Middlesex School is excited to announce the celebration of forty years of co-education.
The topic of co-education at Middlesex was officially publicized in 1972 with a letter to alumni announcing that the Board of Trustees would hold a vote in January 1973 on co-educating the school. The Co-education Committee concluded the following:
“The findings of Middlesex’s Coeducation Committee supported by many recent studies made by other schools, philosophically enforce our ever increasing belief that in order to achieve our goals as a secondary boarding school, we should be educating boys and girls together, rather than separately.”
In the fall of 1974 the first female students arrived on campus and would be described as “the most independent and adventurous of all the School’s graduates.” These pioneer women would go on to be the first female graduates in 1976. It did not take long for the women to find their place. Indeed, within two years the School elected Judith Carlhian ’78 as the first female School president and women went on to be contributors in the arts, theatre, and on the athletic fields. Talking about the School’s transition Noni Pratt ’76 said, “everybody wanted to talk about our experience, but we didn’t want to talk about it, we just did!”* What our school is today is the school that these pioneers created, a school where men and women have the resources and opportunities to find their promise.
This incredible evolution of the school is why we encourage alumni, parents, and friends to nominate women who have launched from Middlesex and, inspired by their experience, continue to live their promise every day. We look forward to collecting a group of inspirational women who embody the morals and values of the school. Perhaps these alumnae have taken the road less traveled, or perhaps they have inspired, collaborated, and influenced in the field of public service, medicine, research, entertainment/arts, business, environment, or education. In essence, these are the women whose presence shaped the school during their time on campus and it is these women who continue to influence the world beyond our gates. Your nominations can be sent to John Morrissey, Director of Alumni Relations, at [email protected] or 978-371-6523. Nominations will conclude on January 20, 2016. Please join us to celebrate these nominated women at our panel on forty years of co-education during Alumni Weekend on May 21, 2016 in the Barron Room at 2:30PM.
Middlesex is excited to celebrate this important chapter in our School’s history. With the help of alumni, parents, and friends, we hope to recognize women who influence the world today and therefore, inspire current students as well as young alumni to affect the world tomorrow by living their promise. We hope to see all of you at our Alumni Weekend forty years of co-education celebration panel so that we can adequately reflect, recognize, and commemorate the moment in 1974 when female students first walked through the front gates.
*Historical context taken from Hubert C. Fortmiller, Jr.’s book “Find the Promise: Middlesex School 1901-2001”