Our History

The concept of a college preparatory school in Fort Worth began in 1961 when a group of parents were discussing the importance of education and a concern about sending their children to boarding school in preparation for entrance to Ivy League universities.

As interest for a college prep school in Fort Worth grew, a plan to pursue the concept to reality was developed under the leadership of Perry Bass, Thomas M. Ryan and Rufus Garrett.

Peter A. Schwartz, Headmaster of Pembroke Country Day in Kansas City, was recruited as headmaster of the future school. One of Mr. Schwartz’s first challenges was to hire a talented diversified faculty for a nonexistent school. He was successful, and on Sept. 9, 1963, just nine months after breaking ground, 210 students began classes in grades 1-9. The need for additional space was soon recognized and the Annie Richardson Bass Lower School was completed by the opening of the second year of the school.  Classrooms in the Sid Richardson Gymnasium, completed in 1967, continued to meet the need of an expanding enrollment.

The school campus continued to expand through the next three decades. The 1970s and early ’80s was a time of major construction as eight new buildings and annexes were built. To complete the campus as it was in 2001, three additional buildings were built during the 1990s. Over the years, improvements have enhanced the original site while maintaining the style of the three original buildings and the use of native stone.

In celebration of the school’s 35^th birthday, Trustees Plaza was built to honor its former and current trustees who have given and give so much of themselves to the continued success of the school. In addition to the trustees, Fort Worth Country Day School is the fine academic institution that it is today because of the dedication of many supportive parents, faculty, and alumni throughout its history. As Fort Worth Country Day grew, an active parents association played an important role in the life of the school. One of the school’s strongest assets is the Parent Faculty Association and its dedicated members who volunteer countless hours to every facet of the schools’ life to make it a better place for the teachers, staff and students.

While the parents are supportive of the school, the faculty is as well. Fort Worth Country Day has always had a dedicated professional staff committed to the students and school. To show that commitment, they established the Faculty Endowed Scholarship in 1994 and within two years the scholarship was large enough to aid a student. In 1997, Club Viginti was established for faculty and staff who have given 20 or more years of service to Fort Worth Country Day. The club has a current membership of 46.

FWCD has an active Alumni Association of 2,400 members that is governed by an Alumni Council. The Association recognizes members through several awards made annually and by honoring FWCD graduates who qualify for the Pro Sports Wall of Fame, the Wall of Fame and Buehler Hall of Science. 144 children of alumni have graduated from Fort Worth Country Day and 282 children of alumni are currently enrolled as students in the school.

Fort Worth Country Day has had five outstanding headmasters. Founding Headmaster Peter Schwartz (1963-1976) had the support of the founding trustees to take their vision and establish an excellent school that excelled in athletics and the arts as well as academics. The second headmaster was Edgar “Ted” Sanford (1976-1987). In addition to establishing faculty salaries and benefits that were competitive and attractive to the very best teachers, Mr. Sanford was supportive of the arts program. Geoffrey Butler (1987-1996), the third headmaster, led the school during the transition from half-day to full-day kindergarten and upper school students establishing an Honor Code. Under the leadership of Headmaster F. Graham Brown (1996-2001), campus landscaping and beautification was a priority. Peter Briggs, Jr. served as interim headmaster for the 2001-02 school term. The year-long national search brought Evan D. Peterson home to Fort Worth Country Day. Mr. Peterson had previously served as Upper School Division Head from 1986-1992 prior to taking the Head of School position at Hampton Roads Academy in Virginia.

Under the leadership of Mr. Peterson, Learning. Leading. Legacy. A Campaign for FWCDS was launched in 2003. The $18 million campaign had three goals. 1) to establish an endowment to enhance faculty compensation 2) to establish an endowment to support student financial aid 3) to construct community and dining facilities and to integrate the original cafeteria as part of new visual arts center. $21 million was raised as a result of the campaign. The Fischer Dining Pavilion opened in 2008 and the Sid Richardson Visual Arts Centers opened in 2009. The Louella and Nicholas Martin Campus Center is scheduled to open in 2010.

