, the '02 United States National team, and the '13 Ecuadorian National Team) for soccer and baseball, Parsons Field ( which offers stadium seating, a press-box and a scoreboard with a sound system) for football, lacrosse and track and field events, 212 acres (0.86 km2) total that allow for a cross-country course, 12 tennis courts, and numerous practice fields including the John Taylor Babbitt '07 Memorial Field.

Pingry competes in the Skyland 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.[12] Pingry is also a member of the New Jersey Independent School Athletic Association. Prior to the NJSIAA's 2010 realignment, the school had previously participated in the Colonial Hills Conference which included public and parochial high schools covering Essex County, Morris County and Somerset County in west Central Jersey.[13]

Pingry's soccer program is renowned for its consistency and ability to attract top players, partly due to alumnus Coach Miller Bugliari's reputation and current standing as the second winningest boys' soccer coach in the nation. In 2007 the Men's team climbed to fifth nationally. The 2006 team won the Parochial A State title by beating Christian Brothers Academy, as well as Don Bosco Prep, Delbarton, and Seton Hall Prep along the way. These four teams accounted for each of the previous four years' playoff losses. The girls' soccer team won the 2001 Parochial North A state sectional championship with a 1-0 win vs. Immaculate Heart Academy.[14]

Pingry's fencing program has long been one of the strongest high school programs nationally. Internationally known armorer Ted Li has been Pingry's head coach since 1975. Mr. Li has held many key positions that have allowed him to guide the development of the sport, serving as armourer for multiple United States Fencing Association international teams and NCAA National Championships. Mr. Li was also Chef de Controle and technical advisor for three Olympic Games (Los Angeles 1984, Atlanta 1996, and Sydney 2000) and for multiple World Championships in addition to holding the British Fencing Association's "Master Armourer" certification. Three Pingry fencers were selected in 2000 as Star-Ledger Fencers of the Century. Numerous Pingry fencers have earned district and state championship honors and Pingry teams have won many District titles. Pingry fencing captured the New Jersey state championship in 1989. Pingry fencing has produced at least two Olympians, Lee Shelley and Dan Kellner.

In 2006, the boys' lacrosse team won the Somerset County Championship, the school's third title in four years, by defeating Ridge High School. The team compiled a 17-3 record (best in school history), winning the Waterman Conference title as well as the Non-Public state title against Morristown-Beard School by a score of 6-5. In the Tournament of Champions, they avenged their regular season overtime loss to Hunterdon Central Regional High School by a score of 8-6, but lost to Mountain Lakes High School in the semi-finals. Mountain Lakes went on to lose to the No. 1 ranked team in the nation, Delbarton School, who accounted for Pingry's season opening loss. Following the tournament, Pingry was ranked No. 4 overall by The Star-Ledger, head coach Mike Webster was named Coach of the Year by the same periodical, four members were named to the All-State team and eight members were named to the All-Conference team.

The 2003 field hockey team won the Group I state championship with a 2-1 win over New Egypt High School in the tournament's final match.[15] The 2004 team repeated as Group I champion, defeating New Egypt High School in the tournament final.[16] In the 2005 and 2006 school years, the Pingry school Men's Cross Country team won the Conference Championship as well as the Non Public B state championship. Pingry Girls' Ski Team won the state championships in 2007 and in 2008 after taking second in 2006. Also, both Boys' and Girls' Track and Field won the state championships in 2007. In 2011, the girls' lacrosse team beat Haddonfield by 3 goals (16-13) to take the NJSIAA Group 1 South Jersey state title. They went on to lose by one to Glen Ridge in the NJSIAA Group 1 State Final (8-7).

Pingry's Boys' Swimming team has won eight consecutive NJSIAA Non-Public B state championships in a streak spanning from 2008 to 2015.[17] Pingry also won three state titles from 1995 to 1997. In addition, the team also won four consecutive NJISAA Prep A titles from 2010 to 2013 and won the Somerset Country championships in 2010 and 2012. The perennially successful swimming program has also produced many successful collegiate swimmers, including FINA World Aquatics Championships swimmer and three-time Southeastern Conference 100m breaststroke champion Nic Fink.

