Portsmouth Abbey School

Portsmouth Abbey School, formerly known as Portsmouth Priory School, is New England’s co-educational Catholic Benedictine boarding and day school. It is run by the Benedictine Portsmouth Abbey, formerly Portsmouth Priory.

Located a short distance from Newport, Rhode Island, the campus sits on 525 acres bordered by Narragansett Bay and the Carnegie Abbey Club. The school has 350 boarding and day students in grades 9 – 12. Added features of Portsmouth Abbey School are its 41 athletics teams – varsity and junior varsity – diverse community service programs, squash & fitness center, multi-sport synthetic turf field, and its sailing, equestrian and golf facilities.

History

The school and monastery are located on land originally owned by the Freeborn family beginning in the 1650s. The land was later owned by the Anthony family, and in 1778 it was the site of the Battle of Rhode Island during the American Revolution. In 1864 Amos Smith, a Providence financier, built what is now known as the Manor House and created a gentleman's farm on the site with the help of architect Richard Upjohn. After buying the Manor House and surrounding land in 1918, Dom Leonard Sargent of Boston, a convert from the Episcopal Church, founded Portsmouth Priory on October 18, 1918. The priory was founded as, and remains, a house of the English Benedictine Congregation. It is one of only three American houses in the congregation, and maintains a unique connection with sister schools in England, including Ampleforth College and Downside School.

The school was founded as Portsmouth Priory by John Hugh Diman, a Benedictine monk, and a former Episcopalian. Portsmouth was not Diman's first school. In 1896, Diman founded Diman's School for Small Boys - later, St. George's School - in Middletown, Rhode Island. In 1912, aware that St. George's School catered to the sons of more affluent families and eager to provide educational opportunities to working-class students, Diman founded the Diman Vocational School in Fall River, MA. A conversion experience brought Diman to Catholicism and ultimately to the Benedictines who were just beginning a priory in Portsmouth. After joining the Order of Saint Benedict, Diman was again moved to found a school. In 1926, Diman founded the Portsmouth Priory School, which would be redesignated as Portsmouth Abbey School - indicating the increased size of its monastic community - in 1969.

Originally, Portsmouth Priory offered a classical education to boys. Using the British "public" school model, the Priory School employed a form system, and supplemented a student's education with co-curriculuar activities, such as athletics and the arts.

The school's campus is located on more than 525 acres (2.12 km²) on the shores of Narragansett Bay within the Diocese of Providence. Many of the buildings were designed by post-modern architectPietro Belluschi, dean of the architecture and planning school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 2000, a parcel of the school's land was leased to the Carnegie Abbey Club where the student golf team practices and holds its interscholastic golf matches.^[7]

Portsmouth Abbey School today

Today the school, often referred to as "the Abbey," has students from 17 nations and 26 states. Its enrollment totals over 350 students, living in the school's eight residential Houses or commuting from nearby towns.

The school has one full four-year academic merit scholarship for applicants with test scores in the 90th percentile or above. There have been annual scholarships for students with test scores in the 80th percentile or above. Portsmouth Abbey School offers matriculating students numerous opportunities for educational and spiritual enrichment, including the annual Haney Fellowships for rising Sixth Form (senior) students, the Ali Sacco '05 Internship at Children's hospital in Boston, the Rome Humanities Program, the Appalachia Service Trip, the Lourdes Pilgrimage, among other opportunities.

Internet access is available in computer labs and all House libraries. The average size for a class is 12 to 14 students, with a student-teacher ratio of 7 to 1. Activities and clubs include the Appalachia Service Project, The Beacon (the student newspaper), The Raven (the art and literary magazine), Scriptorium (scholarly journal), The Gregorian (yearbook), Model United Nations, New England Math League, Future Problem Solvers, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Community Service Projects, Debate Club, Red Key (campus tour guides), Social Committee, Abbey Road a cappella group, Astronomy Club, Peer Tutors, Pro Deo Orchestra, Student Athletic Advisory Board, Teens Leading Children (TLC), and Student Council. The school also has extensive visual and performing arts offerings, with a fine arts center, a fully equipped photography lab and darkroom, a digital art studio, an art gallery (which alternatively displays traveling exhibits and selected student work), a robust drama program (which produces three plays per year, including the annual musical), a state-of-the-art music tech lab, advanced voice and instrumental offerings, and private music lessons.