Over the years, Fort Worth Country Day has never lost its vision of being a college preparatory school that offers its students the best in academics, athletics and the arts. At the original entrance to the campus, the school proudly flies the blue ribbon flag for selection in 1999 as an exemplary upper school and one of the top three fine arts programs in the nation. As today’s students wear uniforms of the original plaid fabric, we know that the past can be identified, and we shall continue the original quest to be a school for which quality of the total human is valued with honor and respect.

Written by Jean Webb H`01
FWCD Archival Research
September 2009

February 5, 1991

Author: Victor Inzunza; Star-Telegram Writer

Edition: FINAL AM
Section: NEWS

Article Text:

FORT WORTH - It was the one image Connie and David Herr had hoped to avoid, the single event their son had warned them about from Saudi Arabia.

The only time they needed to worry, Marine Capt. David "Chip" Herr had told them, was if two Marines showed up at their doorstep.

About 4 a.m. yesterday, two Marines knocked on Connie and David Herr's door in southwest Fort Worth, and Connie knew instantly that they brought bad news.

What the Marines said was simple, stark. The Herrs' son, a helicopter pilot, had been killed in a crash in Saudi Arabia, making him the first known Tarrant County casualty in the Persian Gulf war.

"I am sad, but very proud," a tearful Connie Herr said yesterday. "After the Marines left the house, my husband and I walked around the block, and decided there is not one moment that we would change of his growing up.

"He did everything the way we would have wanted him to. We had 28 wonderful, wonderful years, and frankly, if he had to die I would have rather he died with the Marines because he loved them so much.

"There was no one prouder of being a Marine than he," she said. "I sent them a boy and he became a man. These last six years were the happiest of his life."

The Pentagon said that Chip Herr, 28, died when his UH-1 Huey helicopter crashed yesterday in eastern Saudi Arabia. The crash killed all four crew members, including another North Texan, Cpl. Albert G. Haddad Jr., 22, of Lewisville, military authorities said.

Initial reports indicated that the crash was not combat-related and may have resulted from mechanical failure.

Herr's death saddened teachers and friends, who remembered him yesterday as an athletic and dedicated student. He was quick to laugh, they said - often at himself.

"He was exceedingly bright and clever," said Ford Dixon, a history teacher at Fort Worth Country Day for 23 years who taught Herr in two classes. "He had one of the most keen wits of anyone I ever taught. But he was one of the least likely guys you would think would become a Marine.

"This was a boy of great academic capacity and a great academic future. David's classmates became doctors and lawyers and movers and shakers . . . and he could have done the same thing.

"I just don't understand it. It is so wasteful."

Edmund Schenecker, 30, a longtime friend who attended both Country Day and Washington & Lee University with Herr, said he learned of the helicopter crash yesterday morning in a radio broadcast.

"You automatically say, "I wonder if . . . ?' " said Schenecker, who attended officers training school with Herr when the two were in college. "Then my dad called (with the news). . . . It's bad."

David Herr Jr. grew up in the Overton Park section of southwest Fort Worth on tree-lined Stonehenge Road. The son of a teacher and a doctor, he and his sister, Sally, 1 1/2 years younger, were the image of all-American kids while growing up, friends recall.

During his youth, Herr was active in various sports and was considered a relentless competitor of average athletic ability.

He also had a bookish side; he loved to read and enjoyed his studies at Fort Worth Country Day, where his mother is a teacher.

To his old coach at Country Day, Herr was the epitome of the scholar-athlete.

"You're talking to a broken-hearted Marine colonel that was very fond of that young man," said retired Marine Col. R.C. Rosacker, former athletic director and coach at Country Day. "I can tell you this right off the top: David Herr was an absolutely outstanding young man; and he did not die as a result of pilot error, because he was the most meticulous young man that I ever knew.