The Pingry Middle School squash team won the 2013 Middle School Nationals, after reaching their previous best of sixth place overall in 2012. Pingry won their first two rounds by scores of 5-0 vs. Bala Cynwyd / Welsh Valley and Greenwich Country Day School. In the semifinals, Pingry knocked off second-seeded The Haverford School A team by a score of 3-2. In the finals, the team played Brunswick School, the top-ranked middle school team in the country and defending champion. After winning the first two matches, the team held on to win the championship by a 3-2 margin.[18]

Facilities

Pingry has recently added a middle school building to the Basking Ridge Campus. In early 2007, Forms I and II (grades 7 and 8) moved into the new building. Grade 6 was 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 is used by the community as an assembly area and by the students as a place to gather informally. This new building shares the cafeteria, the library, the arts wing, the tech lab, and the athletic facilities with the upper school.

The Pingry school's Basking Ridge campus used to have a modern-looking turquoise and pink architecture. The turquoise bricks that used to 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. The building has now completed construction, which involved removing the tiles from the clock tower and replacing them with the type of stones used in the making of the new middle school building mentioned previously. This construction project also involved the repair of the roof.

There are places for refreshments and snacks in the main building. The cafeteria is open almost the entire day. The bookstore, recently re-located to the second level, also sells snack food. In addition, students can purchase items such as binders, pens, or even shirts, sweatshirts and other Pingry emblazoned apparel, if needed during the day. The Bookstore is open from 8:00 A.M. until 4:00 P.M. There is a vending machine, which is always open, located next to the Technology Lab on the lower floor.

Sports facilities include the Bristol Gymnasium (competition space), the Hyde & Watson Gymnasium (general purpose), the Beinecke Pool (swimming), a fitness facility (weight room and cardio studio), a multi-sport turf field, tennis courts, an eight-lane track, a football field, a cross country running trail, two baseball diamonds, and numerous fields used for soccer, field hockey, and lacrosse.

Student publications

Accreditation

The Pingry School is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools,[6] the National Association of Independent Schools, the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools[19] and the New Jersey Department of Education. The Pingry School is a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