The school has a radio station, WJHD 90.7 FM.^[8]

In 2006, the school installed a Vestas V47-660 kW wind turbine, the first such project in Rhode Island,^[9][10][11] to provide forty percent of the school's electricity.

Other green initiatives at Portsmouth Abbey School include the construction of two energy efficient faculty residences in September 2011, "unfolded" on campus by Blu Homes, a company building eco-friendly, prefabricated homes.

In addition, one of Portsmouth Abbey School's girls' residential houses, St. Brigid's, and the newest boys' residential house, St. Martin's, employ a number of conservation features, including recycled wood and low-VOC construction materials; hot-water solar panels; flooring materials from renewable and recycled sources; energy-recovery ventilators; low-flow shower heads and toilets; and high-efficiency/low-emission Viessmann boilers.

Portsmouth Abbey School's security and maintenance departments operate two electric vehicles on campus, and the School's dining services department has successfully implemented a "tray-less" dining program, a composting program, and a partnership with Newport Biodiesel (the School provides the waste cooking oil used by its dining services to Newport Biodiesel for clean-burning alternative fuel).

Each office on campus maintains paper and plastic recycling bins, and the Portsmouth Abbey School Alumni Bulletin, the School's bi-annual magazine, is printed on FSC-certified paper, a product group from well-managed forests and other controlled sources, all to benefit the environment

Athletics

In addition to the Carnegie Abbey Club golf course next door available for use by the faculty and by the golf team, the school's athletic facilities include eight squash courts and a fitness center, a six-lane, all-weather track, a multi-sport synthetic turf field, six tennis courts, an indoor ice hockey rink, two gymnasiums, and multiple outdoor playing fields.

Portsmouth Abbey is a member of the Eastern Independent League and has occasional contests against ISL (Independent School League) schools and other non-league boarding and day schools in New England. The Abbey's rivals include St. George's School and Pomfret School. Teams include a sailing team, golf team, wrestling team, squash team, and track & field teams, and a football team. Equestrian activities are offered at Abbey Club's Equestrian Center adjacent to the School. Portsmouth Abbey School's co-ed varsity sailors were New England champions in 2009, 2010 and 2013; they competed in Nationals in four of the past five years, earning 4th Place nationally in 2013. Recent graduates of the Portsmouth Abbey School Sailing Team have gone on to sail collegiately at notable schools including Brown University, Connecticut College, Villanova University, Dartmouth College, Hobart & William Smith Colleges, St. Mary's College, Georgetown University, College of Charleston and UVM, among others, as well meet with success on the national and international sailing scene, including 2007 graduate Juan Maegli, the Guatemalan 2008 Olympic representative in the Laser class and winner of a Gold Medal at the 2007 Pan-American Games in Hobie-Cats.

Traditions

The school has a number of traditions such as the Raven Cup, a year-long school-spirit competition among the student residential houses; a six-day week with classes on Saturday mornings followed by athletics games; the Headmaster's Run, an annual all-School run through the fall campus; and a required year of Latin language study.

In the center of the School campus is a large quadrangle used exclusively for commencement exercises on which students and faculty are not allowed to walk. This "Holy Lawn" is an unwritten school rule that has no confirmed story of origin, however faculty and prefects have enforced discipline that no one is to be walking across the lawn without permission. Its name likely derives from the lawn's location in front of the Abbey Church of St. Gregory the Great. In 2000, a student film series produced a clip of a student running across the lawn from the perspective of a monastery security camera. The Abbot made a cameo appearance in which he pushed a button that sent a bolt of lighting from the sky, "electrocuting" the student. The clip celebrated the tongue-in-cheek mythology of the lawn's tradition. Although faculty, students and visitors are asked to circumvent the Holy Lawn when traveling through the main quadrangle, the space is used for special occasions, namely commencement.