"I've seen this experience in three wars, and you never get used to it. You just don't."

Herr earned 11 varsity letters for cross country, soccer and baseball before graduating from Country Day in 1980. He had a reputation as a good student, and as a senior he considered several colleges, including some in Texas, before choosing Washington & Lee University, a small private college in Lexington, Va.

He picked the school because of its small size and academic reputation, favoring it over larger universities with more distractions.

Herr applied for admission early, and only at the one college. It was the way he did things - directly and without doubt, friends and family said.

"Chip was very self-contained," his mother said. "He was a person who didn't go with the crowd if he didn't think it was right. He had his own set of values, and they were very strong.

"In his world, there was a right and wrong way of doing things, and the right was the way to do it."

It was at Washington & Lee that Herr became interested in the Marines. He joined a Marine program on campus that would allow him to go through boot camp during the summers of his freshman and sophomore years without making a commitment to enlist after graduation.

When he called home to tell his parents about his decision to join the program, they were startled but did not object. By his senior year, it was clear that Herr had fallen in love with the esprit de corps, tradition and way of life of the Marine Corps.

After earning his geology degree in 1984, Herr was commissioned as a second lieutenant and began pursuit of his goal of becoming a Marine flier.

That decision still puzzles some of his friends.

"He was quiet and just not the kind of guy who would do a Rambo number on anyone," teacher Dixon said. "I don't think it ever occurred to David to be a Marine officer or any other officer."

His parents, too, initially were not that comfortable with his decision, but they later came to accept it.

"I don't think people realize the kind of people who are in the Marines," Connie Herr said. "I know I always thought the Marines were kind of goony with this "I want to kill' attitude, and that concerned me at the time.

"But as time went on and we traveled to Quantico, Va., and Pensacola, Fla., as he graduated from the various military schools he was in, we found them to be the classiest young men."

When Herr entered flight school, he chose to fly Huey helicopters. But he also trained with Cobras both built by Bell Helicopter Textron in Fort Worth.

Schenecker remembered how the physically slight Herr survived the grueling officers training camps, at first through force of will and then growing physically stronger through relentless training.

"I'm sure he did more, accomplished more in his life than he ever thought he would be capable of doing," Schenecker said. "If you had asked him if he would have wanted to do anything differently, he wouldn't have changed anything. . . . His death was a loss, but it wasn't a waste."

Herr, whose home base was Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, Calif., loved flying Hueys and often recounted stories about his experiences in the big transport helicopters, his sister Sally said.

At one point, Herr was called upon to transport Vice President Dan Quayle to and from a golf game near Camp Pendleton, she said.

"It was very funny because the Secret Service guys had to be in the helicopter, and as soon as Quayle would leave, they would crack Dan Quayle jokes," she remembered her brother telling her.

On another occasion, while stationed in Okinawa, Herr ferried a Santa Claus across the region to drop off presents to children.

"He called (his helicopter) a sort of a military sleigh," said Sally, a second-year law student at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

And when Bob Hope did a TV special, Herr took up all the photographers to videotape scenes for the program.

"He was very strong-willed, and (flying) was something he wanted to do," Sally said. "He was living every man's dream.

"I take great comfort in knowing that he was doing what he loved, and I know my family does. When I visited him last year at Camp Pendleton . . . he said sitting around at a desk would be slow death for him.

"He understood the risks involved."

Yesterday the Herr family was flooded with condolences from family and friends.

Connie Herr said she had been bracing for the possibility of her son's death since the beginning of the conflict. She knew the risks, and she also knew that her son would have wanted to be in the war effort.

He had been among the first Marines sent to Saudi Arabia in August, and at first he wrote regularly - two and three times a month. But recently the flow of letters had dwindled.

The family last weekend received one letter dated in January, only a few scribbled lines telling Mom and Dad not to worry.

"Chip always told us not to worry unless we saw two Marines at our doorstep," she said. "I heard a knock and there they were - two Marines."

