Keswick Christian School is a private,

pre-Kindergarten Pre-kindergarten (also called Pre-K or PK) is a voluntary classroom-based preschool program for children below the age of five in the United States, Canada, Turkey and Greece (when kindergarten starts). It may be delivered through a preschool ...

twelfth grade Twelfth grade, 12th grade, senior year, or grade 12 is the final year of secondary school in most of North America. In other regions, it may also be referred to as class 12 or Year 13. In most countries, students are usually between the ages of 17 ...

, Christian school in the outlying area of

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

. It was founded as Grace Livingston Hill Memorial School in 1953. It had an enrollment of around 650 students in 2007. It has an interdenominational student body, mostly of Protestant background. The campus spans , set among tall oak trees reminiscent of its once rural surroundings, and is about half of a mile outside

Seminole, Florida Seminole is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 19,364 at the 2020 census. History The first white settlement at Seminole was made in the 1840s. This community was named after the Seminole tribe whose descendant ...

, whose city council annexed the school into its city limits in 2000.Norton, Wilma (July 13, 2000). "School's Growth Concerns Neighbors." ''

St Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

''. Retrieved April 9, 2007, from Lexis Nexis Academic. The school is accredited by the

Association of Christian Schools International The Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), founded in 1978, is an association of evangelical Christian schools. Its headquarters are in Colorado Springs, Colorado. History ACSI was founded in 1978 through the merger of three as ...

and the

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is an educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. This agency accredits over 13,000 public and priv ...

Founding

Following a temporary location started with help from Roy Gustafson and her other friends at "the Baptist Church on 22nd Avenue South" in St. Petersburg in 1952, Ruth Munce founded

Grace Livingston Hill Grace Livingston Hill (April 16, 1865 – February 23, 1947) was an early 20th-century novelist and wrote both under her real name and the pseudonym Marcia Macdonald. She wrote over 100 novels and numerous short stories. Her characters were mos ...

Memorial School in 1953, naming it after her mother, an author of more than 100 Christian-themed romance novels.Miller, Betty Jean (May 30, 1988). "Unhappy with Public Education, She Founded a Christian School." '' St.Petersburg Times''. Retrieved April 5, 2007, from Lexis Nexis Academic. Munce felt called by God to establish this private educational facility because no other Christian school existed in Pinellas County, so she purchased a site, an old chicken farm off Seminole Boulevard on the outskirts of

. Munce's philosophy that "God would be the sum of the equation, the Bible a textbook" was put into motion. Classes were held in the chicken house and log cabin-style farmhouse.Rosen, Christine (January 3, 2006
Book Excerpt: "My Fundamentalist Education"
Retrieved April 7, 2007. Munce taught Bible and English courses and remained principal of the school for 15 years, bringing enrollment to as many as 200 students a year. In 1968, at age 70, she undertook an eight-year stint teaching at Nairobi Bible Institute in Kenya.Basse, Craig (April 25, 2001)
Keswick School Founder Dies at 103
''

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

''. Retrieved April 3, 2007.

Name change and growth

Headquartered on the same site as the school were Keswick radio stations,

WKES WKES (91.1 MHz) is a non-commercial, listener-supported FM radio station broadcasting a Christian talk and teaching radio format. Licensed to Lakeland, Florida, it serves the Tampa Bay area from its studios at Keswick Christian School in Seminol ...

-FM and WGNB AM, and the Southern Keswick Bible Conference. Bill Caldwell operated these facilities, and to him, Munce turned over the school in 1961. The following year, the school name was changed to Keswick Christian School to reflect its new ownership. The Keswick name is said to come from a holiness movement that originated in Keswick, England, in the late nineteenth century. By 1970, the school's enrollment rose to 480 students, giving the board of directors ample reason to expand the school to offer a senior high, which was completed in 1975 with the first senior class graduating in 1978. Also around this time, the school became a mission of

Moody Bible Institute Moody Bible Institute (MBI) is a private evangelical Christian Bible college founded in the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois, US by evangelist and businessman Dwight Lyman Moody in 1886. Historically, MBI has maintained positions that have i ...

in Chicago, an affiliation that lasted 18 years. The school espouses a

fundamentalist Christian Christian fundamentalism, also known as fundamental Christianity or fundamentalist Christianity, is a religious movement emphasizing biblical literalism. In its modern form, it began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries among British and ...

worldview, as Keswick alumnus Christine Rosen describes in her book, ''My Fundamentalist Education''. Moving into the 1980s, school officials broke ground in February 1983 for constructing a new library, but to do so, part of Keswick's history was removed. The early log-cabin farmhouse, where Keswick's first classes were held, was partially demolished, Leaving only one room, maintained for elementary music classes. The library was named Ruth Munce Library after the school's founder.Laurenzo, Catherine, ed. ''Tradition: Crusader 1983 Yearbook'', p. 76. In the early 1990s, the Upham Music Building was constructed to better accommodate band and choral instruction and rehearsal.

