Harvey School Celebrates 99th Anniversary of Founders Day

Written by Chris Del Campo

The students and staff of The Harvey School gathered Monday for the annual Founders Day celebration, the 99th in the independent school’s illustrious history.

In keeping with tradition, Headmaster Barry Fenstermacher called upon the two youngest members of the student body, one boy and one girl, to cut the cake which would later be served as the dessert at lunch. Getting the cutting honors this year were the youngest girl, sixth-grader Zara Hume and seventh-grader Rion-Mark McClaren, who enjoyed the honor last year as well.

In his remarks to the student body, Headmaster Fenstermacher gave the student body a brief history of how The Harvey School, founded in 1916 in Hawthorne, was forced to move to Katonah in 1959 when New York State employed its right of eminent domain. The headmaster asked the students to consider whether the trustees of the small school of fourth through eighth grades in 1959 could ever have imagined some 55 years later that Harvey would have grown as much as it has.

“I don’t think the trustees could have ever imagined a hockey team‘s stellar season with a player scoring 100 points, or a basketball team celebrating a teammate’s 1000th career point, or a newly formed robotics team qualifying for the state championships, or a marvelous group of upper school students giving an electric performance of Godspell,” said the headmaster, who was making references to the milestones of hockey’s Keith Lambert and basketball’s Ricky Hicks, and the weekend successes of the robotics team and the cast members of the winter musical.

Headmaster Fenstermacher said next year’s Founders Day will be “extra special” as Harvey will be in the midst of a year-round centennial celebration.

Photo: Headmaster Barry Fenstermacher assists Zara Hume and Rion-Mark McClaren, the two youngest students of The Harvey School, in the traditional cutting of the Founders Day cake in celebration of the school’s 99th anniversary. Photo credit: Contributed

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