Celebrating McCallie School’s 119-Year History: Founders Day 2024

Even now, it seems impossible. Implausible. Unbelievable. On May 31, 1905, the McCallie family, led by brothers Park and Spencer McCallie, decided to build a school for boys on the family farm on the side of Missionary Ridge. Just three months later, on Sept. 21, 1905, McCallie School opened for business.

There were 43 students, four teachers, two co-headmasters (Park and Spencer), a brand new 30-foot-by-60-foot gym, and two houses—one converted to classrooms, the other converted to a dormitory—on that opening day.

As the school’s reputation grew, so did its student body. Shortly after that, as news of the school spread, enrollment jumped to 58, including 15 percent of whom had transferred from Baylor. In that same year, a McCallie football team made up of players and coaches defeated Baylor 41-0. Clearly, the brothers McCallie were onto something.

A few minutes after head of school Lee Burns concluded his inspired Founders Day talk inside the Chapel Wednesday morning, former head of school Spencer McCallie III ‘55 was asked what he thought would have made Park and Spencer most proud of the school McCallie is today.

“First, they’d be overwhelmed,” said McCallie III, who was the head of school for 25 years, from 1974 to 1999. “The first thing they would want to know is what the alumni had done. Had they become doctors, lawyers, educators, heads of business, civic leaders? They cared so much about what their students became, how they made an impact on the world.”

Over the years, McCallie School has seen over 16,000 young men walk its halls, with alumni achieving great success in various fields. There have been U.S. Senators (Howard Baker and Bill Brock), U.S. Congressmen (Zach Wamp), governors (Carroll Campbell of South Carolina), business leaders (Ted Turner, Olan Mills, the Davenport family of Krystal fame, David Stonecipher, Ed Michaels, the Maclellan family—just to name a few).

And all of them have mirrored Burns’ words that, “We roll up our sleeves and work hard here. We exceed expectations. We overachieve. We’re resilient and relentless.”

That spirit of resourcefulness has always been part of McCallie’s story. Becky McCallie Burkhardt, Spencer III’s oldest daughter, remembers her father telling her that when he first came back to work for the school in the early 1960s, the endowment was $50,000. In 1976, when the original North, Middle, and South Hall academic buildings were torn down and replaced by the current Maclellan Academic Center, the endowment was still just $335,000. Thanks to the immense fundraising talents of Spencer III and business leaders such as Stonecipher and Michaels, the endowment is now $150 million.

As longtime faculty member Curtis Baggett ‘65 once said of the remarkable job Spencer III did in raising the millions needed to both sustain and advance McCallie: “Charisma was the glue that held the school together when it was falling apart.”

Today, the school is thriving and far from its financial uncertainties of the past. As Burns mentioned in his talk, “We have over 200 faculty and staff, 999 students, we offer 150 different academic courses and 50 sports teams.

“Every boy has a place at McCallie, and there’s something for every boy,” said Burns.

His words made an immediate impression on the current student body.

Junior Luke Jones said, “It was nice to learn how much the campus has changed.”

Added senior Colin Sanders: “Just learning about the McCallie family, and the amount of dedication of the faculty. Thirty-seven faculty members have been here 25 years or longer? That’s incredible.”

Yet, despite the many changes and advancements, McCallie’s core mission remains as steadfast as it was in 1905. When T. Hook McCallie decided to give his sons Park and Spencer his blessing to open a school on the family farm, he wrote to them: “Our aim is not wealth, or even having our family together, as desirable as this is, but the glory of God in Christ … You would expect to make it a Christian school, and exercise a good, wholesome Christian influence on your pupils.”

Perhaps that’s why the school’s motto remains, “Man’s Chief End is to Glorify God and Enjoy Him Forever.” Perhaps that’s why all our students are expected to live by three words: Honor. Truth. Duty.

“We enjoy the fruits and labors of other people,” Burns told the student body and at least 10 members of the McCallie family. “And one day we hope you will give back to our school, to continue what the McCallie family started all those years ago.”

The McCallie legacy extends beyond the campus walls. At a luncheon at the head of school’s home after Chapel, Burns, noting the influence the McCallie family has had on schools throughout the South, said, “I can’t imagine a family in America that’s had a greater impact on education than the McCallies.”

As he left the Chapel Wednesday morning, Spencer III flashed a big smile and said, “I know what my Uncle Park would say about all this, about what this school’s become. He’d say, ‘I am amazed.’”