Carleton Witham
Files
Dublin Core
Title
Carleton Witham
Subject
Massanutten Military Academy (Woodstock, Shenandoah County, Va.)
Military education - Virginia - Woodstock
Military academies - Virginia - Woodstock
Cadets - Virginia - Woodstock
Witham, Carleton Lee (1909-1968)
Description
Photograph of Massanutten Academy cadet Carleton Witham.
Carleton was originally from Michigan, one of many children born to Albert J. and Annie G. (Hart) Witham. His father farmed and, in 1920, was listed as a Minister.
This image and his other MMA photographs appear to have been taken in 1926. Carleton’s senior class photo appears in the 1927 yearbook for Ann Arbor High School and indicates, perhaps, he spent only his junior year in Woodstock. However, it is uncertain.
He graduated from the University of Michigan and worked in a few businesses there before joining his sister, Alice, and brother-in-law, Roland R. Robertson, at the Peekskill Military Academy in Peekskill, New York, where they worked.
When he registered for the WWII draft in 1940, Carleton lived with them in Peekskill and worked at the nearby Hollowbrook Country Club.
In 1946, Carleton joined his brother-in-law in his effort to found a new school, Eastern Military Academy, in Stamford, Connecticut. The school was established on the belief that the right kind of military training – no plebe system – was a distinct advantage to a young man desiring to pursue a college education.
A couple of years later, the school was moved to Huntington, Long Island, New York, and housed in one of the largest mansions ever constructed in the United States, Oheka Castle, built by Otto Kahn.
For the next 22 years, until he died, Carleton served as Assistant Superintendent, then Superintendent, and, briefly, the President of the Board of Trustees of the school.
He is credited with establishing a college testing center and advisory center on campus. Their services were offered to the school’s students and also to the general community at no cost.
He was also the center of a dispute when, in 1964, he refused school admittance to Hugh Lomax, the son of African American author, Louis F. Lomax, on the grounds of his race. By the time Carleton relented and agreed to admit the student, the Lomax family refused the offer and moved on.
Carleton never married or had children. It appears he was dedicated to Eastern Military Academy throughout its founding and subsequent years of operation.
After Carleton’s death, the Eastern Military Academy of Long Island lasted only another decade or so before it, too, ceased to exist.
Carleton was originally from Michigan, one of many children born to Albert J. and Annie G. (Hart) Witham. His father farmed and, in 1920, was listed as a Minister.
This image and his other MMA photographs appear to have been taken in 1926. Carleton’s senior class photo appears in the 1927 yearbook for Ann Arbor High School and indicates, perhaps, he spent only his junior year in Woodstock. However, it is uncertain.
He graduated from the University of Michigan and worked in a few businesses there before joining his sister, Alice, and brother-in-law, Roland R. Robertson, at the Peekskill Military Academy in Peekskill, New York, where they worked.
When he registered for the WWII draft in 1940, Carleton lived with them in Peekskill and worked at the nearby Hollowbrook Country Club.
In 1946, Carleton joined his brother-in-law in his effort to found a new school, Eastern Military Academy, in Stamford, Connecticut. The school was established on the belief that the right kind of military training – no plebe system – was a distinct advantage to a young man desiring to pursue a college education.
A couple of years later, the school was moved to Huntington, Long Island, New York, and housed in one of the largest mansions ever constructed in the United States, Oheka Castle, built by Otto Kahn.
For the next 22 years, until he died, Carleton served as Assistant Superintendent, then Superintendent, and, briefly, the President of the Board of Trustees of the school.
He is credited with establishing a college testing center and advisory center on campus. Their services were offered to the school’s students and also to the general community at no cost.
He was also the center of a dispute when, in 1964, he refused school admittance to Hugh Lomax, the son of African American author, Louis F. Lomax, on the grounds of his race. By the time Carleton relented and agreed to admit the student, the Lomax family refused the offer and moved on.
Carleton never married or had children. It appears he was dedicated to Eastern Military Academy throughout its founding and subsequent years of operation.
After Carleton’s death, the Eastern Military Academy of Long Island lasted only another decade or so before it, too, ceased to exist.
Creator
Morrison Studio
Source
Morrison Studio Collection - Shenandoah County Historical Society
Publisher
Shenandoah County Library
Date
Labelled "July 1926" on box of plates.
Contributor
Identified based on a photograph that appeared in the 1926 publication "The Massanutten Academy : a School preparing for College, the Universities, and Vocations, with Military Training" held by Massanutten Military Academy.
Biographical information was compiled from public records.
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT - NON-COMMERCIAL USE PERMITTED
Relation
Carleton Witham appears in Morrison Studio Collection images 007347, 007348, 008536 (front row, left), and 020080.
Identifier
007348
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Glass Negative
Collection
Citation
Morrison Studio, “Carleton Witham,” Shenandoah County Library Archives, accessed November 15, 2024, http://archives.countylib.org/items/show/25615.
Comments