59 Years Into Tomorrow

Read by School Archvist, Mark Wilkerson, HERE.

On October 5, 1966, according to the December 1966 Bulletin, it was An Evening to Remember.

"The theme had been established, tonight we would think of St. Albans and '. . . the heaven above . . . the earth beneath . . . the water under the earth . . .' As the program unfolded, the parameters, boundless as they seemed, shaped the effect."

The evening was a looking backward to the exceptional achievements of four alumni, representative of the achievements of many: Dr. Osborne Bennett Hardison, Jr. (STA 1946), a noted college professor; Dr. Guy Whitman Leadbetter, Jr. (STA 1944), an accomplished surgeon and urologist; Commander Shepherd Martin Jenks (STA 1945), Naval Academy graduate and nuclear Navy submariner; Lieutenant Colonel Michael Lawton Collins (STA 1948), USMA graduate, Air Force test pilot, and Gemini X astronaut (headed for Apollo 11).

It was also a looking forward to the exceptional futures of alumni to come, again standing in place for the many, many more from the intervening decades. Sixth Formers Everard Hall Smith III, future university professor and IT networking pioneer, Dr. James Lofton Snell, future computer science professor and user interface designer, and Dr. Thomas Marshall Brushart, future hand surgery professor and surgeon, joined A Former Travis Taylor Brown, Jr. (STA 1973), future AOL and e-commerce executive.

In a nutshell, there wasn't anywhere, in this world, perhaps the universe, that a St. Albans alumnus couldn't go. To look forward however would require some changes, physical and programmatic. ?Mr. True explained the way.??

“Over the years St. Albans has changed a good deal in a valiant holding action, with pressing demands often met with temporary solutions. Walls were knocked down or erected, as the occasion required, precious inches were added to playing fields and dining room. These expedient measures finally resulted in scattered teaching and administrative facilities and a general loss of efficiency. The exciting announcement of the new Library gift made it possible, for the first time, to plan a completely revised and comprehensive program geared to the educational needs of boys preparing to enter tomorrow’s strange and challenging new world . . . The point I make, of course, is that the change in the world has required—and will go on requiring—change at St. Albans . . . we can no longer consider fantastic the possibility that boys now in school may some day be travelling to other planets or living under water in ocean-bed cities . . . St. Albans boys will see change; they must be prepared for it . . . There is reason to expect that many St. Albans boys will hear their own drummers more clearly—and step to the music more purposefully -- in the inspiration and opportunity they find in the new library, and in the New Program."

So it was fitting for Canon Martin to initiate a new series of class windows, presciently overlooking Senior Circle, that reflected the idea that St. Albans boys would continue to earn great successes, in many endeavours and fields, in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth's waters among other places. This vision would be seen through the multi-colored lenses and perspectives of the Classes of 1967, 1968, and 1969 windows, and after the Little Sanctuary renovation and expansion, they will be seen again, showing the broad arc of the lives of Albanians -- 1967 window, The Heavens Above, 1968 window, The Earth Beneath, 1969 window, The Waters Under The Earth. "We are educating people for life," remarked Canon Martin explaining the windows' theme, and indeed, yesterday and today we were and are, and in the many years and tomorrow's to come, we will.