Hawken School is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory day school in

Northeast Ohio Northeast Ohio is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that comprises the northeastern counties of the U.S. state of Ohio. Definitions of the region consist of 16 to 23 counties between the southern shore of Lake Erie and the foothills ...

. Hawken currently has two main campuses, the Lower and Middle Schools in Lyndhurst and the Upper School in Chester Township, plus a third, an urban campus in

University Circle University Circle is a district in the neighborhood of University on the East Side of Cleveland, Ohio. It is home to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance Hall (home to the Cleveland Orchestra), the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Cleveland ...

, The Sally & Bob Gries Center for Experiential and Service Learning, which is utilized by all grade levels. Hawken's motto is quoted from

John Lancaster Spalding John Lancaster Spalding (June 2, 1840 – August 25, 1916) was an American Catholic author, poet, advocate for higher education, the first Bishop of Peoria from 1877 to 1908. He was also a co-founder of The Catholic University of America. Biogra ...

's ''Education and the Higher Life'': "That the better self shall prevail, and each generation introduce its successor to a higher plane of life"; although a sign with the secondary motto, "Fair Play," hangs in every classroom on either campus. A new middle school complex at the Lyndhurst campus was built for the 2006–07 school year. Construction on the Gates Mills campus finished in 2016, marking the opening of Stirn Hall. D. Scott Looney is the current Head of School, having assumed the position on July 1, 2006.Hawken School. "Meet the Head of School." Hawken School. Accessed January 20, 2012. https://www.hawken.edu/headofschool.

History

The school's founder and namesake, James A. Hawken, opened his school for boys in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

's Hough neighborhood in 1915.Hawken School. "History." Hawken School. Accessed November 25, 2012. http://www.hawken.edu/history?rc=0. First housed at 1572 Ansel Road, the school later moved to 1588 Ansel Road, shortly before relocating to its current Lyndhurst campus in 1922. Because James Hawken believed in one-on-one education for the boys at his school, the original building on the Lyndhurst campus, now containing part of the middle school, has many rooms designed to seat between eight and ten boys."Chapel Grappel." Chapel Grapple. Hawken School, Cleveland. 2011. Speech. Later, in 1961, the school added a 325-acre high school campus in Chester Township, housing formerly grades 10 through 12, and now also grade 9. The school became coed in 1975. In the fall of 2006, Lincoln Hall was added on to the Middle School, adding much-needed classroom space. In the fall of 2009, Hawken commenced a tablet computer program for grade 6 which later spread throughout the middle and high schools. The Sally & Bob Gries Center for Experiential and Service Learning (also called The Gries Center), located in

, opened on August 29, 2010. In the summer of 2011, the

preschool A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an school, educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they ...

underwent a renovation. Additionally, due to increased enrollment, the school has renovated the lower school building, adding 5,540 square feet of space into the 2nd and 3rd grade area, as well renovating 8,125 square feet of space. Changes included the addition of a new classroom to the

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

and

1st grade First grade (also 1st Grade or Grade 1) is the first year of formal or compulsory education. It is the first year of elementary school, and the first school year after kindergarten. Children in first grade are usually 6–7 years old. Examples ...

s; renovations to the performing arts classrooms as well as the addition of a fourth classroom; relocation and remodeling of a science classroom; restoration of the main lobby and exterior remodeling. The new Hurwitz Hall's construction finished in August 2013.Hawken School. "Announcing Hurwitz Hall." Hawken School. Accessed May 10, 2013. https://www.hawken.edu/LYproject. In late 2013, Hawken announced plans for a $24.5m renovation of the Gates Mills campus, Stirn Hall. Designed by architectural firm Westlake, Reed, Leskosky, the project would bring the academic complex to 106,000 square feet. This project finished in the fall of 2016, with the grand opening on August 20–21. Hawken has long-standing rivalries with the three other founding members of the

Cleveland Council of Independent Schools The Cleveland Council of Independent Schools (CCIS) is a consortium of independent schools in Northeast Ohio, United States. CCIS was incorporated in 1967 after several years of periodic meetings of the trustees and heads of four east side inde ...

