Math teacher, Ed Douglas, with students

The masters were almost all Ivy League graduates who pushed their students relentlessly in their quest for excellence and high College Board scores. Most graduates in Mr. Taft’s time went on to Yale, and there many became class leaders and Phi Beta Kappa students. Although Taft academics were demanding, they were only part of the whole picture. According to a student at the time, while the classroom atmosphere was “rigorous and unyielding, there existed quite a close and warm relationship out of class between us boys and our masters. Perhaps that was due to the amazingly high ratio of one master for every ten boys. More probably it was fostered by the colorful personalities of the members of the teaching staff which drew young man to them. We knew them well, and they us, and the net result was very good indeed.” Athletics, music, drama, literary and other club activities provided outlets for various extracurricular talents, and an alternative context for student-faculty interaction.

Headmaster Taft himself got to know his charges. Early on he began the long tradition of hosting small groups of boys for Sunday suppers in his living quarters. These evenings provided an informal setting for discussions of “any subject from European politics to the last unpopular rule adopted by the faculty.”

In 1936, after 46 years as headmaster, Horace Dutton Taft retired. Since his inauspicious start at Pelham Manor he had come to be regarded as one of the most revered headmasters in New England. After a year away, he returned to teach his favorite course—Civics—to Taft seniors.