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It has been suggested that Accelerated Scholars Program be merged into this article or section. () |
| Wentworth Military Academy | |
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| Motto: | Achieve the Honorable |
| Established | 1880 |
| Type: | Military junior college and High School |
| Superintendent: | Captain Basil Read |
| Undergraduates: | 220 students |
| Location | Lexington, MO, USA |
| Campus: | 137 acres (0.6 km²) |
| Mascot: | Red Dragon |
| Website: | http://www.wma1880.org |
Wentworth Military Academy and College is a Military junior college and private four-year college preparatory high school in Lexington, Missouri. Wentworth is nationally known for preparing young men and women for successful civilian and military careers. It is one of five Military Junior Colleges in the United States. Wentworth is the oldest military school west of the Mississippi River, and the campus is on the National Register of Historic Places. Among the programs that Wentworth offers is the Army's two-year Early Commissioning Program (ECP), an Army Reserve Officers Training Corps program through which qualified students can earn a commission as a Second Lieutenant after only two years of college. According to its website, Wentworth also has had 100% acceptance into the Air Force Academy over the past 18 years through its Falcon Foundation Scholarship program. Because the high school shares the campus with the junior college, many high school students accelerate their education and gain college credit during their junior and senior years.
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History
Background
Lexington's Civil War Battle of the Hemp Bales was still a recent memory when Stephen G. Wentworth founded Wentworth Military Academy in 1880. By the 1870's, the town had already attained the reputation as the “Athens of the West” for its fine academic institutions. Lexington was home to three outstanding schools for girls. Lexington Baptist Female College was started in 1850 in the old county courthouse that had been abandoned upon the construction of the new Lafayette County Courthouse, built in 1847 and still in use today. In 1869 the Baptist Female College moved its operation to the former home of Pony Express Founder William B. Waddell at the corner of 13th and South Streets. Elizabeth Aull Seminary was opened in the fall of 1860 and operated in a large building on Highland Avenue. Central Female College, later Central College for Women, began in 1868 and, in 1871, took over the old Masonic College on the grounds of the Battlefield. However, Lexington’s educators, business leaders and ministers had made numerous attempts to establish a school for boys and young men. Public schools were not yet widespread and there was a glaring need for a boys' school, but none had been successful. Perhaps the most notable failed effort was the Masonic College of Missouri, which moved to Lexington in 1847 and operated until 1859.
Wentworth Male Academy
On May 12, 1879, Wentworth’s twenty-seven year old son William died. As a memorial, Wentworth focused his attention on finally making a school for boys a reality in Lexington. In the spring of 1880, Mr. Wentworth announced that a new school named Wentworth Male Academy would begin operation in the fall. Mr. Wentworth had a long record of public service to Lexington. A local editorial writer proclaimed that Wentworth was “One of our oldest, most generous and most worthy citizens” and ”no nobler name can this community furnish [the new school].” On May 24, 1880, Mr. Wentworth bought the “New Presbyterian Church” at the southwest corner of 18th and Main Streets, directed that it be fitted up for the next term, and gave the school solid financial backing. Although his financial involvement was limited to the Academy’s early years of operation, his foresight led to the establishment of the first board of trustees and his generosity provided a firm foundation for the school. Wentworth also announced that twenty-two year old Benjamin Lewis Hobson, the son of the local Presbyterian minister who had run a fledgling private boys’ school in town the previous year, would be given charge of W.M.A. Young Hobson had graduated from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky with a degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1877, and had spent the next two years as teacher and then principal of Spencer Institute in Taylorsville, Kentucky. In the summer of 1879, he had returned to his hometown of Lexington and started Hobson’s Select School for Boys. Benjamin Hobson knew that he could not operate the new school alone, and he turned to Sandford Sellers, a twenty-six year-old friend and former classmate at Centre College in Kentucky. Sellers eagerly accepted Hobson’s invitation to join him as co-principal at Wentworth Male Academy. When Hobson left to pursue a career in the ministry at the end of the 1880-81 school year, Sellers took full charge of the academy.
