Garrison Forest School

Eager to give their students a leg up in the vast domain of computer technology, some private schools in the Baltimore area are requiring parents to buy laptops, much as they do pencils and spiral notebooks.It's an emerging nationwide trend at costly private schools, an expensive leap from school labs where youngsters must compete for research time on a bank of computers. Instead, pupils as young as 9 or 10 are tapping into the Internet at their desks, obtaining material from the Library of Congress or the Smithsonian Institution.

In Baltimore CityBrooklyn man, 26, convicted of killing neighbor in her homeChristopher Stanley Mills was convicted of first-degree murder yesterday in the June 1998 stabbing death and attempted robbery of Leona Gast Klimm, 91, his southern Baltimore neighbor.Mills, 26, was arrested by the FBI in a New York City phone booth about three months after Klimm's body was found at her home in the 3500 block of 4th St. in Brooklyn. He was tracked down by tips phoned in to authorities.Baltimore Circuit Judge John C. Themelis will sentence Mills on Nov. 17. An accomplice, Carlos Roy Holcomb, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the incident.

St. Paul's official rightly expressed tolerance of gaysAs heads of schools, we are writing in support of Headmistress Evelyn A. Flory's commitment to making St. Paul's School for Girls a place where all people can feel safe from discrimination, as all of us seek to do on our own campuses ("Stance on gays provokes parents," Feb. 21).Statistics show that gay male and lesbian high school students are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual young people, and more than one-third of these students have been victims of physical and verbal assault in school because of their sexual orientation.

Buoyed by a strong economy, a new trend in women's philanthropy and a drive to stay educationally strong, area private schools continue to open new buildings and to see capital campaigns meet and even exceed record-high goals.Seven schools are dedicating new facilities this fall, while several others are mid-project and at least two have buildings on the drawing board.Enrollment is also booming. Maryland State Department of Education statistics show a 14.5 percent jump in private school enrollment between 1992 and 1997.

DEMAND for private school education in Maryland continue to grow, sparking a surge of building on many campuses.A private school, from kindergarten through 12th grade, is planned for Finksburg, the first such nonreligious education institution in Carroll County. The Gerstell Academy, the idea of Sinclair Broadcasting executive Frederick G. Smith, aims to have 800 pupils on the 100-acre site.Built in stages (with the elementary school first), the private school plans to open within a few years.

Marion Shriver Abell, a former educator and Glyndon resident, died Thursday of a stroke at Baptist Hospital East in Louisville, Ky. She was 37 and suffered from cancer.Mrs. Abell was a teacher at Hunt's School Inc. in Riderwood from 1982 to 1986. She also was a member of the faculty at Jemicy School in Owings Mills from 1987 until 1991, when she moved to Louisville."She took these dyslexic kids and proved that they could succeed. She was tough, positive and committed," said Stephen Wilkens, former Jemicy headmaster.

Margaret N. Jones, 90, teacher and nurseMargaret Newnham Jones, a teacher and nurse who arrived in the United States from her native England during World War I, died of natural causes at Carey House at Keswick Multi-Care Center in Baltimore Dec. 28. She was 90.Born Margaret Newnham in the village of Newnham in Kent, England, she left Britain by ship at the height of World War I with her mother and four sisters. The decision to leave had nothing to do with the war, according to her son, Weston A. Park of Baltimore.

Garrison Forest School in Owings Mills has broken ground for a $2.5 million lower school renovation and addition, paid for largely by one donor and dedicated to the headmaster's son, who drowned last year.The project will allow the all-girls school to increase its enrollment by about 50 percent in first through fifth grades, while continuing to keep classes small, said G. Peter O'Neill Jr., the school's head. When completed by September 1998, the lower school will have two classrooms per grade, rather than one as it has now, new science facilities and more space for special classes, such as art and music.

Religion is a touchy topic in any age group -- especially for teen-agers making their way in asecular world.But a group of 40 high school students who attended an interfaith forum at St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore yesterday surprised themselves with the depth and enthusiasm they have for their respective faiths."

OWINGS MILLS -- Having recently completed a successful $12 million capital campaign, Garrison Forest School is increasing its fund-raising goal to $17 million to continue expansion and renovations.The 550-student girls school will use the additional money to build a field house with a fitness area, add playing fields, expand its riding facilities, renovate and enlarge the kitchen and dining room and increase on-campus housing for faculty.The new goal includes a recent pledge of $1.5 million, the largest gift in the school's 86-year history, to be used for expansion of its lower school over 18 months.

Archibald Roger "Tad" Montgomery III, who had been head of Garrison Forest School, died from heart failure Thursday at a Gladwyne, Pa., retirement community. He was 85. He was born and raised in Wayne, Pa. After graduating from Westminster School in Simsbury, Conn., in 1943, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in the Pacific Theater. Mr. Montgomery earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 1949. He began his teaching career at Westminster School, and he was named headmaster at Garrison Forest in 1959.

ROSALIND NELSON JEWETT died from accidential injuries at her home in Athens, Georgia, on September 28, 2005. She was the daughter of Hugh J. Jewett, Jr., MD and Rosalind H. Jewett, late of Baltimore. She graduated from Calvert School, Garrison Forest School and University of the South at Suwanee, Tennessee. She is survived by her daughters, Francesca Jewett Slay and Lily Mc Leod Slay of Charleston, SC. A memorial service will be held on November 11, 2005 at noon at Cathedral of the Incarnation (Episcopal)

Even before Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers proposed that differences in the "intrinsic aptitudes" of men and women were the explanation for women's underrepresentation in the sciences, a plan to increase the number of female science and engineering students had been hatched by the Garrison Forest School and the Johns Hopkins University. Garrison Forest, an independent boarding and day school near Owings Mills, is partnering with Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering and Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences to bring high school girls into the science and engineering fields.

To submit an announcement, E-mail sports@baltimoresun.com. The announcement must include a valid E-mail address and phone number for verification. Coaching Garrison Forest School (www.gfs.org) is seeking qualified candidates to serve as Head Junior Varsity Field Hockey Coach and Assistant JV Field Hockey Coach for Fall 2005. Playing and coaching experienced required. Fall practice begins Wednesday, Aug. 17 and continues through Oct. 28, 2005. Send resume and references to: Kim Chorosiewski, Director of Athletics, Garrison Forest School, Owings Mills, Md. 21117.

To submit an announcement, E-mail sports@baltimoresun.com. The announcement must include a valid E-mail address and phone number for verification. Coaching Garrison Forest School is seeking a qualified candidate to fill the position of varsity girls lacrosse coach for Spring 2005. Prior coaching/playing experience is required. Send resume and references to: Kim Chorosiewski, Director of Athletics, Garrison Forest School, Owings Mills, Md. 21117. Or you can fax to (410)559-3445 or E-mail athletics@gfs.

Submit announcements regarding H.S. sports To submit an announcement, E-mail sports@baltimoresun.com. The announcement must include a valid E-mail address and phone number for verification. Coaching [ Garrison Forest School is seeking a qualified candidate to fill the position of varsity girls lacrosse coach for Spring 2005. Prior coaching/playing experience is required. Send resume and references to: Kim Chorosiewski, Director of Athletics, Garrison Forest School, Owings Mills, Md. 21117.

Coaching Garrison Forest School is seeking a qualified candidate to fill the position of varsity girls lacrosse coach for Spring 2005. Prior coaching/playing experience is required. Send resume and references to: Kim Chorosiewski, Director of Athletics, Garrison Forest School, Owings Mills, Md. 21117. Or you can fax to (410)559-3445 or E-mail athletics@gfs.org. To submit an announcement, E-mail sports@baltimoresun.com. The announcement must include a valid E-mail address and phone number for verification.

Submit announcements regarding H.S. sports To submit an announcement, E-mail sports@baltimoresun.com. The announcement must include a valid E-mail address and phone number for verification. Coaching Garrison Forest School is seeking a qualified candidate to fill the position of varsity girls lacrosse coach for Spring 2005. Prior coaching/playing experience is required. Send resume and references to: Kim Chorosiewski, Director of Athletics, Garrison Forest School, Owings Mills, Md. 21117.

Marianne Bodenheimer, a retired teacher of foreign languages at area private schools, died of heart and lung failure Sunday at a retirement community in Hightstown, N.J. She was 93. She was born and raised Marianne Schmidt in Nuremberg, Germany, and earned a doctorate in romance languages from the University of Munich in 1936. Dr. Bodenheimer fled the Nazis and settled in Baltimore in 1938. In 1942, she married Alfred Bodenheimer, a Johns Hopkins Hospital laboratory assistant. He died in 1966.

The National Merit Scholarship Corp. has announced the semifinalists for this year's National Merit Scholarship Program, 43 of whom are students from schools in Baltimore County. The Towson area had the most semifinalists with 16: Michael P. Benz and Gregory J. Bittle from Calvert Hall College High School; Anna Gorovoy, Kate A. Poole and Zachary M. Wilson from the Carver Center for Arts and Technology; Bernard J. Arnest from Loch Raven High School; Nicholas P. Ackerman, Timothy J. Aucott, Zachary S. Nevin and Robert C. Utz from Loyola Blakefield High School; and Thomas D. Beckwith, Rebecca R. Borsetti, Krista L. Gray, David R. Kreis, David K. Romney and Elena M. Vanko from Towson High School.