Richardson W. Schell (born 1951 in

Evansville, Illinois Evansville is a village in Randolph County, Illinois, United States, on the banks of the Kaskaskia River. The population was 547 at the 2020 census. Geography Evansville is located at (38.089613, -89.933976). According to the 2010 census, Ev ...

) is an

Episcopal priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

who has served as the headmaster of

Kent School Kent School is a private college-preparatory day and boarding school in Kent, Connecticut. Founded in 1906, it is affiliated with the Episcopal Church. It educates around 520 boys and girls in grades 9–12. Kent was one of the first schools ...

from 1981 until 2020. During his tenure, he was recognized for his leadership during the consolidation of separate boys and girls campuses into one fully

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

school.

Early life

Schell graduated from Kent School in 1969,

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

in 1973 and

Yale Divinity School Yale Divinity School (YDS) is one of the twelve graduate and professional schools of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Congregationalist theological education was the motivation at the founding of Yale, and the professional school has ...

in 1976. He became an ordained Episcopal minister and worked in business upon graduation from Yale.

Kent School

Schell joined the faculty of Kent School in 1980 as the chairman of the Theology Department and the school chaplain. He became headmaster of the school a year later. 1987–92, he led the consolidation of two separate boys and girls campuses into one. He also led multiple expansions of the school. In mid 2019 he announced his retirement as headmaster of Kent School. He officially left in June 2020 at the end of the 2019–20 school year.

Family Guy

In 1999, Schell made national news for his part in attempting—under the banner of Proud Sponsors USA—to dissuade advertisers from running ads during Seth MacFarlane's show, ''Family Guy''. Schell said he watched the show and claimed he started his push against advertisers specifically because of the content. What made the situation unusual was that MacFarlane was a class of '91 graduate of Kent, and MacFarlane's mother was also a former admissions officer for the school who had resigned earlier in the year due to her frustration over the situation. MacFarlane believed that Schell started to advocate against the show due to his assertion that the

Griffin family The Griffin family is a fictional family and main characters in the animated television series ''Family Guy'', and who also appear in ''The Cleveland Show''. The Griffins are a dysfunctional family consisting of the married couple Peter and Loi ...

's last name was intentionally chosen to insult his administrative assistant, Elaine Griffin, and her family. MacFarlane said the name choice was just a coincidence because he wanted to use a common Irish last name for the family. Elaine Griffin had also been a close friend of his parents and he said he had no motive as to why he would want to make fun of her. While Schell had some small-scale success getting advertisers to withdraw from the show, it ultimately did not impact ''Family Guy'' much in the long-term.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schell, Richardson W. 1951 births Living people 20th-century American Episcopal priests Harvard College alumni Heads of American boarding schools Kent School alumni People from Randolph County, Illinois Yale Divinity School alumni 21st-century American Episcopal priests