HISTORY OF THE CATALINA ISLAND SCHOOL, TOYON BAY, 1928–1943

WILLIAM W. BUSHING

StarThrower Educational Multimedia, P.O. Box 849, Avalon, CA 90704; bushing@post.harvard.edu

ABSTRACT—Well before most existing educational institutions had been established on the ChannelIslands, Toyon Bay on Santa Catalina Island was the home of the prestigious Catalina Island School forBoys (CISB). This exclusive preparatory school was established with the help of the Wrigley family, andits board of directors included members from many prominent California families. Graduates from CISB'sacademic program attended Harvard, Yale, Stanford and other prestigious universities. Following thebombing of Pearl Harbor and America's entry into World War II, the school relocated temporarily to themainland and then closed.

Keywords: Catalina Island School, Keith Vosburg, Santa Catalina Island, Toyon Bay

INTRODUCTION

In the late 1920s educator Keith Vosburg had avision to establish a boarding school for grades 7–12 that combined the character-building aspects ofthe Boy Scout program with a high qualityclassical education like those offered by the bestBritish schools such as Eton and Rugby. Helocated it on Santa Catalina Island (hereafterCatalina) where he felt the students would beremoved from the bright lights and distractions ofthe city and be surrounded by the outdoors. Bykeeping the students active, they would not reflecton the social isolation and instead would takeadvantage of the island setting (Anonymous 1966).

Vosburg was well educated with B.A. degreesfrom both the University of California and Oxford,as well as an M.A. from Harvard. He originallyhoped to earn a Ph.D. in history and teach at theUniversity of California, but his plans wereinterrupted with the outbreak of World War I(Anonymous 1966). Prior to U.S. involvement,Vosburg served with American Ambulance inFrance and enlisted in the U.S. Army whenAmerica entered the war (Anonymous 1966).

During his graduate education Vosburg taughtcollege students. Following the War he became thescoutmaster of a Los Angeles area Boy Scouttroop. It was here he discovered that he preferredworking with boys in their formative years morethan those in college, and formulated his vision for

the school. His focus on Santa Catalina Island asthe new school’s location required contactingWilliam Wrigley Jr., founder of the Chicago-basedchewing gum company and head of the SantaCatalina Island Company (SCICo), which ownedmost of the island at the time.

Vosburg and architect Robert Johnson visitedCatalina in 1927 and chose Toyon Bay as thedesired site for the school. He contacted classmateJames Gibson, a lawyer with the prestigious firmGibson, Dunn and Crutcher which represented Mr.Wrigley in Los Angeles. A meeting was arrangedwith Mr. Wrigley and included prominent LosAngeles residents Morgan Adams, StuartO'Melveny, James Page, Lyman McFie and GeraldYoung. The school was given a 50-year lease.Those in attendance all became board members ofthe newly formed Catalina Island School for Boys(CISB) and contributed toward the $100,000 start-up costs, with additional donations coming fromWilliam Kerckhoff, William Keck, Allan Balchand others.

There were few existing facilities available atToyon Bay. During the Banning ownership of theisland (1892–1919), the school site became knownas Banning's Beach since the family used it forpicnics. The earliest recorded use was as CampBanning, a camp for reform school boys and girlsoperated by the Whittier State School from 1902until they relocated to neighboring Gallagher'sCove in 1912. In 1912 it was reportedly used by

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the Los Angeles YMCA and in 1916 by the LosAngeles Boy Scout Council. By 1919, the year Mr.Wrigley acquired ownership of the island throughpurchase of SCICo stock, it housed the Pasadena-San Gabriel Boy Scout Camp. It is possible thatVosburg first became interested in Toyon if he wasinvolved with the Scout camp.

Initial construction of the school was limited toa lower quadrangle used for dormitories, officesand dining, and the initial row of classrooms (Fig.1). These structures were built about 200 yards upthe canyon from the shoreline where they would beless obtrusive from the water. The playing fieldwas graded between the buildings and the beach,and a wharf was built. The school relied on anatural spring until water, power and telephoneservice were brought in from Avalon in 1932.CISB opened on 21 September 1928, with 14 boysenrolled in grades 8 through 10. Keith Vosburgserved as headmaster with Anson Thacher, BennettPreble and Henry Parkinson as the teachers, ormasters as they were known. Only classes requiredfor the college entrance examination board weretaught. The school’s history as presented below isbased largely on two sources, the school’snewspaper The Wheel and school catalogs unlessotherwise cited.

The School Grows And Establishes AcademicExcellence

The early success of the school's educationaland Scouting programs resulted in 32 boysenrolling in the fall of 1929. A second or upperquadrangle of dormitories and faculty housing, asecond row of classrooms and a library were built

during the spring and summer of its second year ofoperation to accommodate the increasingenrollment. By 1930, 44 boys were in attendancewith a 10th grade graduating class of seven. Thefaculty (Fig. 2) now included Roland Hermes,Martin Perry, Samuel Jepperson, ShermanThacher, Robert Heilbron and Ken Robinson, whowould later become assistant headmaster. ReginaldSheldrick served as business manager and dramacoach.

In the beginning the student body wasorganized on the basis of the Boy Scout troopmodel. Initially, each student was expected toachieve the rank of Eagle Scout, and then go on tobecome a Sea Scout. Each dormitory represented apatrol (Fig. 3). These units served as the basis forliving arrangements, intramural athleticcompetition and other school activities. The patrolshad varying names including Torqua, Bald Eagle,Flying Fish, Bald Eagle, Pirate, Albatross,Buccaneer, Barracuda, Pirates and the OlderGroup.

During the first year, with only the 8–10thgrades present, the masters oversaw thedormitories and patrols. Each student's dorm roomwas inspected daily (Fig. 4). Students wore khakishirts and shorts as their daily uniforms. Due to thehigh humidity of their maritime location, theschool buildings were often cold in winter.Originally there were fireplaces built in thecommon rooms of each dormitory, but no centralheating. In late 1938, new stove oil heaters wereadded to the common rooms, which were used bythe boys in the evening.

Figure 1. The lower quadrangle of the Catalina Island Schoolfor Boys under construction in 1927–1928.

Figure 2. The early faculty of the Catalina Island School forBoys in the school’s lower quadrangle outside the office.

CATALINA ISLAND SCHOOL 1928-1943 163

Each week one of the faculty served as the"master of the week" and was largely responsiblefor overseeing the daily activities and events.Later, when the upper grades were added, studentleaders known as prefects were selected by acommittee of faculty and the "Older Group," thoseboys 16 years or older. By 1932 the Scoutingprogram had lost appeal for the older boys andbecame elective for them, but the younger studentswere still required to participate. In 1935 it wasdecided to make the program elective for allstudents.

Later, membership in the Older Group requireda student to be at least 16 years old and in the 11th

grade or higher. The older boys were allowed towear blue shirts instead of the traditional khaki,further distinguishing them from the youngerstudents. Additional privileges included the use ofboats without a master present, an additional movierun to Avalon, permission for two or moremembers to camp unsupervised, and occasionaltrips to the other Channel Islands. By 1938,complaints about too many prefect privileges werebeing voiced, yet in 1939 seniors were givenprivileges separate from those of the Older Groupfor the first time. These included late lights, oneextra weekend and town permission on Saturdays.The younger group also had its special activities,such as a war canoe outing to White's Landing eachyear.

The school day began with reveille at 7:00AM. Breakfast was served at 7:15, followed by themorning dormitory inspection at 7:45 and morningassembly at 8:00. Classes were held from 8:15 AM

to 1:10 PM with a break at 11:00 for a snackknown as “morning lunch.” Lunch at 1:15 wasfollowed by detention from 2:00–2:45 for thoseboys who had earned punishment, and games from2:40–5:00. A final academic session precededdinner which was served at 6:15. In the tradition ofthe best British schools, this meal was formal andrequired a blue blazer, gray flannel slacks andschool tie. The assembly and headmaster’s readingfollowed at 7:15, with study hall or room studyfrom 7:45–9:00. Taps sounded at 9:30 for theyounger boys and 10:00 for the Older Group.

A highlight of the day was when KeithVosburg read from a current book to the boysgathered in front of the fireplace in the largecommon room. The day's mail was distributedfollowing the reading. By 1938, other activities inthe common room included discussion of currentevents on Mondays, talks by the school masters onTuesdays, debates on Wednesdays and communitysing-a-longs on Thursdays.

Tuition the first year was $2,000 whichincluded all spending money, clothing, books andother needs. Each boy received the sameequipment, clothing and 50 cents a week forspending money, thus eliminating any obvioussocio-economic differences. Although moststudents came from wealthy backgrounds, about10% received paid scholarships to the school. Thefollowing year, accounts for money from homewere allowed but only for special purposes.

The Great Depression hit the West Coast in1929, just as CISB was establishing its academicand athletic reputation. The school struggled

Figure 3. A dormitory Boy Scout patrol standing at attention forinspection in the school’s lower quadrangle.

Figure 4. Student dressed for formal dinner studying in hisredwood paneled dormitory room.

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financially during this period, without benefit ofthe alumni support possible at more establishedschools, but still made great strides. Following thestock market collapse, tuition dropped to $1,600 in1930, with an additional $250 fee for haircuts,laundry and "amusement." If a student receivedgifts of candy, cake and other edibles from home,they had to be shared with the rest of his patrol. In1936 tuition had dropped to $1,500 plus a set fee of$350.

In 1938 the school switched from a trimester toa semester-based grading system. The schoollibrary was used for study hall. Members of theOlder Group were given room study privileges, butwere also required to supervise evening study hallfor the younger students. Headmaster Vosburg feltthose excelling in academics needed morerecognition since athletic honors were alreadyplentiful. Students earning a B- or better gradeaverage received an extra day on their mainlandweekend.

In 1937 each of CISB’s four Harvardcandidates received honor grades in the collegeentrance examinations, earning the school specialrecognition from Harvard. In 1938, a team fromCISB won the Cal Tech chemistry trophy incompetition with schools from all over southernCalifornia. That same year a student was awarded aspecial grade over the maximum by the collegeentrance examination board in Latin, and the samestudent repeated this achievement the followingyear in mathematics.

As a part of the attempt to build sound bodiesand minds, the school emphasized good nutritionand exercise. For a while each of the two quads hadtheir own dining hall. In 1936, all students ate in theupper dining hall, and a committee was formed tohear complaints about the food, an action "neededfor some time" according to an article in The Wheel.Sunday dinner was later deemed optional except forthose boys on nurse Gilbert's "underweight list."Honey was supplied to the school from 30 beehivesoperated in 1935 by master Robinson (1979). In1937 food on the island was being rationed due tothe threat of a cross-channel steamer strike. Aboutthis time masters Thacher and Paul Sherbert (later aheadmaster of the post-War school) started achicken ranch. Apparently fewer eggs were eatenthan were thrown at various targets around campus.In 1940, Mr. Vosburg's dogs ate the chickens,

putting a stop to this enterprise. Other masters andfaculty wives started vegetable gardens.

A daily calisthenics program was instituted in1931–32. The school even took pictures of thestudents before and after this program to illustrateimprovement in each boy's posture. At the end of1933, The Wheel voiced student complaints about"those awful hikes to Little Harbor," an annual 16-mile hike to the other side of the island institutedby Vosburg as part of the outdoor experience. In1938, grade cards included not only a student'sgrades and rank in class, but also their height andweight changes.

Extracurricular ActivitiesAthletics were considered an important part of

the school program. Organized sports over theyears included field hockey, soccer, touch football,tennis, baseball, basketball, rugby, track, wrestling,speedball, and badminton. Vosburg believed thatthe close association between students and masterson the athletic field helped to break down barriersbetween them, and made the masters moreeffective counselors and confidants in the boardingschool environment (Anonymous 1966). Theincreased student enrollment allowed participationin inter-scholastic athletics with other regionalprivate schools including Thacher, Cate, Midland,Laguna Blanca and Webb.

In addition to the academic and athleticactivities, Vosburg believed in the value of the arts,teaching current events and other activities. Aspecial morning period was set aside for theseactivities. Masters and students would give talksand read poetry during this period. SamuelJepperson served as the music master, spendingthree or four days a week on campus teaching musicclasses and leading the orchestra. The rest of thetime he lead an orchestra in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Student activities were indeed numerous.Saturday evening entertainment was provided forby the patrols, and one year the school's commonroom was converted into a gambling casino. Anastronomy club was formed and built a 6-inchreflecting scope to take advantage of the island'sclear skies. Other clubs included model trains,photography, arts and crafts, model building,microscope, gas powered model airplanes,dramatics, art, carpentry, German band and radio.The amateur radio station W5ENK, horseshoe

CATALINA ISLAND SCHOOL 1928-1943 165

contests, checkers tournaments and experimentalrocket building were all popular clubs.

Other activities included woodshop whichgave the boys an opportunity to build variousthings with the ulterior motive being to avoidbreaking the maintenance department's tools.Unfortunately one of the woods chosen by thestudents to carve was the island's endemicironwood subspecies (Lyonothamnus floribundus).One student found diversion panning for gold inthe back canyon. Archaeological activities wereintroduced, perhaps heightened by the discovery ofa Native American midden by the beach. Wideningthe school's drainage ditch after major rainstormsunearthed an Indian skull which the studentsnamed "Uncle Louie." In 1938 a gun club wasestablished in "tennis court canyon" (later calledrifle range canyon).

Special events included the spring dance,Parent's Day, and later an Alumni Day in June afterthe school's alumni association was formed in1936. Since students in 1930 were only allowedone weekend on the mainland each term, they wereanxious to have their mainland girlfriends over forthe dance. The other two events featured a father-son baseball game and student-alumni competitionin field hockey, baseball and soccer. The annualcostume banquet was also a big hit, especially in1935 when a student dressed as Adolf Hitler wonfirst prize and a group dressed as the Dionequintuplets and their parents received second prize.

Wildlife was also a part of the schoolexperience. Rattlesnakes were often killed aroundcampus, especially in the warm spring weather,because they were a hazard to the faculty childrenand students. In February of 1935, The Wheelmentions "50 boar" being released on Catalina,which were brought to the island to control therattlesnake population (Robinson 1979). Feralgoats already existed on the island, and the youngof both introduced species often became studentpets, with pigs named Pauline and Augustusbecoming quite popular. Each year new studentswould go out to catch a goat kid (Fig. 5). Vosburgrequired them to show responsibility and takeproper care of the young animals. The boys soontired of such responsibility and tried releasing thekids back into the canyon, but the goats wouldoften beat their caregiver back to campus.Eventually they were paddled by canoe to more

remote canyons and released there. By 1940 it wasnecessary to erect a barbed wire fence around theschool to exclude the bison and Mr. Wrigley'scattle. At one point killer whales reportedly almostupset a group of three war canoes with 11 studentsin each, which were returning from Avalon(Robinson 1979).

As the school population increased, the olderstudents and masters apparently felt the need forsome escape. In the 1930–1931 academic year ashack was built by the "Older Group" on the southhill above the school, and later another shack on ahill in the canyon behind the school. Shackmembers were initially selected by other shackmembers. They were allowed to sleep overnight intheir shacks; parties were held with cider, gingerale and cinnamon toast. Initially belonging only toshack members, the shacks were later deemedOlder Group common property.

By December of 1932, the masters followedsuit, clearing a path to the top of the opposite hilland acquiring lumber to build their own shack (Fig.6). As faculty, they had a major advantage.Students worked off demerits on Saturdays haulingtwo tons of lumber, four tons of rocks for thechimney, and 96 pound sacks of cement up to theshack's site (Robinson 1979). Remnants of thesethree structures still can be seen today.

Discipline and Work CrewsDespite its stellar reputation, CISB was not

immune to disciplinary problems. In the winter of1932–33 there must have been some petty theft atthe school, since Headmaster Vosburg wrote inThe Wheel that "masters do not search boys' rooms

Figure 5. Two students dressed in Boy Scout uniforms takingcare of their pet wild goat.

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for contraband candy or unreturned money"because "members of this school are honest." Thiswas written in the spirit of maintaining closerelationships between the masters and students asVosburg felt it was better than "open warfare"between them. In 1940 there was an editorial aboutstudents acting like "hoodlums" in public.

The students created an honor code and bannedsuch activities as smoking, drinking andunauthorized absence from campus. An HonorCommittee was created to enforce the rules andpunish violators. In 1936 the Older Group waspermitted to smoke for the first time, but thefollowing year they voted not to allow it. The earlydisciplinary system of Saturday morning detentionwas replaced in 1937 with a system involvingphysical labor on the afternoon of the infraction.Tasks assigned included pulling weeds, scrubbingthe patios, clearing the drainage ditch, and washingschool windows.

In 1934 two major rainstorms caused seriousdamage to the campus, and a school holiday wascalled to make repairs. The second storm destroyedmuch of the work completed after the first one. Theexisting storm drainage ditch was widened toaccommodate future storm runoff, requiring newbridges to be built across it. It took a tractor fromAvalon four days to cut a new trail down to campusand to clear debris from the soccer field.Eucalyptus groves were planted higher up thecanyon to provide some measure of flood control,preventing large branches and rocks from tumblingdownstream to the school grounds, and forfirewood. At the same time the large cottonwood

trees that stood down by the pier were removed tomake way for a second soccer field.

These tasks were referred to as the school's"New Deal WPA," a reference to PresidentFranklin Delano Roosevelt’s Works ProgressAdministration economic recovery program, andschool work details were still called this as late as1941. The initial eucalyptus grove washed away inthe later flood, so 800 new trees were planted witha total of 1,600 planned. By late 1938 some 1,500trees were already 40 feet tall. Apparently studentsshowed a lack of interest in the work crews, sopermanent jobs were assigned in 1938 giving eachstudent a specific responsibility on campus. Theseincluded tennis court repair, beach cleanup,painting buildings, electrical repair, landscaping,forestry, cutting firewood, trail building, cleaningthe ditch and leveling school roads. In addition tohelping build character, this may also have been aresponse to the prevailing economic hard times.

