Strict Private School Prepped Romney to ‘Aim High’ : NPR
Strict Private School Prepped Romney to ‘Aim High’ : NPR
Cranbrook has been coed since the mid-1980s, its overall diversity is quite evident and the dress code is casual. None of that was true when Mitt Romney, class of 1965, was a student there.
“Very traditional school. It was modeled after an English public school, which of course means a private school,” says Mark Hendrickson, one of Romney’s classmates.
It’s a private school in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., one of the wealthiest communities in the country. Hendrickson, who now teaches at a small college in Western Pennsylvania, was there on scholarship. He lived in the same dormitory as Romney.
“The first bell would ring at 7 a.m. There was a bell at 7:10 to make sure you were out of the sack. There was a warning bell at 7:25, and at 7:30, you had to be at your place in the dining hall,” he says.
Ann Arbor attorney Bill Schlecte graduated with Romney in ‘65.
“You lived by the bell … Everybody had to wear coats and ties for breakfast, lunch and dinner, for classes,” he says.
After the school day came extra-curricular activities — sports, intramurals — then coats and ties back on for dinner. After dinner, recalls Ted Lowrie, a retired financial services executive, there was evening study.
“By 9:30, study halls were over. You had half an hour to just grab a snack or sit around and talk with other guys,” he says. “Then 10 o’clock, [for] the underclassmen, lights were out. And then you did it all over again the next day.”
Cranbrook School for Boys was founded in 1927. Its Arts and Crafts-style buildings sit on a beautiful 319-acre campus. Famous graduates include brigadier general and Heisman Trophy-winner Pete Dawkins, Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Micro Systems, writers Michael Kinsley and Ward Just, and Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame.