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Information
Moto Truth - Duty - Honor
Location Staunton , Virginia
Established 1860
Grades (7-8 junior school) 9-12
Color(s) Blue and Gold
Information 540-885-1309
Disestablished1976
Website http://sma-alumni.org/
History
In 1883, the school moved to Staunton ,
Virginia and became Staunton
Male Academy .
Captain Kable bought the site on the hill from a Mr. Alby, a prominent
businessman. Acquisition of other large areas of land near the Alby estate
continued until 1910. The school adopted the military system in 1886 and changed
its name to Staunton Military
Academy , or SMA, following by
incorporation in 1893.
In 1900, Captain Kable turned over management of the school
to his son, Colonel William Gibbs Kable (1872-1920). Colonel Kable proved to be
very capable in school building and school management. He was a firm believer
in advertising and used this medium extensively to bring the attention of the
school to the public.
In November 1904, a fire destroyed the entire establishment,
except for the founder's home and the old school hospital. Both barracks burned
to the ground, but because of the brave and swift action of all involved, not a
single life was lost. Following the fire, development of the campus was rapid:
the South Barracks were completed in 214 days in 1905, the Mess Hall was
constructed in 1913 on the site of the original mess hall, and the North
Barracks were completed in 1918. By the 1930s, the campus also boasted Kable
Hall, Memorial Hall, West Barracks, and the Superintendent's home.
Advertisement circa 1916
In 1917, the Academy became an official unit of the Junior
Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) Program. Two Regular Army First
Sergeants were assigned to provide military instruction. The school survived
the Great Depression and later prospered, becoming one of the
country's most prestigious military preparatory schools. Situated on the Hill
with an enrollment that exceeded 600 cadets, SMA grew into a strong
economic force in the Staunton
community. In addition, the cadets often participated in parades at various
occasions in Staunton and
neighboring towns.
With the 1960s came a new generation, geared to
permissiveness and nonconformity, rather than regimentation and discretion. The
fallout from Vietnam helped
perpetuate an anti-military sentiment that further eroded enrollments at military
schools throughout the country. Despite the best efforts of a dedicated
and talented faculty and staff, inflation and unemployment weakened the schools
finances, in the early 1970s.
Faced with the prospect of bankruptcy, the Kable family
elected to sell the academy. The new owner, Layne Loeffler, changed SMA's
charter to non-profit status when he took over the school in 1973, but it was
too late. The deteriorating situation, combined with management problems,
forced the academy to close in 1976, some 116 years after its founding. Mary
Baldwin College ,
SMA's longtime neighbor and "big sister" bought the property for $1.1
million in a bankruptcy sale.
]Staunton Military
Academy today
Today, many of the buildings where SMA cadets lived and
learned are still used by Mary Baldwin. The SMA Mess Hall sign still hangs over
the entrance to the building, now called the Student
Activities Center .
The military legacy of the academy's grounds continues through the
college's Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership (VWIL), the only
all-women's corps of cadets in the world.
In 2001, a joint SMA-VWIL museum opened in the former SMA
supply room at 227 Kable Street
in Staunton . Additionally, the
alumni association has endowed four scholarships to keep SMA's legacy alive:
the SMA Leadership Scholarship, the Henry Scholarship Honoring SMA, and the
Henry SMA Legacy Scholarship for VWIL cadets, and the SMA-John Deal Education
Scholarship for a Florida State
University student.
In April of each year an SMA all class reunion is held in Staunton .
Events include an "Old Boys" parade on Friday afternoon in
conjunction with VWIL on the former SMA parade field, and a banquet on Saturday
night.
Campus
Kable House; built 1873, added to the VLR 1978-12-19, NRHP
1979-06-19 (Ref. # 79003299)
two barracks; destroyed in 1904 fire
South Barracks; built 1905, demolished c. 1980
Mess Hall, built 1913, currently Mary
Baldwin College Student
Activities Center
Superintendent's home; built 1916, currently the Mary
Baldwin College President's Home
North Barracks; built 1918, demolished in 1980s
Kable Hall; built by the 1930s, currently Kable Residence
Hall
Memorial Hall; built by the 1930s, currently Bertie Murphy
Deming Fine Arts Center
West Barracks; built by the 1930s
Tullidge Hall; built 1966
Faculty
Notable faculty include:
Thomas D. Howie, "the Major of St.
Lo"
Alexander Patch, commander of the Seventh Army
1944-1945 [1]
Colonel Robert H. Wease, Professor of Government
Extracurricular activities
Notable alumni
Winton M. Blount (1938), United
States Postmaster General 1969-71
E. Jocob Crull (1877), Montana State Representative and
colonel who was Jennette Rankin's (first female member of the U.S. Congress)
chief primary rival
John
Dean (1957), White House Counsel 1970-73 [3]
Walter E. Foran, member of the New Jersey Legislature 1969-86
Robert T. Frederick (1924), World War II combat
commander
Barry
Goldwater (1928), [4] five-term United States Senator from Arizona (1953–65, 1969–87)
Barry Goldwater, Jr. (1957),
United States Representative from California 1969-83
Gary M. Heidnik, Convicted Murderer
David McCampbell (1928), World War II Navy "Ace of
Aces" and Medal of Honor recipient
Phil
Ochs (1958), folk-protest singer
Chuck Pfarrer (1975), ex-Navy SEAL, novelist,
screenwriter
Bill Quinlan (1952), NFL player for nine
seasons
Lennie Rosenbluth, NBA basketball player
Bob Savage (1942), Philadelphia Athletics pitcher
John F. Seiberling (1937), United States Representative
from Ohio 1971-87
Ricardo Martinelli, President of the Republic
of Panama 2009-2014
A.J. Tim Rodenberg, Sheriff of Clermont
County OH
1997-
Ed Beard, (1960) NFL San
Francisco 49ers
John Miska, (1973) Emmy Award 1990 Video, 1991
Technical Support
George Bowler Tullidge III ,
(1941) Member of 82nd Airborne, wounded at Normandy
June 6, 1944 , died in Cambridge ,
England June 8, 1944 . Namesake of Tullidge
Hall.
Johnny Ramone,
guitarist and founding member of The Ramones (attended only for ninth
grade)
Frank Gorrell (1941) Lt. Gov. of State of Tennessee;
Speaker of the state senate; football player for Vanderbilt
University
References
"Tactician's Dream". Time Magazine.
1944-08-28. Retrieved 2007-02-09. "Later he taught machine-gun operation
at Fort Benning ,
taught military science at Staunton Military
Academy , attended the Command and
General Staff School, was graduated from the Army
War College .
In 1933 he wrote: "Now I am back at Staunton
where I hope they will forget all about me." They didn't. After Pearl
Harbor , Sandy Patch was sent to the French island
of New Caledonia in the
Pacific."
Builders 2004 Football Program. The Apprentice
School Athletic Department and The
Apprentice Athletic Club: 45.
"How John Dean
Came Center
Stage". Time Magazine. 1973-06-25. Retrieved 2007-02-09. "At Virginia 's
Staunton Military
Academy , he is best remembered not
as an All-America backstroker but as having been extraordinarily willing to
sacrifice himself for others."
Adam Clymer (1998-05-29). "Barry Goldwater,
Conservative and Individualist, Dies at 89". New York Times.
Retrieved 2007-02-09. "As a teen-ager, he failed half his courses in his
first year in high school in Phoenix .
His parents packed him off to Staunton
Military Academy
in Virginia , where he thrived.
After graduating in 1928, he entered the University
of Arizona at Tucson ."
This article incorporates text from the public domain Staunton
Military Academy Alumni Association History Webpage.
External links
Coordinates: 38°09′15″N 79°04′05″W
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