The Roeper School is a private

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 ...

day school with campuses in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

and

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Bloomfield Hills is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit on the Woodward Corridor, Bloomfield Hills is located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, and is ...

, in Greater Detroit, serving students at all levels from

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 ...

through the

12th grade Twelfth Grade (also known as Grade 12, Senior Year, Standard 12, 12th Standard, 12th Class, or Class 12th or Class 12) is the twelfth and final Educational stage, year of Formal education, formal or compulsory education. It is typically the final ...

. It was formerly known as Roeper City and Country School.

History

The Roeper School was founded in 1941 by George and Annemarie Roeper, who were forced to flee

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

Germany. At the time the Roepers fled Europe, Annemarie had been invited by

Anna Freud Anna Freud CBE ( ; ; 3 December 1895 – 9 October 1982) was a British psychoanalyst of Austrian Jewish descent. She was born in Vienna, the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays. She followed the path of her father a ...

to be her protégé and had completed her first year of medical school. Together the Roepers founded the school intending it to be a place that, by teaching personal motivation and encouraging critical thinking skills and analysis, would educate children who would not follow leadership blindly as they believed had happened to many people in

interwar In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

Germany. It was also hoped the children would come to recognize the inherent dignity of every individual and not harbor prejudice. The school first moved to the

Bloomfield Hills Bloomfield Hills is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern suburb of Detroit on the Woodward Corridor, Bloomfield Hills is located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, and is surrounded on most sides by Bloomfi ...

campus () in 1946. It was designated a school for

gifted Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average and is also known as high potential. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming. It is thought to pe ...

children in 1956. In 1965, the Upper School (

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

) program was added. In 1981, the middle and upper schools moved to the former Adams Elementary School in

Birmingham, Michigan Birmingham is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor (M-1 (Michigan highway), M-1). As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 censu ...

, (), thereby creating two campuses. The Capital Campaign fundraising initiative began in the mid-nineties and has provided the school with its largest investment in new facilities, including a new elementary school classroom building that sits adjacent to the new community center that houses the school's first full-size gymnasium, and the lower school's first large choir and band rooms.

Notable alumni

Flavia Colgan Flavia Monteiro Colgan (, born October 18, 1977) is a Brazilian-American Democratic strategist who is an active political contributor on MSNBC and serves as a special correspondent for ''Extra''. She resides in Los Angeles. Family The Colemans ...

, political activist and analyst * Tiffany P. Cunningham, a United States Circuit Judge of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (in case citations, Fed. Cir. or C.A.F.C.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has special appellate jurisdiction over certain categories of cases in the U.S. federa ...

John Marshall Jones John Marshall Jones is an American actor. He is most known for his portrayal of Floyd Henderson on The WB sitcom television series '' Smart Guy''.Elliott, Spencer (March 7, 2020)‘Smart Guy’ dad John Marshall Jones makes many rooms out of one ...

, actor * Sharon LaFraniere (class of 1973), journalist *

Dwayne McDuffie Dwayne Glenn McDuffie (February 20, 1962February 21, 2011) was an American writer of comic books and television. He co-founded the pioneering minority-owned-and-operated comic book company Milestone Media, which focused on underrepresented minori ...

, comic book and animation writer * Richard R. Murray, founder of Equity Schools *

Susan Shapiro Susan Shapiro is the American author of 17 books, including ''The Byline Bible,'' ''Five Men Who Broke My Heart'', ''Only as Good as Your Word'', ''Lighting Up'', ''Speed Shrinking'', and ''What's Never Said,'' and coauthor of ''The Bosnia List' ...

, author and writing teacher * Angela V. Shelton, actress and comedian * Bahni Turpin, actress and audiobook narrator *

Matt Wayne Matt S. Wayne is an American writer of comic books and television. Wayne is probably best known for his work on the animated series '' Niko and the Sword of Light'', '' Cannon Busters'' and '' Ben 10: Omniverse'', and writing and editing comic ...

, television and comic book writer * Kayden Pierre, professional soccer player * Charlie White (class of 2005), Olympic ice dancer *

Mark Zbikowski Mark "Zibo" Joseph Zbikowski (born March 21, 1956) is a former Microsoft Architect and an early computer Hacker culture, hacker. He started working at the company only a few years after its inception, leading efforts in MS-DOS, OS/2, Cairo (operat ...

(class of 1974),

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

programmer, designer of the

DOS executable The DOS MZ executable format is the executable file format used for .EXE files in DOS. The file can be identified by the ASCII string "MZ" (hexadecimal: 4D 5A) at the beginning of the file (the "Magic number (programming), magic number"). "MZ" ...

file format * Daniel Kahn, Yiddish scholar and Klezmer musician.

References

External links

*
Official school history website
{{authority control Gifted education Private high schools in Michigan Schools in Oakland County, Michigan High schools in Oakland County, Michigan Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Preparatory schools in Michigan Educational institutions established in 1941 Private middle schools in Michigan Private elementary schools in Michigan 1941 establishments in Michigan