Wentworth Military Academy
Sandford Sellers became the force who forged Wentworth’s national reputation, and his hand would ably guide the school for the next 58 years. In the early days, he handled all the institution’s administrative affairs, academic planning, and student recruitment on his own, canvassing surrounding areas on horseback. In 1882, formal military training was established, and Sellers hired Captain David W. Fleet, a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, as the first Commandant. Fleet brought VMI terms such as "rats", "rears", and "Old Boys" to the school, all still familiar to cadets today. The school officially changed its name to Wentworth Military Academy in 1890. Sellers' skills as educator, administrator, businessman, and promoter saw the institution through its remarkable first half-century, and his vision is still evident today. He led the school through economic panics of the 1890’s, when he struggled to keep enrollment above 100, and through the boom times of World War I, when enrollment more than doubled to over 500 cadets. He also oversaw the addition of the junior college in 1923.
By the mid-1920’s, Sandford Sellers, handed over much of the day-to-day operations of the school to his sons, Sandford Sellers, Jr., superintendent from 1923 to 1933, and James M. Sellers, Commandant and Assistant Superintendent. But Sandford Sellers stayed very involved until his death in 1938 after a fall in the school gymnasium.
From the Great Depression to post-World War II prosperity
When the Great Depression of the 1930s hit the country, Wentworth, like many institutions across the country, struggled to survive. In 1933, Colonel James M. Sellers assumed the superintendency of the school and was soon joined at the helm by Colonel Lester B. Wikoff, Treasurer and Business Manager. Together, Sellers’ natural leadership and Wikoff’s business acumen would lead the school to new heights. Colonel Sellers and Colonel Wikoff led the school through the lean years of the 1930s and into the prosperity of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. During their term of leadership, Wentworth added a number of buildings to the campus, including the Sellers-Wikoff Scholastic Building, the Memorial Chapel, Sandford Sellers Hall, and the Wikoff Field House. In addition, a unique military aviator training program complete with its own airport was launched to train pilots. A highlight of the Sellers-Wikoff era was President Harry S. Truman's speech to the cadet corps at Wentworth's 75th Anniversary celebration in 1954. In 1960, Sellers retired as Superintendent but remained as President of the school, and Wikoff served as Superintendent from 1960 to 1971. During that time, Wentworth had unparalleled enrollment, averaging over 600 students a year.
Continuity and change in the post-Vietnam era
In 1973, a third generation of the Sellers family assumed leadership of the Academy when Colonel James M. Sellers, Jr., a 1945 Wentworth graduate, was named as Superintendent. In the early 1970s, the school was again faced with crisis. Anti-military backlash from the country’s continued involvement in the Vietnam War, combined with double digit inflation, caused enrollment to plummet. Many military schools across the country simply closed their doors. Wentworth was dealt an additional blow when, in 1975, a fire destroyed two buildings and severely damaged others, causing the loss of over 32,000 square feet (3,000 m²) of space. Despite these setbacks, Colonel J. M. Sellers, Jr., was able to stabilize enrollment by 1978 and lead the Academy through another period of growth. In 1980, Wentworth celebrated its centennial year, with Vice-President Walter Mondale addressing the corps of cadets at commencement. In the early 1980s, enrollment continued to rise, peaking at over 400 cadets in 1984. In 1990, Colonel Sellers, Sr., who taught Latin until he was 95 years old, died, and Colonel Sellers, Jr., resigned as superintendent, ending a remarkable 110 years of the Sellers family’s continuous involvement in the operation of the Academy.
Modern expansion
In the 1990s, Wentworth regrouped. Female cadets were admitted for the first time in 1993, and today they make up about twenty-five percent of the corps. In 2002, Major General John H. Little, Wentworth Class of 1961, returned to campus as Superintendent. Under his stewardship, a new state-of-the-art barracks, Tillotson Hall, was constructed, and the growth of the Wentworth Foundation put the school on solid financial footing. Wentworth is now in its 128th year and new Superintendent Captain Basil Read (USN ret.) has brought a clear new vision for the future, taking advantage of the fact that Wentworth is one of few schools in the country where a high school shares a campus with a college. Wentworth Junior College has recently begun offering dual enrollment, so high school students, both Wentworth cadets on campus and students at public high schools throughout western Missouri, can earn college credit from Wentworth. Over 95% of Wentworth graduates go on to college. The strength of Wentworth’s academic program is reflected by the fact that over the last twenty-five years, the Academy has sent more than 150 cadets to top twenty colleges, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report, including the Air Force Academy, West Point, the Naval Academy, Harvard and Yale. Thousands more Wentworth students have gone on to earn degrees at private and public colleges and universities throughout the country.
