[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 137 (Tuesday, September 22, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1336-E1337]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       VIRGINIA EPISCOPAL SCHOOL

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB GOODLATTE

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 22, 2015

  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Speaker, nearly 110 years ago, a church leader in 
Staunton, Virginia envisioned a secondary school to be operated by the 
Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia. The Rev. Robert Carter Jett, 
who was the first Rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Staunton, said 
he wanted the school to provide ``leadership in the matter of 
education'' for students from all means and backgrounds, with special 
consideration for the children of the clergy. Thanks to the work of 
Rev. Jett, on February 4, 1914, Virginia Episcopal School in Lynchburg, 
Virginia was incorporated.
  With the help of other individuals over the following year-and-a-
half, Virginia Episcopal School opened on a 160-acre campus in 
Lynchburg on September 25, 1916. There were 63 young men enrolled in 
that first school year, the vast majority of them coming from the 
Commonwealth of Virginia. Rev. Jett was the school's first Rector and 
was joined by five faculty members. A single building held classrooms, 
a chapel, a dining room, and a dormitory.
  In the century since Virginia Episcopal School was created, more than 
4,000 young men and women have received their high school diplomas from 
this institution. As Rev. Jett put it, this is work that brought them 
``Toward Full Stature'' in their moral, intellectual,

[[Page E1337]]

spiritual, and physical lives. Those students have gone on to 
contribute to our society in a variety of ways--as business leaders, 
educators, government officials, lawyers, doctors and nurses, and of 
course, the clergy.
  From its single Georgian Revival building designed by noted architect 
Frederick H. Brooke, Virginia Episcopal School has grown to include 15 
buildings on campus and eight athletic fields. Of historic note, 
Virginia Episcopal School became the South's first private prep school 
to integrate in 1967. In 1986, the school became one of the first all-
male prep schools in the South to accept females as students.
  There are 230 students enrolled for the 2015-16 academic year at 
Virginia Episcopal School. They come from a much wider area than those 
young men from Virginia who first walked through the doors of the 
original school in Lynchburg. Today's students have their homes in 20 
states and foreign countries. As an important institution of learning 
in Virginia's Sixth Congressional District, I commend Virginia 
Episcopal School as it celebrates 100 years of work in developing 
students ``Toward Full Stature,'' and I wish the school and its leaders 
much continued success in their worthy mission.

                          ____________________