The video is an oral‑history panel featuring alumni, faculty, parents, and board members reflecting on the history, culture, and impact of Charlotte Country Day School. Speakers recount the school’s founding in the late 1960s‑early 1970s, its early move to Fairview, the merger with Carmel Academy, and the development of two campuses. They highlight the dramatic growth of the school’s endowment—from a modest fund in the 1970s to roughly $50 million today. A strong sense of community emerges through stories of volunteers, alumni traditions, and humorous student‑teacher interactions, such as the gold‑plated eraser given to a teacher by an alumnus and the legendary Eddie Kelly’s demanding yet caring classes. Long‑lasting relationships are emphasized, with teachers attending former students’ weddings and teaching their children. The panel underscores the necessity of rigorous academics for a private school’s sustainability and celebrates the school’s role in preparing students for college and life.
Chapters
I came along just at the end of the first 25 years, so the origins were still fresh with Bobby Cannon and others who wanted to start a little school, and they started it over on Fairview or someplace and finally moved it over here. And it was over here by the time we got here to bring our children, but I think it was a desire to have a really first-class private school in Charlotte. I was on the board in the, I think in the late '70s and early '80s. A lot was going on. We were merging with Carmel Academy and developing 2 campuses. And figuring out how to make that work.
One of the things that I'm most proud about is that today Country Day's endowment is approximately $50 million, which is a far cry from 1993 and certainly from the, the 1970s.
I'm most grateful for the people, from students to colleagues to parents to trustees. The volunteers, because they all made a sense of community. They defined who we were. And no matter what the project, no matter what the concerns, they were always there as resources. As a teacher, I remember members of the class of 1977: Louis Bledsoe, Dick Reidenour, William Howe, Craig Hill. Watts Hamrick, who were all part of an American Lit class that met in a small classroom in the Learning Center. And they decided in their senior year that it was time to liven up the school year, and so they began serenades at the beginning of every class as a good distraction. And so, as they remind me, I threw an eraser at them. One day. And so when Craig Hill was chairman of the Alumni Association, he gave me a gold-plated eraser at an alumni breakfast. So that's indicative of the great sense of humor, the great fun, and that good relationship between students and teachers.
It's a small story, but I think it's indicative of great student-teacher interactions that any teacher and any I love that you get to know the child, the whole family, develop friendships that go on and on and on past middle school, upper school graduation, weddings. I've attended several weddings of former students, and then I have taught children of my former students, and that's what I love about Country Day. It's a loving, caring environment. Community built on traditions and new things too that have come along over the years.
One of the legends of Country Day is Eddie Kelly, and everybody lived in fear of being in his class and having to do his papers, but his papers prepared these kids for college. So one daughter of mine took assiduous notes in the class, just wrote everything down. So one day he was lecturing on World War II, and he was talking about how the soldiers would catch worms Fry them and then eat them. And Lindsay is sitting there writing and writing all about this, and she looked up— he had a light side— and she looked up and there he was just leaning over her, just making a joke. I mean, I just thought that was so wonderful because he really did have such a way with the kids. I value the, the education my children received, how well prepared they were for college, the continuity of being able to attend the same place, the excellence of the faculty. Their preparation for life, my children's preparation for life, which goes along with the education, and just how successful they've been, and because they had a really strong bedrock to be on.
The academic level has to be good or these, these schools don't work. They're expensive and you need to have really, really good academics or you're not gonna— kids won't come. I think the school has certainly given us way more than we ever have given to the school.
This has been so special. When I say that Country Day has been very meaningful to me and our family, I really mean it.