Notable alumni
- Ike Skelton - Congressman, 4th District of Missouri (1977 - present), Ranking Democrat and Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee
- Robert Altman - Academy Award winning Director of classic films such as M*A*S*H (1970), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), The Long Goodbye (1974), Nashville (1975), The Player (1992), Short Cuts (1993), Kansas City (1996), Dr. T & the Women (2000), Gosford Park (2001), The Company (2003), and A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
- James "Bud" Walton - Co-founder of Wal-Mart
- Marlin Perkins - host of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom
- Charles H. Price II - former United States Ambassador to Belgium (1981-1983) and United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1983-1989); appointed by President Ronald Reagan
- Lewis Hill - co-founder of Pacifica Radio, the first public radio station in the U.S.
- Eddie Chiles - Founder of the Western Company of North America and owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team
- Newell A. George - Congressman
- William C. Schwartz - Physicist, LASER pioneer, and founder of International LASER Systems
- James K. Gaylord - Developer of the Gaylord Gladiator automobile, Music Producer
- Don D. Cadle - Rhodes Scholar, Director of Resources Programming for the NASA Apollo program, member of the Georgetown University Athletic Hall of Fame, Treasurer and CFO of Chase Manhattan Bank.
- Greg Walton - Founder and Chairman, Walton Construction.
- Jack Tillotson - CEO, Modern Handcraft, Inc.
- John Groendyke - Chairman and CEO, Groendyke Transport
- Steve Oliver - Chairman and President, Steve Oliver Dodge, Steve Oliver Auto-Mart
- John Marcus - Chairman and President, College Bookstores of America
- Beals Becker - Major League baseball player
- Med Park - NBA player
- Harry Ice - MVP of 1942 Sugar Bowl, member of University of Missouri's all-century football team
- Edgar J. Ellis - 3 sport letterman at Oklahoma State, baseball captain
- Benjamin F. Hoge - West Point football team captain
- Lt. General Melvin F. Chubb, Jr. - Former Commander of Hanscom Air Force Base
- Major General Clarence L. Tinker - namesake of Tinker Air Force Base
- General William M. Hoge - oversaw construction of the ALCAN Highway and directed capture of the Remagen Bridge in World War II
- Dr. Ovid R. Sellers - internationally known Old Testament scholar and archaeologist
- George B. Turner - Medal of Honor winner, World War II
- William E. Adams - Medal of Honor winner, Vietnam War
Superintendents/Presidents
- Colonel Sandford Sellers, 1880-1906, 1907-1923.
- Colonel William McGuffey Hoge, 1906-1907.
- Colonel Sandford Sellers, Jr., 1923-1933
- Colonel James M. Sellers, 1933-1960.
- Colonel Lester B. Wikoff, 1960-1971.
- Colonel Leon Ungles, 1971-1973.
- Colonel James M. Sellers, Jr., 1973-1990.
- Colonel John Rowland Edwards, 1990-1991.
- Lieutenant General Robert Arter, 1991.
- Brigadier General Gerald Childress, 1991-1994.
- Colonel Jerry E. Brown, 1994-2002.
- Major General John H. Little, 2002-2007.
- Captain Basil Read, 2007-present.
References
- The Story of Wentworth, by Raymond W. Settle, 1950, Spencer Printing Co., Kansas City.
- History of Wentworth Military Academy, by James M. Sellers, Jr., 1984.
- Wentworth Trumpeter, 1893-2007.
- Wentworth Military Academy, 125th Anniversary. Lil Touch Publishing. 2005.
External links
- Wentworth Military Academy is at coordinates Coordinates:
