Henry L. Stimson House

The Henry L. Stimson House was made possible by contributions from Parents of Academy Boys in 1959. Built the following year it was named for H. L. Stimson, Class of 1883, former Secretary of War and President of the Board of Trustees. Completed in the fall of 1960 at a cost of $694,000 this 40-boy, two instructor family dormitory was dedicated on the weekend of February 24-25, 1961. (Robert A. Domingue. Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. An Illustrated History of the Property (including Abbot Academy). Wilmington, MA: RAD Publishing, 1990.)

For the general campaign, committees were organized in every city in the country where there were twenty-five or more alumni. Appalling though the magnitude of this task may seem, in a surprisingly short time volunteer committee organizations had been established in over two hundred and fifty different communities. McLean received staunch support from R. L. (Tim) Ireland, III, P.A. '38, who performed heroically as National Alumni Chairman, and from Thomas M. Evans, who agreed to serve as Parent Chairman. Mr. Evans' contribution may be seen in Stimson House, which was given by the Parents of Andover boys... (Frederick S. Allis, Jr. Youth from Every Quarter. Andover: Phillips Academy. 1979.)

Henry Lewis Stimson

Andover's most honored alumnus has the distinction of being the oldest graduate to serve his country during the war years, climaxing a long career of public service with conspicuous contribution as civilian chief of the greatest Army the United States has ever had. A prominent example of an elder statesman, he has served in Cabinet or high appointive posts under five Presidents, not only with complete integrity but with the distinction of having nearly always been right even when he was unsuccessful. He revitalized the Army as Secretary of War under President Taft, he advocated preparedness in 1915, planned the officers' training camp at Plattsburg and attended it himself in World War I. Appointed a Major Judge Advocate in 1917, and later transferred to the Field Artillery, he saw combat service in France with the 305th Field Artillery, and later commanded the 31st Field Artillery during 1918.

Sent by President Coolidge as Special Representative to Nicaragua in 1927, he was so successful that he was appointed Governor General of the Philippine Islands in 1927, serving with sagacity and distinction. As Secretary of State under President Hoover, and as Chairman of the United States Delegation to the London Naval Conference of 1930 and Delegate to the Geneva Disarmament Conference in 1932 he urged Great Britain and France to join the United States in halting Japanese aggression in Asia. As an official in the Cabinet he warned that Japan's successful example in the Far East would encourage aggression by Germany and Italy in Europe. As a private citizen in the 1930's he advocated the unpopular policy of American preparedness against aggressors before they should become strong enough to attack the United States. Appointed Secretary of War on June 19, 1940, he advocated, with far-sighted wisdom, modification of the Neutrality Act, the exchange of United States' destroyers for bases, the adoption of compulsory military training, and the passage of the Lend-Lease Bill. At a critical time in America's history he brought to the War Department unequaled knowledge and experience and an ability to delegate authority to responsible subordinates that gave him exceptional prestige in the eyes of Congress and the country. His complete support of the peace-time Selective Service Act in the face of civilian-military criticism, his appreciation of the moral issues involved in the war in Europe, and his insistence upon resolute aid to Great Britain in 1941, brought additional sound leadership to the country at a decisive moment.

Colonel Stimson has been praised as the "most efficient administrator in the whole vast war machine." But his contribution to the United States is greater than efficiency alone; it is disinterested and high-minded conviction, moral rightness and thorough integrity. The tribute paid to Henry L. Stimson in the citation accompanying his award of the Distinguished Service Medal is greater than any material reward.

"His fearlessness, his integrity, his rich experience, his wisdom and his statesmanship were largely contributory to the successful mobilization of an Army in which his countrymen may take everlasting pride. His steadfast purpose and unselfish devotion were an inspiration to men-at-arms in American forces throughout the world in their bitter fight to maintain moral right, freedom, justice and civilization itself."

Phillips Academy is proud that so distinguished an alumnus and Elder Statesman has served her as Trustee since 1905 and has guided her destinies during the twelve years of his leadership as President of the Board of Trustees. (Leonard F. James Phillips Academy, Andover in WWII. Andover: Phillips Academy. 1948.)

AS headmaster I first became intimately acquainted with the strongest, noblest older personality I have ever known, a man who, unconsciously on his part, contributed immeasurably to my education. Henry L. Stimson, of the class of 1883 at Phillips Academy, had been one of its trustees since June 8, 1905, but I had had little opportunity to know him well. My first recollection of him, however, is very vivid. On a visit to Andover in January 1912, during his term as President Taft's Secretary of War, he found the snow covering the ground to the depth of more than a foot, and at once said to Mark Stackpole, the school minister, "Can't we dig up a bobsled somewhere and coast down Phillips Street, the way I used to do?" I was present when the question was asked and suggested that we might borrow the massive sled belonging to the PAE society, of which Stimson had been a member. A little telephoning achieved the desired result. Soon four or five co-operative boys appeared at Mark's house dragging the huge double-runner, and we all pulled it to the top of Phillips Street. As there were few automobiles in those days, we could count on a comparatively unobstructed course. (Claude Fuess. Independent Schoolmaster. Boston: Little, Brown. 1952.)

Henry L. Stimson, who graduated from Phillips Academy in 1883, also remembered the democratic quality of the school:

But at thirteen there came a great change. My mental and physical horizons broadened before me. My father, dissatisfied with the conditions in New York, placed me in Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts. I was much younger than any other boy in the school but the new surroundings were like heaven to a boy who craved escape from city life. I have heard the discipline of Phillips Academy of those old days described by an alumnus as "perfect freedom, tempered by expulsion." Of the outdoor life of the students that was a fair description. There was football, baseball, skating, bobsledding, and walking over the hills and woodlands of northern Massachusetts within generous limits, quite untrammeled by authority.

But once we entered the classroom it was quite a different matter. Andover fitted a boy for college and it fitted him well. The courses taught were fewer than they are today, but they were taught with extreme thoroughness. And the numbers of each class being large, the mere experience of standing up before a good-sized audience and answering tough problems before a rapid-firing instructor was in itself a stiff discipline to the average boy. To me it opened a new world of effort and competition. It also opened to me a new world of democracy and of companionship with boys from all portions of the United States. At that time Phillips Academy contained about two hundred fifty students, many coming from rural New England, but the remainder from nearly every other state in the Union. A large percentage of them were working their own way in whole or in part.

School life was extremely simple and inexpensive. The cost of tuition was sixty dollars a year. The school possessed no dormitories except the Latin and English Commons, in which nearly a third of the students lived. These consisted of two rows of very cheaply built three-story wooden houses, each house containing rooms for six students. The rental for each student was three dollars a term. There was no sanitation or water except from a single outdoor pump from which each student carried his own requirements, and no heat except that which came from each student's stove. And as the two rows of Commons stood on the northwestern slope of Andover Hill facing the distant New Hampshire hills on the horizon, winter life there was neither soft nor enervating. Some of the remaining students roomed in the houses of instructors but most of them were in boarding houses approved by the faculty in the town of Andover.

The result for me was association with a very different group of young men from those I had met in New York; they were representatives of homes of many varieties scattered all over the United States---most of them simple homes---but in general the boys were drawn to Andover by the desire to get the teaching given by a school which was known to have represented for over a hundred years the ideals of character and education believed in by the founders of our country. I was too young to appreciate the full advantages of these new associations at first, but as the years of my course rolled by they were brought home to me, and I can never be sufficiently grateful to the school for the revolution it worked in my own character (Frederick S. Allis, Jr. Youth from Every Quarter. Andover: Phillips Academy. 1979.)