Our History
DELBARTON SCHOOL : A SUMMARY HISTORY
(By Fr. Benet Caffrey)
Delbarton is situated among the hills of Morris County, an area rich in history. During the notorious winter of 1779 - 1780 The Continental Army made its winter quarters in Jockey Hollow, now part of the Morristown National Historical Park, adjacent to what is now the St. Mary’s Abbey/Delbarton campus.
In the late 19th century Luther, a son of German immigrants, in a reversal of the usual western movement, came east from Denver, and established Kountze Brothers, a Wall Street banking firm. In 1875 he married a descendant of two old New York families, the Barclays and the Delanceys. In the 1880s Luther Kountze began to amass the four thousand acre estate which included what are now Morristown National Historical Park and Lewis Morris County Park. He developed the northeast corner of his holdings as a summer retreat with a large stone mansion, a working farm and several outbuildings such as a carriage house and stables, which later served as Delbarton’s first gymnasium. The mansion was completed in 1883.
Luther Kountze had four children: Barclay Ward, William Delancey, Helen Livingston and Annie Ward. The estate was evidently named by borrowing a syllable from each of the first three children’s’ names. Upon the death of Luther Kountze in 1918 the estate was sold.
In 1925 the monks of Saint Mary’s Abbey, then in the center of the city of Newark, seeking a house of studies for young members of the community purchased approximately four hundred acres of the Delbarton estate, including the mansion and farm. In the fall of 1927 the first group of pioneering professors and theological students took up permanent residence and began monastic and academic life at Delbarton.
Soon the idea of establishing a secondary school began to germinate in this education oriented Benedictine community which already conducted St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark. Led by Abbot Patrick M. O’Brien, Delbarton School opened as a boarding school in 1939 with sixth, seventh and eighth grades and with Father Augustine Wirth as the pioneering Headmaster. Eight boys were graduated from the eighth grade the following spring.
Under the energetic leadership of Father Stephen Findlay who became Headmaster in 1942, grades were added until in 1948 the first upper school commencement of twelve young men took place. Numbers increased but the School remained predominantly residential. Father Stephen led the construction of the St. Joseph gymnasium following the destruction of the old Kountze carriage house/gymnasium in the disastrous fire of 1947. It was about this time that the School appropriately chose as its motto, Succisa Virescit, cut down it grows again. Trinity Hall was built in 1959 and the enrollment increased to over 300, the majority now day students, a harbinger of the School’s future. Father Stephen retired in 1967 after 25 years as Headmaster but continued as Director of Development. In 1971 the Schmeil-O’Brien Hall dormitory was dedicated.
Headmaster Father Gerard Lair (1975-1980) inititated major changes in the School. The traditional system of discipline, with demerits and detention, was scrapped in favor of a culture of conversation led by class moderators designed to bring about positive changes in a boy through dialogue. The academic prestige of the School grew, and, most significantly, in 1978 the Board of Trustees made the decision to terminate the residential program.
Campus facilities have continued to expand with dedications of the Lynch Athletic Center in 1983, the Findlay Science Pavilion in 1995, the Fine Arts Center in 2007, and the addition of outdoor athletic facilities. The student body continued to grow to the current level of some 540 students. Since its inception Delbarton has graduated over 4,000 men, many of whom have distinguished themselves by service to their local communities, their church and their country.
In March of 2006, the monastic community elected former Headmaster Father Giles Hayes as Abbot of Saint Mary’s and President of Delbarton School, and in the fall of 2007 Delbarton welcomed Brother Paul Diveny as its tenth Headmaster.