Laurel School Laurel School is a private school for girls in Shaker Heights, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1896 by Jennie Prentiss and operates on two campuses; the Lyman Campus in Shaker Heights and the Butler Campus in Novelty. Notable alumn ...

Hathaway Brown School Hathaway Brown, commonly referred to as HB, is an all-girls private school located in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The school serves pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students. Hathaway Brown is a member of the National Coalition of Girls' Schoo ...

, and

University School University School, commonly referred to as US, is an all-boys, private, Junior Kindergarten–12 school with two campus locations in the Greater Cleveland area of Ohio. The campus located in Shaker Heights serves junior kindergarten through ...

. Hawken serves as the only ceoeducational school from the founding members.

Athletics

Ohio High School Athletic Association State Championships

* Girls

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

- 2013 * Girls Track - 1999, 2000 * Girls

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

- 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 * Boys

- 1988, 1989, 2017, 2021 * Boys

- 1977, 1978 * Boys

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

– 2000

Accreditation and membership

*Accredited,

Independent Schools Association of the Central States Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

*Accredited, Ohio State Board of Education *Member,

National Association for College Admission Counseling National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

*Member,

National Association of Independent Schools The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) is a U.S.-based membership organization for private, nonprofit, K-12 schools. Founded in 1962, NAIS represents independent schools and associations in the United States, including day, board ...

*Member, Ohio Association for College Admission Counseling *Member,

College Board The College Board, styled as CollegeBoard, is an American not-for-profit organization that was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an asso ...

Notable alumni

* Sonia Aggarwal, 2002, policy advisor *

William Bayer William Bayer (pronounced “byer”) is an American novelist, the author of twenty-one books including ''The New York Times'' best-sellers ''Switch'' and ''Pattern Crimes.'' Bayer has written a series of novels featuring fictional New York Polic ...

, 1953, Edgar Award-winning crime fiction writer *

Charles B. Bolton Charles Bingham Bolton (1909–1976) was an American dentist known for developing the "Bolton Standards of Craniofacial Growth" that is often used during diagnosis of different malocclusions in the field of orthodontics. Life He was son of the ...

, 1927, dentist * G. Armour Craig, American academic and president of

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...

William Daroff William C. Daroff (born 1968) is the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Childhood Daroff was born in Miami Beach, Florida, where his father, neuro-ophthalmology pioneer Robert B. Daroff, M.D., was a ...

, 1986, chief executive officer of the

Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (CoP; commonly Presidents' Conference) is the umbrella organization for the American Jewish community. Comprising 53 national Jewish organizations across the political spectrum, ...

* Steven M. Dettelbach, 1984,

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

for the Northern District of Ohio *

Kenyon Farrow Kenyon Farrow (born November 13, 1974) is an American writer, activist, director, and educator focused on progressive racial and economic justice issues related to the LGBT, LGBTQ community. He served as the executive director of Queers for Econ ...

, 1993, award-winning writer, journalist, and social justice activist * Alexis Floyd, actress, best known for role of Neff in

Inventing Anna ''Inventing Anna'' is an American drama television miniseries created by Shonda Rhimes, inspired by the story of Anna Sorokin and the article in ''New York'' titled "How Anna Delvey Tricked New York's Party People" by Jessica Pressler. It was ...

, Netflix series *

A. Marc Gillinov A. Marc Gillinov is an American cardiac surgeon at The Cleveland Clinic, where he is Chair of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. He did his undergraduate work at Yale University and obtained his medical degree from The Johns Ho ...

, 1980, heart surgeon at

Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Academic health science center, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an O ...

