Mater Dei is an

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

for boys grades 1 through 8, conducted by

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

laymen In religious organizations, the laity () — individually a layperson, layman or laywoman — consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. ...

, in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region ...

History

Mater Dei was founded in 1960. Founder Robert W. Barros III, who was headmaster until 1985, modelled the school after Saint David's School, an all-boys Catholic school in New York City. It opened with 55 students at a campus on Churchill Road in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...

, but moved to its present location in 1964, having expanded to 172 students. Controversy over allowing women on the school's board of trustees ended with an election in which five men and three women ran for five spots. Once elected,

Edward Bennett Williams Edward Bennett Williams (May 31, 1920 – August 13, 1988) was an American lawyer, businessman, and sports team owner. He received his undergraduate degree from the College of the Holy Cross before studying law at Georgetown University. He worke ...

stepped down in order to give his spot to a woman by default. His son, Edward "Ned" Williams, later became Mater Dei's headmaster.

Demographics

During the 2018–19 school year, Mater Dei's 230 students were 91%

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 6%

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

, 2% Asian, 2%

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

, and 1%

multiracial The term multiracial people refers to people who are mixed with two or more races (human categorization), races and the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicity, ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used ...

. 88% were Catholic.

Notable alumni

Mark Shriver Mark Shriver could refer to: * Mark D. Shriver, American population geneticist. * Mark Kennedy Shriver (born 1964), American politician {{hndis, Shriver, Mark ...

, '78, politician who served in the

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the Maryland General Assembly, legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House ...

and member of the

Kennedy family The Kennedy family () is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from County Wexford, Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P ...

. *

Brett Kavanaugh Brett Michael Kavanaugh (; born February 12, 1965) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since Oct ...

, '79,

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

Justice. * Christopher Jarzynski, physicist who created the

Jarzynski equality The Jarzynski equality (JE) is an equation in statistical mechanics that relates free energy differences between two states and the irreversible work along an ensemble of trajectories joining the same states. It is named after the physicist Chris ...

. * C. J. Kemp, '95, former professional lacrosse player. *

Marcus Mason Marcus Mason (born June 23, 1984) is an American former professional American football, football running back. Marcus has also recently launched (as of April 27th, 2025) a new career into the world of progressive Christian HipHop/Rap music. His s ...

, '99, former

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a 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 Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

player. *

George Huguely The murder of Yeardley Love took place on May 3, 2010, in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. Love, a University of Virginia (UVA) women's lacrosse student-athlete, was found unresponsive in her Charlottesville apartment, and later that da ...

, '02, murderer. *

Markel Starks Anthony Markel Starks II (born February 21, 1991) is an American professional basketball player for ONVO Büyükçekmece of the Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL). Born in Accokeek, Maryland, he played for Georgetown Prep before enrolling at Georgetown ...

, '06, professional basketball player. * Nate Britt, '09, professional basketball player. *

Kris Jenkins Kristopher Rudy-Charles Jenkins (born August 3, 1979) is an American former professional American football, football player who was a defensive tackle for the Carolina Panthers and New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL). He played ...

, '09, professional basketball player known for hitting a buzzer-beating shot to win the 2016 NCAA men's basketball championship for Villanova. * Scotty Washington, '11, NFL player. * Anthony Cowan, '14, basketball player. *

Hunter Dickinson Hunter Ryan Dickinson (born November 25, 2000) is an American basketball player. He played college basketball for the Michigan Wolverines and the Kansas Jayhawks. Dickinson was named a consensus second-team 2021 NCAA Men's Basketball All-America ...

, '16, basketball player.

References

External links

Mater Dei School official website

Mater Dei on Facebook

Mater Dei's profile on Private School Review

Mater Dei's profile
on

GreatSchools GreatSchools is an American national nonprofit organization that provides information about PK-12 schools and education. The website provides ratings and comparison tools based on student growth, college readiness, equity, and test scores for ...

Mater Dei's profile
on

Niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development and growth *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ec ...

{{Boys' schools in DC Private elementary schools in Montgomery County, Maryland Private middle schools in Montgomery County, Maryland Boys' schools in Maryland Catholic schools in Maryland Catholic elementary schools in the United States Catholic middle schools in the United States Educational institutions established in 1960 1960 establishments in Maryland Catholic K–8 schools in the United States