Parting ways with Moody

In 1996, Moody Bible Institute decided that their future focus would be solely on higher education, so the college amicably parted ways with Keswick. Moody sold its conference center property, established in 1962 on Lake Kersky, including a 48-room lodge, a 550-seat chapel and three homes, to Keswick for $600,000. A fundraising campaign ensued to fund the purchase; however, this was only the beginning of the school's endeavors to reach new goals through a capital campaign.

Moody Radio Moody Radio is one of the largest Christian radio networks in the United States. Located in downtown Chicago, Moody Radio has 71 owned and operated stations

's FM radio station,

, located on the property was not a part of this transaction. , Moody continues to own and operate WKES from studios on the school's campus, although the station's

city of license In American, Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American broa ...

is now officially Lakeland.

Foundations for the future

In 1999, school officials announced their expansion plans to add a two-story building that would house administrative offices, classrooms and a state-of-the-art media center.Byrne, Maureen (November 12, 2001). "Keswick Abandons Plan for Building."

. Retrieved April 9, 2007, from Lexis Nexis Academic The following year, the Seminole city council changed the school's unincorporated status with

Pinellas County Pinellas County (, ) is a county located on the west central coast of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 959,107. The county is part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg– Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical ...

, annexing it into Seminole city limits. At a Seminole city council meeting in July 2000, neighbors of the school aired their grievances concerning the expansion. They argued the proposed building would change the look of the neighborhood and generate more traffic and noise. This council meeting, however, was not to discuss the school's expansion but to decide its request for rezoning it from residential status to public/semipublic status. The re-designation was granted after tough debate. In 2001, Keswick officials scrapped the plan for the large, two-story building; instead, minor modifications were made, such as installing a fence on the grounds along 54th Avenue, building a paved running track, improving drainage and paving dirt parking lots. Despite the false start, Keswick embarked on a three-year capital campaign called Foundations for the Future in 2003, the fiftieth anniversary of the school. The $4.5 million campaign was completed in 2007. Highlights of the campaign include a new senior high school building; a refurbished preschool and new two-year-old program; and a relocated junior high buildin

Notable alumni

Neil Amato
(class of 1988), sports writer

The Star-News ''Star-News'' is an American, English language daily newspaper for Wilmington, North Carolina, and its surrounding area (known as the Lower Cape Fear). It is North Carolina's oldest newspaper in continuous publication. It was owned by Halifax Me ...

Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is the ...

^non-graduate
Christa Benton
(class of 2001), winning long-distance runner * Bruce G. Blowers (class of 2004), singer-songwriter ^non-graduate
Jonathan Davenport
(class of 1993), artist, animator *

Samantha Dorman The following women have appeared in the American or international edition of ''Playboy'' magazine as Playmate of the Month. Those who were also named Playmate of the Year are highlighted in green. A common misconception is that Marilyn Monroe was ...

(Class of 1987), fashion model, actress ^non-graduate
Kirk Hoffman
(class of 2002), 2004 Olympics Judo Team alternate, 2005 World Judo Championship Team
Kris Ingeneri, Ph.D.
(class of 1990), scientist,

ORNL Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research and ...

International Atomic Energy Agency The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 ...

Nick Ingeneri
(class of 1991), artist, animator *

Dan Lothian Dan Lothian is founder of Little Park Media and a former CNN White House correspondent. Prior to covering the White House, Lothian was CNN's Boston Bureau Chief. He traveled across New England and around the country for CNN covering politics and ...

(class of 1982),

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

correspondent
John Mark McManus
(class of 1988), poet
Natalie (Nichols) Gillespie
(class of 1985), author & journalist ^non-graduate
Jeremy Rasmussen
(class of 1985), ''

'' sports writer,

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...

winner, and instructor at USF
Timothy Rasmussen
(class of 1991), Director of Production at

Worship Network The Worship Network, or Worship, was a broadcast television service that provided alternative Christian worship-themed programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The network was based in Nashville, Tennessee, in the United States, and is av ...

* Gabrielle Reece (Class of 1987), professional beach volleyball player, fashion model, author & columnist
Christine (Stolba) Rosen, Ph.D.
(class of 1990), author, historian, scholar ^non-graduate
John Mark Joseph, M.B.A.
(class of 2007), Lockheed Martin

References

External links

Keswick Christian School
Official school web site
"Keswick Christian School — State Soccer Champions 1983"
stories and pictures of boys' soccer championship {{Coord, 27.8225251, -82.7789909, display=title Christian schools in Florida Private elementary schools in Florida Private middle schools in Florida Educational institutions established in 1953 Moody Bible Institute High schools in Pinellas County, Florida Private high schools in Florida 1953 establishments in Florida