Staff writer Tim Madigan contributed to this report.

Copyright 1991, 1994 STAR-TELEGRAM INC.
Record Number: FWST6762

February 6, 1991

Column: EDITORIAL
Gulf war is brought painfully home
Author: Star-Telegram
Edition: FINAL AM
Section: EDITORIAL/VIEWPOINT

Article Text:
For residents of Tarrant County, the gulf war is no longer a tragedy unfolding "over there" in some forbidding, sandy place.

With the death of Marine Capt. David Herr Jr. of Fort Worth, the conflict has ceased to be a matter of statistics about sorties flown, damage assessments and the performance of high-tech weapons.

Desert Storm has been transformed into a painful human drama with a cast of parents, relatives, friends, teachers and fellow citizens sharing both the grief and the pride that his heroic fate elicit.

Herr saw his duty, did it and paid the ultimate price in the defense of freedom against the forces of tyranny.

Before this terrible episode ends, others from among the scores of Tarrant County residents serving in harm's may also may pay that price.

We hope their numbers will be few and offer a prayer for their well-being, even as we commend Captain Herr to the list of the county's and the nation's honored dead.

Copyright 1991, 1994 STAR-TELEGRAM INC.
Record Number: FWST6941

February 8, 1991

Funeral Tuesday for first person from Tarrant killed in gulf war
Author: Star-Telegram
Edition: FINAL AM
Section: NEWS

Article Text:
FORT WORTH - The first person from Tarrant County to die in Operation Desert Storm will be buried Tuesday at Greenwood Cemetery with full military honors.

The funeral for Marine Capt. David "Chip" Herr, who was killed in a helicopter crash in Saudi Arabia over the weekend, is scheduled for 4 p.m. Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church.

Burial will follow at Greenwood Cemetery; the military honors will include a Marine Corps color guard and a 21-gun salute, family members said.

In addition, some Marines from Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, Calif., where the Fort Worth native was stationed, will attend, said Herr's mother, Connie Herr.

David Herr, 28, a helicopter pilot, was killed along with three other crew members when his UH-1 Huey helicopter crashed in eastern Saudi Arabia. The crash also killed Cpl. Albert G. Haddad Jr. of Lewisville.

Copyright 1991, 1994 STAR-TELEGRAM INC.
Record Number: FWST7392

February 13, 1991

Author: Victor Inzunza; Star-Telegram Writer
Edition: FINAL AM
Section: NEWS

Article Text:
FORT WORTH - Against the backdrop of a nation at war, Connie and David Herr sat quietly by the flag-draped coffin at First Presbyterian Church yesterday and made their peace with the death of their only son.

"I am told that when a United States Marine is at his best, he has reached the point where his fellow Marines regard him as a gentle giant," the Rev. Robert Bohl said as he eulogized Marine Capt. David "Chip" Herr. "Such was the case with Captain Herr. He was a gentle giant.

"That is why we come to this place. To worship to God and to remember the way David Herr lived his life," he told the more than 1,000 people who filled the church. "He had a profound sense within him of what was right and wrong, and he spent his life doing what was right."

Herr, 28, a Fort Worth native, died more than a week ago when his UH-1 Huey helicopter crashed in eastern Saudi Arabia. The crash killed all four crew members, including another North Texan, Cpl. Albert G. Haddad Jr., 22, of Lewisville.

Herr is the first from Tarrant County to die in the Persian Gulf war.
And in his death, many who attended the funeral found hope.

"It was sad, but it really was a celebration," said Susie Rush, who worked with Herr when he was an orderly at St. Joseph Hospital.

"It was very moving. It makes it so much easier to take because his life was right with God, and he was doing what he believed in. I think the preacher said it best when he said it was a life lost but not wasted."

The funeral was accorded full military honors. Members of the 2nd Marine Battalion from Fort Worth provided the color guard and 21-gun salute. The choir sang The Marines' Hymn in Herr's honor. Marines from the 2nd Battalion and from Camp Pendleton, were the helicopter pilot was based, were in attendance.

