Worcester Academy is a co-ed private

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

serving grades 6-12. It is the oldest school founded in

, and one of the oldest day-boarding schools in the United States. A

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 ...

preparatory school, it belongs to the National Association of Independent Schools.

Demographics

As of 2018, 451 out of 600, or 68% of the school's students were white, 66 (11%) were Asian, 32 (5%) were Black, and 15 (2.5%) were Hispanic or Latino. The corresponding numbers for the community were 56% white, 8% Asian, 12% black and 21% Hispanic or Latino.

Clubs

In the springs of 2010 and 2011, the We the People club won the Massachusetts championship and traveled to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

to participate in the national championship. In 2011, Worcester Academy's math team won its seventh (and fourth straight) Worcester County Mathematics League championship, its seventh (and sixth straight) state championship, and its fourth New England championship (the third in six years).

Notable alumni

Notable faculty and alumni include: * John Barrett 1883, American diplomat * William H. Bates 1936, U.S. Congressman * H. Jon Benjamin 1984, actor, comedian * Aliyah Boston 2019, first overall pick of the 2023 WNBA Draft * George Boardman the Younger, 1846, missionary * George B. Boomer 1847, Civil War General * Bernard Briskin 1943, businessman, philanthropist * Albert H. Bumstead 1894, Chief Cartographer,

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...

, and inventor of sun compasses * Kimberly Burwick 1993, poet * Ralph A. "Doc" Carroll, 1909, Major League Baseball player,

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, they became the Oakland ...

, 1916 * Edwin W. Clark, 1841, Missionary to

Nagaland Nagaland () is a States and union territories of India, state in the northeast India, north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south, and the Naga Sel ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

* Bill Cooke 1970, National Football League player * Major General Norman Cota 1915, portrayed by actor Robert Mitchum in the 1962 movie classic ''The Longest Day'' * Lou D'Allesandro 1956, educator, coach, and elected official * Jim Davis 1962, chairman, New Balance Athletic Shoe * William Stearns Davis 1896, historian and educator * Dane DiLiegro 2007, actor and professional basketball player * Clarence Dillon 1904, co-founder of

investment bank Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...

Dillon, Read & Co., father of C. Douglas Dillon * John F. Dryden 1857, Founder Prudential Insurance, U.S. Senator * Arthur Duffey 1899, Olympic Sprinter, 1900 Paris * Mark Fidrych 1974, former

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

pitcher * Bernie Friberg 1919, Major League Baseball player * Jim Forbes 1978, multiple Emmy, ALMA, AP and Golden Mic award-winning writer, producer, correspondent and narrator of

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

's '' Behind the Music'' * Major General Hugh J. Gaffey 1916, Patton's Chief of Staff * Robert Gilchrist, 2010, professional basketball player * Willis Goldbeck, 1910, movie producer and writer * Robert Goldwyn, 1948, surgeon and health care advocate * Kaz Grala, 2017, stock car racing driver * Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor 1893, founder and first editor of ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

'' magazine * Herman Gundlach 1931, Harvard football captain,

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lineman, NFL * Bruno Haas 1915,

pitcher and NFL player * Alan Haberman 1947, supermarket executive credited with popularizing the

barcode A barcode or bar code is a method of representing data in a visual, Machine-readable data, machine-readable form. Initially, barcodes represented data by varying the widths, spacings and sizes of parallel lines. These barcodes, now commonly ref ...

* Ned Harkness 1939, college and professional hockey coach * Brian Herosian, 1969, former NFL player with the

Baltimore Colts The Baltimore Colts were a professional American football team that played in Baltimore from 1953 to 1983, when owner Robert Irsay moved the franchise to Indianapolis. The team was named for Baltimore's history of horse breeding and racing. It w ...

and CFL player * Louis Jean Heydt, 1921, stage and movie actor * Arnold Hiatt, 1944, American businessman and election reformer *

Abbie Hoffman Abbot Howard Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponent of the ...

