Our History
A BRIEF HISTORY OF DELBARTON SCHOOL
Based on the work of St. Mary's Abbey Abbey Archivist Fr. Benet W. Caffrey, O.S.B. (1931-2018)
The Morristown area, home of Delbarton, is 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 School campus.
In 1841, Martin Luther Kountze (koontz) was born in Osnaburg, Ohio, one of seven sons and five daughters of German immigrants Christian and Margaret Kountze. With his brothers Augustus and Herman, Luther went into banking in Omaha, Nebraska in 1857, founding The Kountze Brothers Bank (later First National Bank of Omaha in 1863). In 1862, Luther moved to Denver and opened a branch of the bank, adding his brother Charles as a partner in 1864. In 1866, the Denver bank was converted by Luther and Charles into the Colorado National Bank.
In 1867, Luther came to New York City, and in 1868 established a New York branch of The Kountze Brothers Bank. In 1875, he married Annie Ward Parsons, a descendant of two patrician New York families, the Barclays and the Delanceys.
The family prospered both economically and socially, and in the 1880s Luther Kountze followed many other prominent New York families in establishing an estate in northern New Jersey. Gradually, Kountze began to amass the nearly five thousand acres that ultimately included what are now the St. Mary’s Abbey and Delbarton School campus, Morristown National Historical Park and Lewis Morris County Park.
In 1883, in the northeast corner of his holdings, he completed a large stone mansion as a summer retreat and established a working farm with several outbuildings: a carriage house (destroyed by fire in 1947), stables, barns (one barn is today home to the current Buildings and Grounds Department), creamery (still used, but as an employee residence) and a chicken house known as a “chickenry.”
Luther and Annie Kountze had four children: Barclay Ward, William Delancey, Helen Livingston and Annie Ward. Borrowing a syllable from each of the first three children’s’ names, the estate was named Del-bar-ton.
Following Luther Kountze’s death from influenza on April 17, 1918, his heirs made several attempts to sell the Delbarton estate. The monks of St. Mary’s Abbey, then located in central Newark, New Jersey, were at the same time seeking a suburban setting for a house of studies for new members of the community. On December 1, 1925, St. Mary’s Abbey purchased approximately four hundred acres of the original estate, including the mansion, farmland and all of the outbuildings.
As the estate had not been well maintained for several years, and since there was no central heating in the main house, about a year and a half was needed to make the property suitable for Benedictine monastic life. In the fall of 1927, the first group of pioneering Benedictine professors and theological students from Newark took up permanent residence in the Kountze mansion (now known as “Old Main”) and its surrounding outbuildings. “St. Mary’s Abbey School of Theology” was born, and “St, Mary’s Monastery” was now a priory (dependent house) of St. Mary’s Abbey in Newark.
Not long after the seminary community settled into life at Delbarton, the idea of establishing a secondary school for boys began to germinate in this education-oriented Benedictine community, which had conducted St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark since 1868. After a false start in 1931 and the creation of the Diocese of Paterson in 1937, Abbot Patrick O’Brien, O.S.B. and pioneering Headmaster, Father Augustine Wirth, O.S.B., opened Delbarton School in September 1939 as a school for boarding and day students in the seventh and eighth grades. Eight boys graduated from the eighth grade in the following spring of 1940.
Under the energetic leadership of Father Stephen Findlay, O.S.B., who succeeded Father Augustine as Headmaster in 1942, high school grades were added beginning in 1944 until 1948, when the first high school commencement of twelve young men took place. The School’s enrollment gradually increased, but the School remained predominantly residential and small, with less than 200 students in grades 7-12 enrolled annually through the 1950s.
Despite its small size, Delbarton School gradually expanded its facilities. Father Stephen led the construction of the St. Joseph Gymnasium following the destruction of the Kountze carriage house by fire in 1947. The carriage house had served as a gymnasium and dormitory for 26 boys. In the wake of the fire, Father Stephen appropriately chose Delbarton School’s motto, Succisa Virescit ("cut down it grows again"), borrowed from the motto of often destroyed Abbey of Monte Cassino in Italy.
The opening of Trinity Hall in 1959, the first purpose-built academic building on campus, was another transformative moment in Delbarton's history. With widespread suburbanization and the advent of the Interstate Highway System, enrollment rapidly rose in the 1960s 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 Delbarton’s first Director of Development. In 1971, the Schmeil-O’Brien Hall dormitory (now the St. Mary's Abbey Retreat Center) was dedicated, but the tide had been strongly set in favor of day students for some time.
Delbarton’s fourth headmaster, Father Gerard Lair, O.S.B. (1975-1980), initiated major changes in School life. The traditional system of discipline, with demerits and detention, was eliminated in favor of "discipline by conversation," designed to bring about positive changes in boys. The academic prestige of the School grew, and, most significantly, in 1978 the monastic community ended new admissions to the residential program. The last boarders graduated in 1984.
Campus facilities continued to expand in the 1980s and 1990s, with dedications of the Lynch Athletic Center in 1983, the Father Stephen Findlay Pavilion in 1995, the Fine Arts Center in 2007, and the Forty Acres and North Field complexes in 2010. The student body continued to grow to the current level of approximately 640 students. Since its inception, Delbarton has graduated over 5,500 men, many of whom have distinguished themselves in service to nation, Church and community.
In March 2006, the monastic community elected former Headmaster Father Giles Hayes, O.S.B. '56 (1980-85, 1995-99) as the tenth Abbot of St. Mary’s Abbey, the first Delbarton alumnus to assume that vital leadership role. In July 2007, Delbarton welcomed Brother Paul Diveny, O.S.B. as its eleventh Headmaster. Brother Paul was the first non-ordained Benedictine to lead Delbarton School. In March 2014, Abbot Giles was succeeded by Father Richard Cronin. O.S.B. as the eleventh Abbot of St. Mary’s Abbey.
After a successful eleven-year tenure as Headmaster, in which Delbarton was strengthened financially, in its facilities, and in the vibrancy of its Benedictine and Catholic school culture and values, Brother Paul retired in June 2018. Father Michael Tidd, O.S.B. was appointed as Delbarton’s twelfth Headmaster by Abbot Richard in November 2017, assuming office in July 2018.
In May 2021, Delbarton celebrated the opening of its newest academic building, St. Benedict Hall, adding a new library (Khubani Library), a Guidance Center and three classrooms. In May 2023, the Pizzo Family Field House at Regan Stadium was dedicated. This most recent addition to Delbarton’s campus added locker room, practice and workout facilities for seven different sports, and public amenities (bathrooms, concessions, event space) for spectators, parents and alumni.