World War II and the Move to the MainlandBy 1940 the school had weathered the worst of

the Depression while maintaining its highstandards. However, the international climatewould soon change this when Japanese forcesbombed Pearl Harbor. In the few days following thebombing the school was blacked out like most ofsouthern California. Its faculty patrolled thewaterfront, reportedly armed with a large caliberrifle, shotguns and .22 caliber target rifles from thegun club.

Robinson (1979) reported that the students leftCatalina on December 10th for an extendedChristmas holiday. The faculty and parents met inthe home of Hollywood screenwriter FrancesMarion and agreed to keep the boys on the islandfor safety. As they left the meeting, newsboys werehawking papers with the headline "EXTRA- ShipSunk by Torpedo in Catalina Channel." Thedecision was immediately reversed.

The military soon ordered boat service fromthe island to cease. It was evident the school couldno longer continue at the Toyon Bay site, and anew location was sought. The Webb School inClaremont extended an invitation to share itsfacilities. On 2 January 1942, 40 boys and 14faculty and family members convened there. TheWebb gymnasium became the CISB dormitory,and the library their study hall. The Webb School

Figure 6. The faculty shack, later known as “The Shrine,” on ahilltop high above campus.

CATALINA ISLAND SCHOOL 1928-1943 167

dining rooms, classrooms and laboratories wereshared between the two schools until April.

During this period Keith Vosburg taughtduring the week and on weekends scouted for anew interim location for CISB, until the end of thewar would allow them to return to Catalina. Theformer Deane School facility, located on thecurrent Westmont College campus in Montecito,was available (Shelton 1979). Ken Robinsonreturned to the Toyon facility to load the beds,classroom and laboratory equipment, books andother school belongings onto a chartered barge tothe mainland. Once on the mainland, eight Bekinmoving vans completed the move from the port toMontecito.

Abandoned since 1934, the Montecito facilitywas in great need of repair and CISB raised$10,000 to address this. Wartime priorities madeextensive repairs very difficult, but an effort wasmade to make the new site functional. Severallong-term faculty from the school enlisted in themilitary, reducing the teaching staff. For theremainder of this one academic year, classes weretaught at Montecito. There was reference in the1941–43 school catalog of the need to return to asimpler life involving respectable manual labor andless wastage of natural resources. Perhaps this wasin response to student disinterest in the formerwork crews, as well as resource conservation madenecessary by wartime conditions.

In 1943 Curtis Cate, headmaster of the CateSchool in Carpenteria, suggested the merger of thetwo schools. At that time the Cate facilities werenot being used to capacity and the union madegood sense. The resulting school was known as theCate and Vosburg School until 1946. In essence,the Catalina Island School had ceased to exist, andKeith Vosburg's dream appeared to have died.After 1943, Vosburg taught at the Webb andThacher schools as well as at Scripps College.Little did he realize then that his dream would berevived when the school reopened in its formerlocation in 1964.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This paper is dedicated to the memory ofHenry "Hank" O'Melveny, an alumnus of theoriginal CISB, father of two sons who alsograduated from the school in the 1960s and 1970s,board member and strong supporter of the post-War school. As a student, Hank developed a lovefor Catalina that continued until his death in 2003.He served as a board member of the CatalinaConservancy and helped bring two of its supportgroups, the yachting Marineros and the CatalinaConservancy Divers (CCD), together in support ofthe CCD marine research and education efforts.The author served as head of the science and mathdepartments, senior master and assistantheadmaster of the school from 1969 until it closedin 1979. He co-founded the Catalina Island SchoolAlumni Association (CISAA) in 1983.

REFERENCES

Anonymous. 1966. Unpublished and unattributedaccount of the pre-War school entitled "TheCatalina Island School for Boys" with a CISBlibrary accession date of 25 July 1966. It isbelieved this may have been written by KeithVosburg following the reopening of the schoolin 1964.

Robinson, K.H. 1979. Unpublished biographyprovided by his son Alan Robinson. 18–37 pp.

Shelton, D. 1979. Unpublished letter from DavidShelton, Director of the Deane School Projectat Westmont College, to William W. Bushingdated 5 October 1979.

Additional information for this document wasgathered from a variety of sources includingschool catalogs for the Catalina Island Schoolfor Boys from 1928–1967, and volumes of theschool newspaper, The Wheel, from 1932–1966.