Notable alumni

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 School Data for Pingry School, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed May 5, 2015.
  2. "The Pingry School". Peterson's.
  3. 2015 Class Profile. The Pingry School.
  4. 1 2 3 2013-2014 Pingry Annual Report on Giving. The Pingry School.
  5. Tuition & Fees
  6. 1 2 The Pingry School, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools. Accessed December 5, 2011.
  7. Quick Facts: Faculty, Pingry School. Accessed June 2, 2011.
  8. The Pingry School's Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, accessed June 15, 2007.
  9. Noonan, Timothy (2012). The Greatest Respect: Pingry at 150 Years. Chapel Hill, NC: Heritage Histories. pp. 2–5. ISBN 978-0-9851585-0-7.
  10. History of The Pingry School, accessed October 12, 2006.
  11. History, Pingry School. Accessed July 9, 2013. "In 2013, the Martinsville Campus made another move...of sorts. We exchanged our former Martinsville P.O. Box mailing address for a numbered street address in Basking Ridge. This change finally made our campus location compatible with satellite navigation services, online mapping sites, and overnight mail delivery requirements."
  12. League Memberships – 2015-2016, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed August 9, 2016.
  13. Home Page, Colonial Hills Conference, backed up by the Internet Archive, as of November 19, 2010. Accessed December 15, 2014.
  14. 2001 Girls' Soccer - Parochial North A, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed May 30, 2007.
  15. 2003 Field Hockey - Semifinals / Group Finals, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed July 29, 2007.
  16. 2004 Field Hockey - Semis/Finals, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed July 29, 2007.
  17. Deakyne, Brian. "Boys' Swimming: No. 6 Pingry secures eighth straight Non-Public B title with win over Gloucester Catholic", NJ Advance Media, February 21, 2015. Accessed May 5, 2015. "Behind a number of impressive performances and dropped times, Pingry, No. 6 in the NJ.com Top 20, defeated Gloucester Catholic, 119-51, to win its eighth consecutive NJSIAA Non-Public B championship at The College of New Jersey."
  18. National Championship for Middle School Squash, Pingry School. Accessed February 20, 2013. "Pingry's club team upset the #1 seed and four-time defending national champions from the Brunswick School to claim this historic win for our squash program. The best finish Pingry previously had in the Middle School National Team Championships was a sixth-place finish in 2012."
  19. List of Member Schools, New Jersey Association of Independent Schools. Accessed August 9, 2016.
  20. http://www.pingry.org/page.cfm?p=302&newsid=683
  21. http://patch.com/new-jersey/warren/warren-teen-to-join-keith-urban-on-awards-show
  22. http://www.pingry.org/page.cfm?p=302&newsid=1032
  23. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/13821585/cleveland-indians-promote-chris-antonetti-mike-chernoff-new-roles
  24. More Personal Look at DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, Government Security News, February 3, 2005.
  25. Staff. "In Memoriam", The Pingry Review, Spring 2007. Accessed July 9, 2013. "'30 - William A. Conway died on March 31, 2006. Although William didn't finish high school and started work as an errand boy on Wall Street,he later began what turned out to be an illustrious banking career."
  26. Staff. "FRANCES ADAMS A FIANCEE; Senior at Connecticut College Will Be Wed to Robert C. Crane", The New York Times, September 29, 1942. Accessed February 12, 2011.
  27. Mark Donohue: Master of the Science of Speed. Accessed June 2, 2011. "Graduates from The Pingry School in 1955 and enters Brown University to study mechanical engineering."
  28. Shtrakhman, Darina. "Prestigious Political Position for Steve Elmendorf ʼ78", The Pingry Record, March 10, 2006. Accessed July 9, 2013. "All you need in order to comprehend Steve Elmendorfʼs political prowess is to enter his name into the NYTimes.com search engine. Over the course of his 20-year career, Elmendorf ʼ78 has worked for such prominent Democrats as Dick Gephardt and presidential candidate John Kerry."
  29. Havsy, Jane. "Morris swimmers dreaming of Olympic glory", Daily Record (Morristown), June 26, 2016. Accessed August 9, 2016. "Nic Fink has been dreaming about swimming in the Olympics since he was a kid growing up in Morristown, watching races on television.... 'It'll be a good race with some good competition,' said Fink, who attended Pingry School and the University of Georgia."
  30. Staff. "MUSIC BEST BETS", Courier-News (New Jersey), December 11, 2003. Accessed February 11, 2011. "Like Emmich and Wayne-raised Fountains of Wayne, Guster also has a connection to Jersey. Vocalist-guitarist Adam Gardner is a 1991 Pingry grad."
  31. Class Notes, The Pingry Review, Summer 2012. Accessed July 9, 2013. "1964... Howard Georgi writes, 'Still teaching physics at Harvard'"
  32. http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/24/hipmunks-ceo-and-founder-adam-goldstein-discusses-its-new-deals-product-and-the-road-ahead/
  33. 1 2 Achievement in the Arts Inaugural awardees, Pingry School. Accessed November 11, 2013. "Jonathan Sarkin '71 - Jonathan Sarkin is a self-taught contemporary American artist.... Miguel Gutierrez '89"
