Big Dick's Anniversary

Last week alumni sat down to dinners in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco., Minneapolis, Detroit, Princeton and New Haven to celebrate the 80th anniversary of their remarkable preparatory school. In Chicago they heard the school highly praised by University of Chicago's hard- to-please President Robert Maynard Hutchins. Little Lake Forest Academy (180 students), in a swank Chicago suburb, is remarkable not for its plant (valued at only $750,000) or ivied tradition (although it is one of the oldest prep schools in the Midwest) but for its long, angular headmaster, John Wayne ("Big Dick") Richards. Major reason for last week's celebration was Big Dick's 25th anniversary as headmaster. Biggest news was his report on the success of the "Richards plan," which he started at Lake Forest eight years ago (TIME, Aug. 18, 1930) and which has since been copied in many another school.

Big Dick makes his boys work hard, likes to give them responsibility. The school has an honor system and each boy takes a pledge not to smoke during term time. The plan provides for double class periods, half of them allotted to study for the next lesson under supervision of the teachers, and for independent research by the students. The Richards plan is costly, requiring 40% more teachers, but last week Headmaster Richards reported it was worth the cost. Of the 242 boys Lake Forest has sent to college in the last five years, only three flunked out in freshman year.

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