Saint David's School is an independent primary and pre-primary

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

for boys on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The school educates boys from

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 ...

through to eighth grade. Saint David's was founded in 1951. The current headmaster is P. David O'Halloran.

History

St. David’s was originally the home of Ruth Hunter Cutting, daughter of Robert Fulton Cutting, known as a prominent financier (he and his brother

William Bayard Cutting William Bayard Cutting (January 12, 1850 – March 1, 1912), a member of New York's merchant aristocracy, was an attorney, financier, real estate developer, sugar beet refiner and philanthropist. Cutting and his brother Fulton started the sugar ...

brought the sugar beet industry to the United States), philanthropist and as “the first citizen of New York.” The school officially opened on February 5, 1951, and Saint David's began with one teacher and four students. Its purpose, according to its nine founding families, was "to provide a sound substantial education for the growing boy, equal to the best, derived from institutions of a similar level." While a school in the Roman Catholic tradition, Saint David's has always been lay-run and independent.

Chaplains A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a ho ...

that serve and have served the school are: Msgr. Thomas Leonard (1968-2003), Rev. Stephen Katsourous, S.J. (2003-2011) Rev. Patrick Bonner, S.T.B., M.S., J.C.L., and Father Christopher Keenan. In the decades since its founding, Saint David's has undertaken several expansions, adding facilities for its academic and athletics programs. Today, the school community includes 400 students and more than 130 faculty and staff.

Academics

Saint David's School is accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools, the

National Association of Independent Schools The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) is a U.S.-based membership organization for private, nonprofit, K-12 schools. Founded in 1962, NAIS represents independent schools and associations in the United States, including day, board ...

, and the Educational Records Bureau. Boys have largely moved onto day schools in New York City, such as Regis or Collegiate, while others moved onto boarding schools; boys have gone to

Deerfield Academy Deerfield Academy (often called Deerfield or DA) is an Independent school, independent College-preparatory school, college-preparatory boarding and day school in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1797, it is one of the oldest secondary schoo ...

Kent School Kent School is a private college-preparatory day and boarding school in Kent, Connecticut. Founded in 1906, it is affiliated with the Episcopal Church. It educates around 520 boys and girls in grades 9–12. Kent was one of the first schools ...

, Trinity-Pawling School, Phillips Exeter,

Choate Rosemary Hall Choate Rosemary Hall ( ) is a Independent school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational, College-preparatory school, college-preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1890, it took its present na ...

Lawrenceville School The Lawrenceville School is a Private school, private, coeducational College-preparatory school, preparatory school for boarding and day students located in the Local government in New Jersey, unincorporated community of Lawrenceville, New Jers ...

, and

Phillips Andover Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a Private school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational college-preparatory school for Boarding school, boarding and Day school, day students located in ...

Athletics

The school offers a

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

program, including

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, cross-country, flag football,

floor hockey Floor hockey is a broad term for several indoor floor game codes which involve two teams using a stick and type of ball or disk. Disks are either open or closed but both designs are usually referred to as "pucks". These games are played either on ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

, squash, and track. They have three gymnasiums on-campus (including one that is middle school regulation size) As an after-school elective, Saint David's also offers an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

program which begins in kindergarten and is available until 8th grade. In the 2018-2019 hockey season, Saint David's won its first ice hockey championship in the Hudson Valley Hockey League by defeating North Park. In early June 2019, the school was visited by Justin Tuck, formerly of the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

, to speak at an athletics networking event for alumni, parents, and students. The school has also been visited multiple times by Tom Brady, whose son, Jack, attended the school. Tom Brady has also occasionally held a football toss with students at the school as a fundraising initiative.

Community service

Saint David's participates in many

community service Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community contributing to a noble cause. In many cases, people doing community service are compensated in other ways, such as gettin ...

initiatives, some of which include their annual Halloween candy drive, their bottle cap drive, and other fundraising projects. They work with New York Cares for their annual coat drive, the Graham Windham Mitten and Hat Collection, Project Cicero for book donations, City Harvest for annual food drives,

Ronald McDonald Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain. He inhabits the fictional world of McDonaldland, with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, an ...

's Fun Run, Florence Nightingale Nursing Home and Terence Cardinal Cooke Nursing Home for nursing home visits and carols, and It's My Park Day to rejuvenate New York City Parks. In 2004, the school raised more than $10,000 for the

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

and their South East Asia Tsunami Fund. In 2010, they raised $36,000 for Haiti's Recovery Fund. And in 2011, they began a new initiative to raise money to build a school in the

Tigray Region The Tigray Region (or simply Tigray; officially the Tigray National Regional State) is the northernmost Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob people, Irob and Kunama people. I ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

with the help of Mimi's Building Blocks and

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919; its goal is to improve the lives of children worldwide. The organization raises money to imp ...

. They raised more than $120,000 and Saint David's Kalina School opened in Ethiopia in the fall of 2013.

Notable alumni

* Andrew Giuliani, Special Assistant to President Trump and Associate Director of the Office of Public Liaison; son of

Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and Disbarment, disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney ...

(mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001).A study in smutty; Porn perused at posh prep: bias suit
Nypost.com, January 31, 2011. * Ryu Goto, concert violinist *

John F. Kennedy Jr. John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. (November 25, 1960 – July 16, 1999), often referred to as John-John or JFK Jr., was an American socialite, attorney, magazine publisher, and journalist. He was a son of 35th United States president John F. K ...

, son of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy * Prince Ali-Reza Pahlavi, son of the last

Shah of Iran The monarchs of Iran ruled for over two and a half millennia, beginning as early as the 7th century BC and enduring until the 20th century AD. The earliest Iranian king is generally considered to have been either Deioces of the Median dynasty () ...

and second in line to the succession of the throne of Iran until the

Islamic Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Im ...

* Andrew Rossi, documentary filmmaker *

Dick Wolf Richard Anthony Wolf (born December 20, 1946) is an American billionaire and television producer, best known for his ''Law & Order'' franchise. Since 1990, the franchise has included six police/courtroom dramas and four international spinoffs. ...

, television producer
* Robert Chambers (criminal), Robert Chambers, criminal

Headmasters

*Thomas F. Herlihy (1951-1953) *David D. Hume (1953–1990) *Timothy Burns (1990–1992) *Dr. Donald T. Maiocco (1992–2004) *Dr. P. David O'Halloran (2004–Present)

References

External links

Saint David's School Website

Saint David's School Headmaster's Blog

Saint David's School Facebook Page
{{New York Interschool Boys' schools in New York City Educational institutions established in 1951 Private middle schools in Manhattan Roman Catholic elementary schools in Manhattan Private K–8 schools in Manhattan 1951 establishments in New York City