my name is Harry deMontmollin I
graduated in
1956 came back to work here as a teacher
and dormitory supervisor in
1964 became Headmaster in
1975 president in
1976 and I retired in 2000
as a student I think life in the dorm
was then it was called the barracks
was fun met a lot of friends who
remain friends today the military
parades on Sundays in the spring were
very special the student body was
organized into companies a b and c a was
the Army Company B was the naval
company and C was the young
children in grades 6 7 and
8 and all three together made up the
Battalion and the
Battalion um marched on Sunday
Battalion marched on Sunday
afternoons in a formal parade with
the band I conducted the band as a
matter of fact it was a tradition
that people would come to the Bolles campus
that people would come to the Boles campus
that people would come to the Bolles campus on a Sunday afternoon for the parades the
parades were held where what is now the
baseball field was an open Park
and that's where the parades were held
and in those days up on San Jose
Boulevard there were the ruins of a
shopping center that was at the gates to
the school and that had fallen into
into ruin but the structures
were still there but they were not
occupied and there was a
two-lane Entrance Road with a
mall in the center ending at what was
then called we called it the Senior
Circle which was a circle Road around
the monument there and they were very
nice and very well attended the
school was predominantly boarding at
that time there were almost 300 boarders
U and only about 125 day students
well I I think it's significant that I
had Rufus McClure as an English teacher
for three straight years uh when he
for three straight years when he
first came he was the he taught
freshman and I was a freshman then I had
him again as a junior and then as a as a
senior and then we worked together for
until I retired and he retired we
retired at the same time as a matter of
fact um and we remain friends today
a lot of homework yes study hall was 2
and 1/2 hours long uh and it was in our
rooms in the in the barracks with the
doors open and we had to be seated at
our desk and there was a faculty member
in charge of the study hall to
enforce the the rules
but it was a
a strict ritual
Sunday through Thursday
nights Friday we were sort of on
our own and Saturday we had what was
called Town leave and we had buses that
took us to San
Marco and we would hang around San Marco
all day
practically but there was nothing
between San Marco and the school that
was all open land Lakewood wasn't there
the cemetery was there and there was
uthe cemetery was there and there was a barbecue restaurant I think
there's an apartment complex there now
where the cemetery stops and
then on Sunday we went to church
you either went to what was then called
Grace Chapel across the street San Jose
Episcopal or the bus took you to San
Episcopal uh or the bus took you to San
Marco to the Presbyterian church or to
the Baptist Church or to Catholic Church
assumption was the nearest Catholic
church then San Jose Catholic didn't
exist it was very traditional you
had to have four credits in English you
had to have three credits in history you
had to have two laboratory
Sciences out of chosen from chemistry
biology or physics the ninth grade
was a physical science course you had
to have at least two years of the same
foreign language and you had to have the
minimum Algebra 1 Algebra 2 and
geometry but most students took much
more than
that I remember the graduation as being
a very formal Affair we wore blue
a very formal Affair um we wore blue blazers and white trousers and there
was a speech at Plus the
was a speech uat Plus the valedictorian made a speech but there
was always a guest
speaker I can't remember who the
speaker was in my graduation but most of
the Governor State Governors at one time
or another came to speak and
Leroy Collins who was governor at one
time had a son graduate from here as did
jeb
Bush yes I came here to be a teacher
I graduated from William and Mary in
1964 but that was a time of a severe
economic recession and I couldn't get a
job so I came back here to visit my
friend Rufus McClure and he was
getting ready to let a teacher go and he
had it was the middle of the year it was
in
February and he asked me if I would
February uh and he asked me if I would
February and he asked me if I would fill in and I jumped at it because I
didn't have any place to go I lived in
didn't any any place to go um I lived in
didn't any any place to go I lived in the dorm my wife didn't come down
until the next year we lived in
until the next year uh we lived in
Virginia I was stationed there in the
Army and so I became a member
of the faculty and then director of
of the faculty and then udirector of admissions and then director of
operations and then assistant to the
Headmaster and then Headmaster and then
they changed the title to
president very much like it is today
but it was all male girls didn't
but it was all male uh girls didn't come until
1971 so it was a a transition
1971 so it was a transition
time because the military was dropped in
1961 and the Traditions that stopped
when the military left had not
completely been replaced with anything
else yet but that was coming along the
establishment of the student council for
example the the Honor Court those
kinds of things were established in
the in the late
60s it was a very successful military
school but those days had ended and
it was time to to become much more
uh it was time to to become much more
academically
rigorous and the military took so
much time that was not possible under
the military our classes ended at 1:00
and after 1:00 was all military
activity until
3:30 and then you had Athletics from
3:30 to 5 so there was not a lot of
flexibility in the schedule dropping
of the military permitted more
flexibility more creativity stronger
academic requirements
longer academic day
so it was a major uh move
so it was a major move but a very fortuitous one in my
opinion it was clearly a college
preparatory school which was a a
preparatory school which was a
new Mission and College admission uh
new Mission and College admission
became a very important mission
for the
school
well I was director of admissions at
that time and I was having a
great deal of difficulty filling the
school so I went to the trustees and I
said well we can either downsize or I
can double the market and I recommend
we double the market by allowing
girls that was a very controversial
decision because our sister School Bartram
was all girls and it was struggling and
the feeling was that by opening Bolles to
girls would be the end of
Bartram ironically Bolles ended up taking over Bartram
but I think that was probably
foreordained anyway the days
of the Single Sex school had pretty much
come to an
end I think the establishment of the
honor
code the
the Traditions that remain today
in student government the
role of students in running the
school on a day-to-day
basis those are things I'm very proud
of oh yes I think the leadership team in
place is very strong and the school
is moving ahead very appropriately in
my
opinion oh I don't think much is
opinion oh I don't thinkh much is going to change except for more emphasis
on technology I think the stem project
is a very important one and I would I
would want those to take a
leadership role in that that's
leadership role in that's
transforming traditional education
rather seriously so I that's what I
rather seriously so that's what I
see is primarily the focus I'm
very concerned about the endowment
I'm very concerned about the endowment
we need to do something about the
endowment to provide long-term
endowment to um provide long-term Financial
stability