Notable alumni

• Christopher Buckley, 1970, American political satirist, son of William F. Buckley Jr..
• R. F. Patrick Cronin, 1942, Dean of Faculty of Medicine at McGill University (1972–1977).
• Charlie Day, 1994, writer, actor and an executive producer of the series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
• Jonathan DeFelice, 1965, President Emeritus of Saint Anselm College; founder of the Association of Benedictine Colleges and Universities.
• William A. Dembski, transferred to University of Chicago in 1977 and received an honorary diploma in 1988, mathematician, philosopher, and theologian; proponent of concept of intelligent design.
• E.J. Dionne, 1969, Washington Post columnist and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.
• John Gregory Dunne, 1950, novelist (True Confessions; The Red, White and Blue; Playland), screenwriter (A Star Is Born, co-authored with his wife, writer Joan Didion), and literary critic.
• Michael Egan, 1944, former U. S. Associate Attorney General (Carter Administration); former Georgia state senator; member of Georgia House of Representatives
• Phil English, 1974, U.S. Representative (R-PA) 3rd District, 1995–2009.
• Benedict Fitzgerald, 1967, an American screenwriter who co-wrote the screenplay for The Passion of the Christ with Mel Gibson.
• Peter Fitzgerald, 1978, U.S. Senator (R-IL), 1999–2005.
• Peter M. Flanigan, 1941, founder of Student Sponsor Partnership; financier; deputy campaign manager (1968) and assistant to President Richard M. Nixon.
• Timothy Flanigan, 1975, member of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Rhode Island and The Miriam Hospitals and Brown University Medical School; deacon of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Robert F. Kennedy, attended but did not graduate, U.S. Senator from New York, 65th U.S. Attorney General, brother of President John F. Kennedy.
• Edward M. Kennedy, attended but did not graduate, U.S. Senator (D-MA) 1962–2009. Younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy.
• John Kerr, 1967, author (A Most Dangerous Method) and editor.
• Michael Kolowich, 1970, documentary filmmaker and Internet entrepreneur.
• Alvin Lucier, 1949, composer of experimental music and sound installations.
• Michael J. Mauboussin, 1982, head of global financial strategies at Credit Suisse; author of three books; adjunct professor of finance, Columbia Business School.
• Bishop William J. McCormack, 1941, former auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York (1987); former director of The Society of Propagation of the Faith (1990)
• Alfonso A. Ossorio, 1934, Philippine-born abstract expressionist who worked closely with Jean Dubuffet and Jackson Pollock.
• John E. Pepper, Jr., 1956, former CEO and chairman of the executive committee of the Board of Directors of The Procter & Gamble Company and director of The Walt Disney Company; Vice President of finance and administration at Yale; senior fellow of the Yale Corporation.
• William Ruckelshaus, 1951, first Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, later became FBI Director and U.S. Deputy Attorney General

See also

• Catholic schools in the United States
• Higher education
• List of Rhode Island schools
• Parochial school

References

External links

• Portsmouth Abbey official website
• Portsmouth Abbey boarding school profile

Diocese of Providence
Bishops	Ordinaries Thomas Francis Hendricken Matthew Harkins William A. Hickey Francis Patrick Keough Russell McVinney Louis Edward Gelineau Robert Edward Mulvee Thomas Joseph Tobin Auxiliaries Thomas Francis Doran Denis Matthew Lowney Thomas Francis Maloney Bernard Matthew Kelly Kenneth Anthony Angell Robert Joseph McManus Robert C. Evans
Churches	Cathedral Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul Parish churches St. Joseph Church, Central Falls St. Matthew's Church, Central Falls Our Lady of Czestochowa Church, Coventry St. Paul Church, Cranston St. Mary's Church, Crompton St. Joseph's Church, Cumberland St. Mary's Church, Newport St. John the Baptist Church, Pawtucket St. Mary's Church of the Immaculate Conception, Pawtucket Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Providence St. Adalbert's Church, Providence St. Joseph's Church, Providence St. Michael's Church, Providence St. Casimir Church, Warren Church of the Precious Blood, Woonsocket St. Ann's Church, Woonsocket St. Charles Borromeo Church, Woonsocket St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, Woonsocket Former parish churches Holy Trinity Church, Central Falls Trinity Church, Pawtucket Immaculate Conception Church, Westerly
Education	Higher Education Providence College Salve Regina University High Schools Bishop Hendricken High School, Warwick Bishop Keough Regional High School, Pawtucket La Salle Academy, Providence Mount Saint Charles Academy, Woonsocket Portsmouth Abbey School, Portsmouth Prout School, Wakefield St. Mary Academy – Bay View, East Providence St. Raphael Academy, Pawtucket Former High School Our Lady of Fatima High School, Warren
Hospitals	Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, Providence St. Joseph's Hospital, Providence
Priests	Austin Dowling Salvatore Ronald Matano Daniel Patrick Reilly Francis Xavier Roque William Stang
Catholicism portal