Choate Gets Its Very Own Endowment, and Establishes Its Board of Trustees
By Grace Ann Marrinan ‘08
On October 8, 1930, the Choate School made a significant change in its financial organization that lay the groundwork for the school we know today. Establishing the Board of Trustees and changing the organization of the school from a private corporation to a nonprofit foundation introduced the concept of endowment that is fundamental to the current organization of Choate Rosemary Hall. The St. John family had previously owned the school and all of its assets. In 1930, the St. John’s wanted “to turn the school over to a board of trustees when it was not only cleared of debt but its future stability was guaranteed by an endowment fund.”
The Chapel and Library Foundation fulfilled this necessity for an endowment fund. George St. John established the Chapel and Library Foundation in order to “enable generous friends of the school to make gifts to Choate but not to the private owners.” He also hoped that the establishment of this nonprofit foundation would “establish a permanent organization within the School’s circle of friends to which they could some day safely entrust its future.” In order to fulfill the wish of the St. John family to transfer the ownership of the Choate School to the Chapel and Library Foundation controlled by a board of trustees, the school required an endowment of $1,500,000 to ensure financial stability. George St. John believed that an endowment was “not simply a desirability but an immediate and vital necessity.”
Endowment had become necessary for the Choate School for many reasons. The school had reached an enrollment of five hundred boys, which was a significant increase from the enrollment of fifty boys in 1908, and George St. John believed that any further increase in the size of the school would detract from the personal quality of education at the Choate School. Since George St. John did not want to increase the income of the school through increased enrollment, and he feared that increasing the tuition of the school would transform the Choate School into a “rich man’s school”, endowment was the only solution to the financial problems of the Choate School. Additionally, George St. John stated, “Perhaps, above all, endowment is going to be for every worker at Choate a living proof of how much fathers, mothers, and alumni care.” The school required endowment to provide retirement benefits to its teachers, to give out scholarships to students, to pay for the maintenance of buildings, and to increase the salaries of its faculty. George St. John believed that “as an endowed school Choate will be able to do more effectively for all time the very things it has always sought to do.”
The capital campaign (An Opportunity to Lead) that will be launched in November addresses many of the same goals, as increasing the endowment has been a constant challenge for Choate Rosemary Hall. The current endowment is approximately $235,000,000, and the school hopes to raise around $210,000,000 through the upcoming campaign, nearly doubling the school’s total endowment. The transformation of The Choate School into a nonprofit foundation in 1930 carried with it the institution of endowment, which is a fundamental tenet of the school today.