1955, social and political activist in the 1960s * Tom Holland 1962, film director * John Hope 1890, educator and president of Atlanta University * Ernest Martin Hopkins 1896, President of

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

* Frank Reed Horton 1914, founder

Alpha Phi Omega Alpha Phi Omega (), commonly known as APO, but also A-Phi-O and A-Phi-Q, is a national Mixed-sex education, coeducational Service fraternities and sororities, service Fraternities and sororities, fraternity. It is the largest College fraterniti ...

fraternity * Tony Hulman 1920,

Indianapolis Motor Speedway The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a motor racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400, and and formerly the home of the U ...

owner * Lyman Jewett 1840, Baptist missionary who translated the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

into Telugu * Edward Davis Jones 1873, co-founder of

Dow Jones Dow Jones is a combination of the names of business partners Charles Dow and Edward Jones. Dow Jones & Company Dow, Jones and Charles Bergstresser founded Dow Jones & Company in 1882. That company eventually became a subsidiary of News Corp, an ...

* Arthur Kennedy 1932, stage and screen actor * Stephen Knapp 1965, artist *

Stefan Lano Stefan Lano (born 1952) is a composer and music director, currently serving as the music and artistic director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Uruguay. He previously served an extensive career with the Vienna State Opera. Early life and ...

1970, symphonic conductor * Dick Lasse 1954, NFL football player and college coach * Armand LaMontagne 1958, sculptor of prominent athletes *

Andy Lee Andy Lee may refer to: __NOTOC__ Sportspeople * Andy Lee (American football) (born 1982), American football punter * Andy Lee (boxer) (born 1984), Irish boxer * Andy Lee (footballer, born 1982), English footballer for Bradford City * Andy Lee (footb ...

, 1998, actor, singer, and rapper of South Korean band Shinhwa * Doug Leeds 1965, advertising/media executive and Broadway benefactor * Lou Little 1912, college football coach * Andrew Mamedoff,

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...

pilot * John W. Mayhew 1904, All-American football player and coach * Roy McGillicuddy 1915, a.k.a. Roy Mack son of Connie Mack; co-owner of the

* Rep. Jim McGovern 1977, U.S. Congressman * Charles E. Merrill 1904, co-founder of

Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, doing business as Merrill, and previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investm ...

* Alfred Henry Miller, 1923, NFL football player Boston Bulldogs, 1929 * Paul Mitchell, 1968, Major League Baseball pitcher * Robert Munford, 1944, artist * Jim O'Day, politician * Neil Patel, 1987, publisher of '' The Daily Caller'' * Jessica Phillips, 1989, actress * Arthur Pope 1899, Persian art scholar and administrator *

Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became Standard (music), standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway the ...

1909, Broadway composer * Guy H. Preston, 1883, US Army brigadier general * Sidney Hollis Radner, 1937 magician and expert on

Houdini Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known professionally as Harry Houdini ( ), was a Hungarian-American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts. Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in ...

* Joseph Raycroft 1892, college basketball and football coach; considered the "father of intramural athletics" at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

* Frank Rooney 1940, business executive * Donald "Dee" Rowe 1947, basketball coach * Thomas M. Salmon 1982, Vermont State Auditor * John Edward Sawyer 1937, President of Williams College * Canaan Severin 2012, NFL player * Matt Shaw 2020, MLB player * Dennis Shulman 1968, clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, author, rabbi, and Democratic Party nominee for the United States Congress in New Jersey's Fifth Congressional District * Mark Slade 1957, TV actor * Jonathan Starr 1994, financial executive and philanthropist * Charles Starrett 1922, the "Durango Kid" * Robert Waring Stoddard 1924, businessman and benefactor * Ira Stoll 1990, author and former managing editor of ''

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative Online newspaper, news website and former newspaper based in Manhattan, Manhattan, New York. From 2009 to 2021, it operated as an (occasional and erratic) onlin ...

'' * Jacob Stroyer 1872, ex-slave, minister, and author * Prince Nandiyavat Svasti 1927, member of the Thai Royal Family and grandson to King Rama IV (1851–1868), a.k.a.

Mongkut Mongkut (18 October 18041 October 1868) was the fourth Monarchy of Thailand, king of Siam from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama IV. He reigned from 1851 until his death in 1868. The reign of Mongkut was marked by significant modernization ini ...

, the king of Siam depicted in the musical, ''

The King and I ''The King and I'' is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the childr ...

'' * Royal C. Taft 1872, Governor of

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

* Stanley F. Teele 1924, fourth dean of

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

* Eli Thayer 1840, founder of the Oread Institute and the New England Emigrant Aid Company * Webster Thayer 1876, Massachusetts judge, presided over the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti in 1920. * Michael Tien 1968, Deputy,

National People's Congress The National People's Congress (NPC) is the highest organ of state power of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The NPC is the only branch of government in China, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs from the Sta ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and International clothing retailer * Willard Tibbetts 1922, bronze medalist in the 3000 meter race in the 1924 Paris Olympics * William Toomey 1957, gold-medal winning decathlete in the

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Mexico 1968 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico. These were the first Ol ...

Cyril G. Wates Cyril G. Wates (18 July 1883 – 2 February 1946) was an author, mountain climber, and amateur astronomer who lived in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Biography Wates was born in Brixton, England, graduated from Worcester Academy in 1902, and immigrat ...

1902, mountaineer, amateur astronomer, and author * Lawrence Whitney 1911, Olympic athlete * Walt Whittaker 1913, Major League Baseball pitcher * Lewis Wilson 1939, actor In certain instances, student-athletes attend Worcester Academy solely for their senior year, or for a single

postgraduate year A postgraduate (PG) year is an extra year of secondary coursework at a boarding school following high school graduation, but before entering college. It is a gap year option intended for students who either have not applied or were not admitt ...

, to increase their exposure to college coaches or to improve their academic standing. Notable student-athletes include: * David Ball 2003,

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

* Colt Brennan 2003, quarterback for the

University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

, voted third in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy ( ; also known simply as the Heisman) is awarded annually since 1935 to the top player in college football. It is considered the most prestigious award in the sport and is presented by the Heisman Trophy Trust followin ...

Voting * Dick Capp 1961, wide receiver for

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who appeared in Super Bowl II *

Rick Carlisle Richard Preston Carlisle ( ; born October 27, 1959) is an American basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has previously served as head coach of the Detroi ...

1979, former

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player, former coach of the 2011 NBA champion

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, current coach of the

Indiana Pacers The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

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1993, basketball coach and television analyst * Jeff Cross, 1980, former NBA player * Steven Daniels, 2012, former NFL player * Pat Downey 1993, former NFL player * Obinna Ekezie 1995, former NBA player * Chet Gladchuk, Jr. 1969, Director of Athletics

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as United States Secre ...

* Jarrett Jack 2002,

Brooklyn Nets The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Nets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), ...

of the NBA * Aaron Jackson 2005,

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA) ...

of the NBA * Mark Johnson 1986, former Major League Baseball player for the

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, and

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* Jordan Lucas 2012,

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of the NFL,

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Champion * Michael Malone 1989, Head coach

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA), W ...

* Donn Nelson 1982, former

and international basketball coach, current

president of basketball operations; son of former

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), ...

star Don Nelson * Joe Philbin 1980, former head coach of the

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* Sean Ryan 1998, former NFL player * Craig Smith, former NBA player * Tim Welsh 1980, former

Providence College Providence College is a Private university, private Roman Catholic university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1917 by the Dominican Order and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, it offers 47 undergraduate Academic ...

coach and sportscaster * Mike Wilhelm 1986, Assistant Coach,

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Headmasters of Worcester Academy

References

External links

*
Worcester Academy history
{{authority control 1834 establishments in Massachusetts Boarding schools in Massachusetts Co-educational boarding schools Educational institutions established in 1834 High schools in Worcester, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Worcester, Massachusetts Private high schools in Massachusetts Private middle schools in Massachusetts Private preparatory schools in Massachusetts School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts