Harvey Founders Day Steeped in Tradition

When Dr. Herbert S. Carter and his wife Mabel founded The Harvey School in 1916, first located in a two-story white farmhouse in Hawthorne, little could they have imagined how different the school would look more than 98 years later. For one, the school is now in Katonah, for another, it encompasses grades 6-12, and, for still another, it is co-educational. One thing that has not changed in quite some time is the Founders Day celebration in which two members of the student body, the youngest female and the youngest male, share the honor of cutting the cake and taking the first two pieces.

At Monday’s Founders Day celebration the tradition continued as Assistant Headmaster Richard Wyland called upon two sixth-graders, Lexi Wierdsma of Katonah and Rion-Mark McLaren of Danbury, Conn., to cut the cake and enjoy the first two pieces. The other more than 360 members of the student body assembled in the school’s new athletic center gym watched the ceremony and cheered the two students as they dug their forks into the cake made especially for the event by school chef Lee Robinson. The rest of the students would get to enjoy their cake at lunch for dessert.

Assistant Headmaster Wyland put the ceremony into historical context for the students and staff attending the ceremony. He read excerpts from an initial draft of the planned centennial history book coming out in the 2015-16 school year when Harvey will celebrate its 100th birthday. He put that school year into perspective for the classes of 2014 and 2015, pointing out they will have moved on but would likely be returning to their alma mater for some of the yearlong celebrations the school is planning. To the sophomores, the class of 2016, the assistant headmaster told them they will be the leaders of the school when the entire Harvey community celebrates the centennial during their senior year.

Harvey, a co-educational independent college-preparatory school, is situated on 125 acres in Katonah. The school had continued operating at the Hawthorne location until 1959 when the state approved construction of a highway cloverleaf interchange for the Saw Mill, Sprain and Taconic State parkways. The search for a new site led to the former Sylvan Weil Estate which became Harvey’s new home.