"He was loyal to a fault," said Marine Capt. Mike McNeil, who was in Herr's helicopter group at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, Calif. "He cared about what he was doing - he wanted to be a Marine and a pilot."

After the funeral, Marines carried the flag-draped casket out of the church with the Herr family close behind. At the graveside service at Greenwood Memorial Park, Connie and David Herr sat with their daughter, Sally, and Chip Herr's girlfriend, Angie Smalley of Oceanside.

With the setting sun casting long shadows on the proceedings, two Marines folded the flag and presented it to Connie Herr. The Marines then fired off a volley of shots in the traditional salute.

After the service, friends struggled with the loss of Herr, a 1980 graduate of Fort Worth Country Day School and a 1984 graduate of Washington and Lee University.

"There's been such minimal casualties, and he had to be one of them," said Eric Hyden, a pallbearer and Herr's high school friend. "That is what I am having such a hard time with. It's just tearing me to pieces."

Hyden and other high school classmates remembered Herr as an athletic but subdued young man who seemed to be the least likely person to have chosen a career in the military.

"He was really very mild-mannered," said classmate Jerry Lamensdorf. "You just never would have thought he would join the Marines. I am guessing he was doing it to prove something to himself.

"He chose something that would challenge him, something that was physical and technical. He was just that way."

And Bohl, in offering a prayer for the other men and women serving in the Persian Gulf region, said Herr's life should not be viewed tragically.

"So we say we are proud of Captain David Rorher Herr Jr.," the minister said. "For the sacrifice he made for us - may it never be forgotten.

"We say to you forever we love you and thank God for you, and we trust you to God's eternal care."

Copyright 1991, 1994 STAR-TELEGRAM INC.
Record Number: FWST8277

February 13, 1991

Column: City Beat
When war's other face comes home in a coffin
Author: Bud Kennedy; Star-Telegram Writer
Edition: FINAL AM

Article Text:
FORT WORTH - It's awfully easy to cheer for Operation Desert Storm when we only see TV pictures of a swarthy dictator, and our bombs blasting his country to tiny bits.

It's much tougher when Chip Herr comes home in a coffin, carried by six Marines. With an American flag over his baby face.

Fort Worth buried its first soldier from the gulf war yesterday, and it dug deep into the city's heart. Boys who play kick-the-can in Tanglewood and baseball for Country Day School aren't supposed to die in wars. They become bankers or lawyers or doctors.

Yesterday, Fort Worth bankers and doctors helped fill First Presbyterian Church. They sang The Marines' Hymn and buried Marine Capt. David R. "Chip" Herr, 28, killed Feb. 3 when his UH-1 Huey helicopter crashed in Saudi Arabia.

"We give thanks for the courage of men like Chip Herr," the Rev. Robert Bohl prayed in his booming voice.

"Now - give us the courage to give him back to you." . . .

Proud goodbyes At the graveside service at Greenwood cemetery, even Bohl scrubbed a fist into his eyes over and over as a Marine color guard fired the traditional salute.

Yesterday morning, Vice President Dan Quayle phoned Connie Herr. As her only son was buried, she sat bravely beside husband Dr. David Herr, a plastic surgeon, and daughter Sally, a student in law school.

With them, a young woman wept a shower of tears, each drop glistening in the sun. Three years ago, Herr met Angie Smauley. On her 23rd birthday, she helped to bury him.

One of the first to hug them was Marine Capt. Mike McNeil, Herr's roommate at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

"Look at this family," he said later. "They're proud. They're incredibly patriotic. They're loyal.

"Chip was loyal to a fault. He wanted to be a copter pilot. He wanted to be a Marine."

A great 28 years Insurance agent Don Woodard Jr. once played kick-the-can alongside Herr. He said a teacher was wrong last week, calling Herr's death "a waste."