  34. Berger, Meyer. "HOME TOWN ROARS SALUTE TO HALSEY; THE COMMANDER OF THE THIRD FLEET RETURNS TO HIS HOMETOWN IN NEW JERSEY New Pingry Boys Cheer White Horse Atop Cake", The New York Times, November 8, 1945. Accessed February 11, 2011.
  35. Donahue, Chris. "Pingry dedicates", Courier News (New Jersey), May 10, 2003. Accessed February 11, 2011. "The center is named after the late parents of Amos B. Hostetter Jr., who graduated from Pingry in 1954 and his sister Janet Hostetter Wilson."
  36. http://www.pingry.org/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=52
  37. Johnson, Jamie. "Biting the Silver Spoon That Feeds Him, on Film", The New York Times, October 12, 2003. Accessed November 3, 2007. "I was pretty shocked by what some of the other kids had to say, said Mr. Newhouse, who met Mr. Johnson at Pingry, a private school in Martinsville, N.J."
  38. "Commencement 2009" (PDF). The Pingry Record. June 7, 2009. Retrieved December 27, 2013.
  39. Thomas H. Kean Jr. Biography (Prepared by staff of the Eagleton Institute from public sources), accessed November 29, 2006.
  40. 1 2 Staff. "Wayne Kasserman '94", The Pingry Review, Winter 2008.
  41. Frezza, Harry Jr. "Central Jersey's 7 Olympians gear up", Courier News (New Jersey), July 24, 2004. Accessed February 11, 2011. "Fencer Dan Kellner, a Warren Township native and 1994 graduate of The Pingry School in Bernards, will compete in individual and team foil events."
  42. Staff. "The Kellog Family: Continuing the Pingry Tradition", The Pingry Review, Spring 2007, p. 7. "The Rankin/Kellogg connection to Pingry was renewed decades later when John C. Rankin Jr.'s granddaughter, Elizabeth "Betty" Irwin, married James C. Kellogg III, Pingry Class of 1933. Mr. James C. Kellogg III '33 was the first Kellogg to attend Pingry, setting a tradition for years to come."
  43. CV for N. Gregory Mankiw, National Bureau of Economic Research. Accessed June 2, 2011.
  44. Staff. "NEW PINGRY SCHOOL IN JERSEY DEDICATED", The New York Times, February 15, 1953. Accessed February 12, 2011. "Dean Mathey, class of '08, board chairman of the Empire Trust Company of New York."
  45. "Will Retire This Saturday As Head of Public Service", The New York Times, October 17, 1945. Accessed February 12, 2011. "Mr. McCarter was born in Newark on October 20, 1867, and attended Newark Academy and Dr. Pingry's School, Elizabeth, and graduated from Princeton in 1888."
  46. Staff. "R.H. M'Carter Dies; Lawyer Since 1882", The New York Times, May 31, 1941. Accessed February 12, 2011. "He attended the Pingry School and Newark Academy and was graduated from Princeton in 1882."
  47. Wax, Wendy. The Spiderwick Chronicles Official Movie Companion, p. 48. Simon & Schuster, 2008. ISBN 1-4169-5092-3. Accessed June 2, 2011. "Andrew McCarthy is Richard Grace, the dad of Jared, Simon, and Mallory.... Andrew began acting when he was a teenager, performing in plays and musicals at the Pingry School, a prep school in New Jersey."
  48. Scannell's New Jersey's First Citizens and State Guide. 2. J.J. Scannell. 1919. p. 364.
  49. Wilson, Judy. "What Exit?", New Jersey Jewish News, December 20, 2007. Accessed February 12, 2011. "A year later, he was enrolled in the Pingry School in Martinsville. 'I had two friends — the two other Jewish kids in my class. I went from being part of the gang in grade school to feeling like a very peripheral kid with a couple of friends.'"
  50. Ronald C. Rice - West Ward Councilman, Newark, New Jersey. Accessed July 23, 2012. "In 1986, Ron graduated from the Pingry School, consistently ranked in the top 40 of the best secondary schools in the nation and began his matriculation at the American University in Washington, DC where he received his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Political Science and Public Administration in 1990."
  51. Staff. "Dani Shapiro Is Married to Dan Mitchell Storper", The New York Times, August 24, 1981. Accessed February 11, 2011.
  52. Pinsker, Beth. "`Dollhouse' director wary of success: Solondz stays modest despite prizes and praise", The Dallas Morning News, June 22, 1996. Accessed February 12, 2011. "The Pingry prep school in northern New Jersey wasn't kind to him. Neither was Yale. Now, at age 36, he's the poster boy of geek chic - a small man with thinning hair, nasal voice, thick glasses and unfashionable clothes."
  53. Charles August Sulzer, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Accessed February 12, 2011.
  54. Riess, Curt. They were there: the story of World War II and how it came about, p. 655. Ayer Publishing, 1971. ISBN 0-8369-2029-5. Accessed February 27, 2011. "Richard Tregaskis was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on November 28, 1916, and educated at the Pingrie [sic] Day School for Boys, Elizabeth, New Jersey, at Peddie School, Hightston [sic], New Jersey, and at Harvard University."
  55. Staff. "ClassNotes", The Pingry Review, Fall-Winter 2010. Accessed November 11, 2013. "Class of 1990... Although Gillian Vigman makes her living mostly from commercials, she has a recurring role on CBS' The Defenders. You can also see her in small roles in such films as Step Brothers, The Hangover, and Aliens in the Attic.
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