The Roeper School is a private

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

day school, with campuses in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

and

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Bloomfield Hills is a small city (5.04 sq. miles) in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is approximately northwest of Downtown Detroit. Except a small southern border with the city of Bir ...

Greater Detroit The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the ...

, serving students at all levels from

preschool A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary school ...

through the 12th grade. It was formerly known as Roeper City and Country School.

History

The Roeper School was founded in 1941 by George and Annemarie Roeper, who were forced to flee

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

Germany. At the time the Roepers fled Europe, Annemarie had been invited by

Anna Freud Anna Freud (3 December 1895 – 9 October 1982) was a British psychoanalyst of Austrian-Jewish descent. She was born in Vienna, the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays. She followed the path of her father and contribu ...

to be her protégé and, in fact, had completed her first year of medical school. Together the Roepers founded the school intending it to be a place that, by teaching personal motivation and encouraging critical thinking skills and analysis, would educate children who would not follow leadership blindly as they believed had happened to many people in

interwar In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...

Germany. It was also hoped the children would come to recognize the inherent dignity of every individual and to not harbor prejudice. The school first moved to the

Bloomfield Hills Bloomfield Hills is a small city (5.04 sq. miles) in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is approximately northwest of Downtown Detroit. Except a small southern bo ...

campus () in 1946 and was designated a school for

gifted Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming. It is thought to persist as a trait into adult life, wi ...

children in 1956. In 1965 the Upper School (

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

) program was added, and in 1981, the middle and upper schools moved to the former Adams Elementary School in

Birmingham, Michigan Birmingham is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor ( M-1). As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,103. History The area comprising what is now the c ...

(), thereby creating two campuses. The Capital Campaign fundraising initiative began in the mid-nineties and has provided the school with its largest investment in new facilities, including a new elementary school classroom building that sits adjacent to the new community center that houses the school's first full size gymnasium, and the lower school's first large choir and band rooms.

Notable alumni

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, political activist and analyst *

Tiffany P. Cunningham Tiffany Patrice Cunningham (born May 27, 1976) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Education After graduating from the Roeper School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Cunningham receive ...

, a United States Circuit Judge of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (in case citations, Fed. Cir. or C.A.F.C.) is a United States court of appeals that has special appellate jurisdiction over certain types of specialized cases in the Federal judiciary of ...

John Marshall Jones John Marshall Jones is an American actor, best known for portraying Floyd Henderson on The WB sitcom ''Smart Guy''. He is currently the spokesperson for Pizza Hut. Career Since 2021, Jones has had a recurring role as U.S. Air Force General Nel ...

, actor * Sharon LaFraniere (class of 1973), journalist *

Dwayne McDuffie Dwayne Glenn McDuffie (February 20, 1962February 21, 2011) was an American writer of comic books and television, known for producing and writing the animated series ''Static Shock'', '' Damage Control'', ''Justice League Unlimited'' and ''Ben 10 ...

, comic book and animation writer * Richard R. Murray, founder of Equity Schools * Susan Shapiro, author and writing teacher *

Angela V. Shelton Angela V. Shelton (born March 4, 1970) is an American actress and comedian. Her television credits include ''Mr. Show with Bob and David'', ''Grounded for Life'', and ''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody''. Shelton was a contestant on the NBC reality s ...

, actress and comedian * Bahni Turpin, actress and audiobook narrator *

Matt Wayne Matt S. Wayne is an American writer of comic books and television. Wayne is probably best known for his work on the animated series ''Niko and the Sword of Light'', ''Cannon Busters'' and '' Ben 10: Omniverse'', and writing and editing comic ...

, television and comic book writer * Kayden Pierre, professional soccer player * Charlie White (class of 2005), Olympic ice dancer * Mark Zbikowski (class of 1974),

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

programmer, designer of the

DOS executable The DOS MZ executable format is the executable file format used for .EXE files in DOS. The file can be identified by the ASCII string "MZ" (hexadecimal: 4D 5A) at the beginning of the file (the " magic number"). "MZ" are the initials of Mark Z ...

file format

References

External links

*
Official school history website
{{authority control Gifted education Private high schools in Michigan Schools in Oakland County, Michigan High schools in Oakland County, Michigan Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Preparatory schools in Michigan Educational institutions established in 1941 Private middle schools in Michigan Private elementary schools in Michigan 1941 establishments in Michigan