"It's a happy story," he said. "This guy had a marvelous education. He loved to fly helicopters. He loved to be a Marine. He dated a marvelous young woman.

"He loved what he did. He loved his family. He loved his country. He had everything he ever wanted.

"He led a fabulous life. Not a waste." . . .

The beginning Herr was the first Tarrant County soldier killed in the gulf war. We pray he might be the last.

More likely, in combat, we'll bury another every week or two. TV cameras won't come anymore. The news stories will shrink to the obituary page.

McNeil remembered how Marine pilots joke about dying.

"We always work on our last lines," he said. "If you go down in a crash, you're supposed to grab the radio for one last call.

"Chip always said his would be, "This is gonna hurt!' "

If 10,00 0 soldiers die, we'll lose about 40 more neighbors and friends we love like Chip Herr.

This is gonna hurt.

Copyright 1991, 1994 STAR-TELEGRAM INC.
Record Number: FWST8253

February 13, 1991

Column: City Beat
Author: Bud Kennedy; Star-Telegram Writer
Edition: FINAL PM
Section: NEWS

Article Text:

FORT WORTH - It's easy to cheer for Operation Desert Storm when we only see TV pictures of a swarthy dictator, and bombs blasting Iraq to tiny bits.

It's tougher when Chip Herr comes home in a coffin, carried by six Marines. With an American flag over his face.

Fort Worth buried its first soldier killed in the gulf war yesterday. It dug deep into the city's heart.

Boys who play kick-the-can in Tanglewood and baseball for Country Day School aren't supposed to die in wars. They become bankers or lawyers or doctors.

Yesterday, bankers and lawyers and doctors helped the Herr family fill First Presbyterian Church. They sang the Marines' Hymn and buried Capt. David R. "Chip" Herr, 28, killed Feb. 3 when his UH-1 Huey helicopter crashed in Saudi Arabia.

"Lord, we give thanks for the courage of men like Chip Herr," the Rev. Robert W. Bohl prayed in his booming voice.

"Now - give us the courage to give him back to you." . . .

Proud goodbyes at the graveside service at Greenwood Memorial Park, even Bohl scrubbed his eyes over and over as a Marine color guard fired the formal 21-gun salute.

Yesterday morning, Connie Herr had answered a call from Vice President Dan Quayle. As her only son was buried, she sat bravely beside husband Dr. David Herr, a plastic surgeon, and daughter Sally, headed for a law career.

Beside them, another young woman wept a shower of tears. Every drop glistened in the sun.

Three years ago, Herr met Angie Smauley. On her 23rd birthday, she buried him.

One of the first to hug them was Marine Capt. Mike McNeil, Herr's roommate at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

"Look at this family," he said later. "They're proud. They're incredibly patriotic. They're loyal.

"Chip was loyal to a fault. He wanted to be a copter pilot. He wanted to be a Marine."

A great 28 years insurance agent Don Woodard Jr. once played kick-the-can alongside Herr. He said a teacher was wrong last week, calling Herr's death "a waste."

"It's a happy story," he said. "This guy had a marvelous education. He loved to fly helicopters. He loved to be a Marine. He dated a marvelous young woman.

"He loved what he did. He loved his family. He loved his country. He had everything he ever wanted.

"He led a fabulous life. Not a waste." . . .

The beginning Herr was the first Tarrant County soldier killed in the gulf war.

If he could only be the last.

More likely, in combat, we'll bury another every week or two. TV cameras won't come anymore. The news stories will shrink to the obituary page.

McNeil remembered Herr and their Marine pilot buddies, joking about dying.

"We always work on our last lines," he said.

"If you go down in a crash, you're supposed to grab the radio for one last call.

"Chip always said his would be, "This is gonna hurt!' "

If 10,000 soldiers die, we'll lose 40 more neighbors and friends we love.

This is gonna hurt.

Copyright 1991, 1994 STAR-TELEGRAM INC

Record Number: FWST8254