John Burroughs School (JBS) is a private, nonsectarian college-preparatory school with 631 students in grades 7–12. Its 49-acre (200,000 m2) campus is located in Ladue, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Founded in 1923, it is named for U.S. naturalist and philosopher John Burroughs.
As of 2020, the faculty includes 96 full-time and 32 part-time members. Since 2009, the head of school has been Andy Abbott, formerly an English teacher and the school's head of college counseling. He replaced Keith Shahan, who served as headmaster for 23 years.
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History
In 1922, a group of St. Louisans announced their intention to open a private school in a suburb of St. Louis. "This school is being established to meet a very definite demand for another country day school, and is an outgrowth of a condition whereby existing schools are unable to accept all pupils applying for entrance," the St. Louis Star and Times reported.
In "executive charge" of the campaign to build the school was Edna Fischel Gellhorn, a co-founder of the League of Women Voters. The 18-acre site, located on the streetcar line from Clayton, was purchased for $18,000
($340,000 today) and the initial campus buildings, including a gymnasium, were built for $180,000. Tuition was $500 per year, with scholarships available to up to 10 percent of students.
Classes began on Oct. 2, 1923, ahead of a formal cornerstone-laying ceremony the following week. The gym was completed in December at a cost of $38,000; the main speaker at its dedication ceremony was Branch Rickey, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.
The school's founders wrote, "Burroughs was established upon the conviction that each child has latent possibilities of power, and that it is the chief purpose of the school to cooperate with parents in discovering, fostering and developing that power so that in adulthood he shall make his contribution to the improvement of human society. The child's mind is not a tablet to be written upon or a cistern to be filled, but a living, growing entity to be guided, developed, trained and inspired."
In the 1930s, JBS participated in the Eight-Year Study, an experiment that tested how American progressive secondary schools would prepare their students for college when released from the curricular restrictions of college admissions requirements.
In April 2020, the school received $2.5 million in federally backed small business loans as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. The school received scrutiny over this loan, which was meant to protect small and private businesses, and returned the money to the Treasury Department the following month.
Athletics
The Bombers football team won the state championship in Division 2A in 1975, 1980 (tie), 1985, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1995 (tie) and 2001; and won the 3A title in 2015. As of 2020, former NFL kicker Neil Rackers is an assistant coach. Former NFL quarterback Gus Frerotte was head football coach from 2011 to 2013. In 2016, the program was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.
In 2023, John Burroughs' varsity baseball team won the state championship.
Notable alumni
Arts, sciences, and education
Leon Burke III, musician, singer, and conductor
David D. Clark, 1962: computer scientist and internet pioneer
Sarah Clarke, 1989: actress
Edward T. Foote II, 1955: university administrator
Tom Friedman, 1983: conceptual artist
Heather Goldenhersh, 1991: actress
Jon Hamm, 1989: actor
John Hartford, 1956: folk musician
Terry Karl, 1966: professor of Latin American Studies
Carrie Kemper, 2002; television writer
Ellie Kemper, 1998: actress and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
Peter Allison Larkin: author and director
Lisa Miller, 1984: professor of clinical psychology, author
James Peniston, 1992: sculptor
Thomas H. Stix, 1941: plasma physics pioneer, professor
Erinn Westbrook, 2006: actress
Beau Willimon, 1995: playwright and screenwriter
Business
Sam Altman, 2003: CEO of OpenAI
Maureen Chiquet, 1981: former CEO of Chanel
Joe Edwards, 1964: restaurateur
Timothy Luehrman, 1974: finance professor
Danny Meyer, 1976: NYC restaurateur
Edward N. Ney, 1942: accountancy CEO of, U.S. ambassador to Canada.
Andrew C. Taylor, 1966: businessperson
Government and politics
Todd Akin, 1966: U.S. Congressman (R) for the 2nd District of Missouri (2001–2013)
Brittany Packnett Cunningham, 2002: activist, police reformer
Walter Metcalfe, 1956: attorney and civic leader in St. Louis
Laura Stith, 1971: Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court
W. Stuart Symington IV, 1970: U.S. ambassador and career diplomat.
John A. Terry: Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals
Andrea R. Wood, 1991: U.S. district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Journalism and literature
William S. Burroughs, 1932 (did not graduate): novelist
Gabe Fleisher, 2020: journalist
Martha Gellhorn, 1926: combat journalist, novelist
Vicki Goldberg, 1954: novelist and photographer
Jane Smiley, 1967: novelist
Mary Wiltenburg, 1994: journalist, Little Bill Clinton project
Military
James H. Howard, 1932: fighter pilot who flew with the Flying Tigers and later became the only fighter pilot in World War II's European Theater of Operations to receive the Medal of Honor.
Roslyn L. Schulte, 2002: Killed in action on May 19, 2009, she became the first woman to receive the National Intelligence Medal for Valor.
Philanthropy
Leo Drey, 1935: timber magnate, conservationist, philanthropist Leased land to JBS for outdoor education for one dollar a year.
Sports
Jake Bain, 2018: football player, LGBTQ+ activist.
Butch Buchholz, 1959: professional tennis player
Fran Charles, 1986: television football reporter/host
Ezekiel Elliott, 2013: NFL running back
David Lee, class of 1997 (alum non-grad): professional basketball player
Brandon Miller, 2020: middle-distance runner
Foye Oluokun, 2013: NFL linebacker
Dave Sisler, 1949: baseball player.
Dick Sisler, 1938: baseball player.
Scott Van Slyke, 2005: baseball player
Jay Williamson, 1985: professional golfer
Faculty
Raymond Beckman, soccer player
Ron Charles, book critic
John L. Loos: historian