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Miss Porter's School (MPS) is a private college preparatory school for girls founded in 1843 in Farmington, Connecticut. The school draws students from many of the fifty U.S. states, as well as from abroad. International students comprised 14% in the 2017–2018 year. The average class size was 10 students in 2017. History Early history and Sarah Porter Miss Porter's School was established in 1843 by education reformer Sarah Porter. She was insistent that the school's curriculum include chemistry, physiology, botany, geology, and astronomy in addition to the more traditional subjects taught in girls' schools. Also encouraged were such athletic opportunities as tennis and horseback riding; in 1867 the school formed its own baseball team, the Tunxises, named after the Saukiog tribe who once settled the area on which the school is situated. Mary Dunning Dow (1884–1903) In 1884, Sarah Porter hired her former student, Mary Elizabeth Dunning Dow, with whom she began to share more of her duties as Head of School. From then until her death in 1900, Porter gradually relinquished her control of the school to Dow. Sarah Porter's will named her nephew, Robert Porter Keep, as executor of her estate, of which the school was the most valuable asset. Dow's compensation for her position as sole Head of School was also specified in the will. As executor, Robert Keep began extensive repairs and renovations to the school. While Dow continued to receive a salary as per Porter's will, she became convinced that Keep, in diverting the school's income to pay for construction, was enriching his inheritance with funds that were rightfully hers. The conflict escalated and culminated in Dow's resignation in 1903. She moved to Briarcliff, New York, taking with her as many as 140 students and 16 faculty members, and began Mrs. Dow's School for Girls, which would become Briarcliff Junior College, absorbed in 1977 into Pace University. Elizabeth Hale Keep and Robert Keep (1903–1917) Robert Keep announced in July 1903 that the school would reopen in October 1903 with his wife, Elizabeth Vashti Hale Keep as Head of School, eleven teachers, and between five and sixteen students in attendance. After Keep succumbed to pneumonia and died on July 3, 1904, Elizabeth Keep continued to work at the school. One of her many legacies was a kindergarten for children of employees. Robert Porter Keep, Jr., and Rose Anne Day Keep (1917–1943) When Mrs. Keep died in 1917, leadership of the school passed to her stepson, Robert Porter Keep, Jr., a German teacher at Phillips Academy. From 1917 until the school's centennial celebrations in 1943, he and his wife remained Heads of School at Miss Porter's. Centennial (1943) The school was incorporated as a non-profit institution in 1943, emphasizing its purpose as a college preparatory school rather than a finishing school. Also in 1943, the school ended the tradition of hiring Heads of School from the Porter family, instead selecting Ward L. Johnson and his wife Katharine. Ward L. Johnson and Katharine Johnson (1943–1954) Ward Lamb Johnson had been the headmaster of the Lawrence School for twenty-two years when he and his wife joined the Farmington community in 1943. He retired eleven years later. During their tenure, Leila Dilworth Jones '44 Memorial Library was opened. They also increased faculty housing. The MPS Bulletin stated: "by the early 1950's the scholastic standing of Miss Porter's was among the highest in the country." Hollis S. French and Mary Norris French (1954–1966) Mary Norris (née Frick) French and her husband Hollis Stratton French served as co-principals of the school from 1954 to 1966. Richard W. Davis (1966–1975) In 1966, then headmaster of The Buffalo Seminary Richard W. Davis was selected to be headmaster at Miss Porter's. He was to free the school of its "reputation of being too restrictive and too conservative." His appointment marked the first time in a half-century that the school would be directed by one person instead of a couple. Reflecting on his tenure at the school, Davis recalled, "We no longer required that girls wear head coverings in bad weather. We allowed pants to be worn, neat ones, to classes, but not to the dining room. We gradually dropped the requirement that all meals were 'sit-down,' with assigned seating. The changes did not come all at once, yet each one brought some dissent. Certain faculty members felt that standards were slipping." Warren Smock Hance (1975–1983) Having arrived in Farmington in 1967, also from The Buffalo Seminary (like Davis), Warren 'Skip' Hance quickly took on administrative roles in addition to teaching history. First he was department chair and then director of development. There followed the appointment to be assistant headmaster, and then to be the ninth Head of Miss Porter's School. Rachel Phillips Belash (1983–1992) Immediately prior to her service as Miss Porter's Head of School, Belash had been vice president at First National Bank of Boston. A native of Wales, an accomplished cellist, and holding a Ph.D. in Spanish literature, Belash was inaugurated tenth Head of Miss Porter's School for a term beginning in 1983. She was devoted to renewing single-sex education for girls and spoke widely on the topic, as well as writing for The New York Times. One report called her a "visionary". Marianna Mead O'Brien (1992–1993) In July 1992, Marianna 'Muffin' Mead O'Brien began her term as Head of School, following Belash's abrupt resignation at the end of June, and having served the school in years prior on the board of trustees from 1976 to 1983, and, respectively, as parent to three alumnae. Drawing on her experience of twenty-five years at the Groton School, during which she had "helped start the coeducation program, taught history, tutored reading and was in the human relations and sexuality counseling faculty," O'Brien served a one-year term between the Belash and Ford administrations. M. Burch Tracy Ford (1993–2009) M. Burch Tracy Ford was dean of students at Milton Academy and a residential counselor at the Groton School before coming to Miss Porter's. In 1994, she wrote in a letter to the editor of The New York Times, that “Coed classrooms are the norm, but the norm does not serve girls well; it needs to be challenged and, ultimately, changed. Single-sex education is counterculture, but it's good for girls.” Ford oversaw the launch of The Oprah Winfrey Endowed Scholarship Fund at Miss Porter's, offered through the Oprah Winfrey Foundation. Memorialized in The Boston Globe by her husband and crew coach Brian Ford, “She was determined that Miss Porter's was going to compete on an even level with every school in the country. And she felt that having decent, competitive sports was one element of that.” Katherine Windsor (since 2009) Since 2009, the Head of School has been Katherine Windsor, who draws on her experience running the Center for Talented Youth program at Johns Hopkins University.... Discover the Elizabeth Heiter popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Elizabeth Heiter books.