, Judith Dion Pyle Chair in Heart Valve Research at Cleveland Clinic *

Richard J. Green __NOTOC__ Richard J. Green (born 1964, Boston, Massachusetts) is an American chemist known for his work against the claims of Holocaust deniers. He is a member of The Holocaust History Project. He was raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a ...

, 1983, American chemist known for his work against

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

denial *

Peter Harrold Peter Jacob Harrold (born June 8, 1983) is a retired American professional ice hockey defenseman who played in the NHL with the Los Angeles Kings and New Jersey Devils. Playing career Harrold was raised in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, where h ...

, 2002, professional ice hockey player in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

Scott Healy Scott Healy is an American pianist, keyboardist and composer best known as the keyboardist for Conan O'Brien. He was the keyboard player for the Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band on ''Conan (talk show), Conan'' on TBS (U.S. TV channel), TBS. H ...

, 1978, keyboardist for

The Max Weinberg 7 Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band was the house band for Conan O'Brien's late-night talk show '' Conan'' from its debut on November 8, 2010 to the final episode of its 60-minute format October 4, 2018. Guitarist and arranger Jimmy Vivino is th ...

* Roberta A. Kaplan, 1984, lawyer *

Arthur Laffer Arthur Betz Laffer (; born August 14, 1940) is an American Economics, economist and author who first gained prominence during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, Reagan administration as a member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board (1981–19 ...

, 1955, economist *

Todd Lieberman Todd Darren Lieberman (born February 20, 1973) is an American film and television producer. He founded Hidden Pictures Media in 2022 and won an Emmy for ''Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers'' in the same year. He co-founded Mandeville Films and Telev ...

, 1991, award-winning producer * Jim Margolis, 1989, Emmy Award-winning producer * O.J. McDuffie, 1988, professional football player in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

Mark Moyar Mark A. Moyar (born May 12, 1971) is the former Director of the Office for Civilian-Military Cooperation at the US Agency for International Development, a political appointment he received during the Trump administration. He currently serves as t ...

, 1989, military historian, professor, former USAID official, author of (inter alia) ''Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965'' (2006) * Alan B. McElroy, 1978, screenwriter *

Nick Minchin Nicholas Hugh Minchin (born 15 April 1953) is an Australian former politician and former Australian Consul-General in New York. He previously served as a Liberal member of the Australian Senate representing South Australia from July 1993 to J ...

, 1971,

Australian Senator The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The powers, role and composition of the Senate are set out in Chapter I of the federal constitution as well as feder ...

and Minister for Finance and Administration *

Molly Shannon Molly Shannon (born September 16, 1964) is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1995 to 2001. In 2017, she won the Film Independent Spirit Award for playing Joanne ...

, 1983, actress * Justine Siegal, baseball coach. *

Melanie Valerio Melanie M. Valerio (born May 7, 1969) is an American former competition swimmer and Olympic gold medalist. Valerio was born in Campbell, Ohio and graduated from the Hawken School in Gates Mills, Ohio. Afterward, she attended the University of ...

, 1987, 1996 Olympic gold medalist in swimming *

Nico Walker Nicholas Walker (born April 19, 1985) is an American author and United States Army veteran who served time in prison for bank robbery. His semi-autobiographical debut novel, ''Cherry (novel), Cherry'', was published by Alfred A. Knopf on August ...

, 2003, best-selling author and bank robber *

Evan Wright Evan Alan Wright (December 12, 1964 – July 12, 2024) was an American writer, known for his reporting on subcultures for ''Rolling Stone'' and '' Vanity Fair''. He was best known for his book on the Iraq War, '' Generation Kill'' (2004). He als ...

, 1983, writer for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' and '' Vanity Fair''

References

External links

Official site
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1915 Independent School Association of the Central States Preparatory schools in Ohio High schools in Cuyahoga County, Ohio High schools in Geauga County, Ohio Private K–12 schools in Ohio Private high schools in Ohio Private middle schools in Ohio Private elementary schools in Ohio 1915 establishments in Ohio