SBS Graduate to Create Online Archive of School's Early History

Ethan Harris, a 1971 graduate of The Stony Brook School, has launched an independent project to create an online digital archive documenting the School’s history.

Mr. Harris, a retired high-tech executive, will focus on documenting and preserving key events that led to The Stony Brook School's founding in 1922. The project will also preserve information about the School during its early decades of operation.

“Many priceless materials about the School's heritage need to be preserved. Preserving this heritage and making historical documents available to the community via an online digital archive will make it easy for people to understand the roots and identity of this leading institution. Modern digital technology will permanently preserve the School's legacy and make it available to the School’s community and the public at large,” Mr. Harris said. He added that the project grew out of his recognition that the fascinating history of The Stony Brook School cannot be easily explored today.

“This is an exciting project that will bring the early Stony Brook years to life for all who are interested,” said The Stony Brook School Librarian Michelle Altuğ.  “We are fortunate that Ethan is taking this initiative, and I look forward to working with the team on it.”

Mr. Harris envisions an Internet-accessible digital archive that preserves books, lectures, articles, letters and correspondence, along with photographs, films, and audio tapes. The archive will include video and audio interviews of people involved with the School during its early decades of operation. Also of interest are materials regarding the Stony Brook Assembly, a Protestant consortium that developed the current campus location for retreats in the early 1900s. Mr. Harris is planning several nationwide trips in the winter of 2012 to record interviews with individuals intimately familiar with the School’s early years and its founders who included the late Rev. Dr. John F. Carson and other members of the Stony Brook Assembly, as well as the School’s first headmaster, the late Dr. Frank E. Gaebelein, whose tenure lasted 41 years.

“We are contacting the few remaining faculty, alumni, trustees, administrators, and friends of the School who have personal or family connections with its beginnings,” Harris said. “I am excited about interviewing people who can offer perspectives on the early years of The Stony Brook School, or who have materials that are of importance to the School that need to be preserved.” It is anticipated that access to the digital archive will be operational in April 2012. In the future the digital archive and web portal can be used to preserve the more recent history of The Stony Brook School for the benefit of generations to come.

Former Stony Brook Headmaster Thad Gaebelein said, “The Stony Brook School is the inheritor of both a rich heritage and unique history among private independent secondary schools. The 'noble experiment' of a fully thought-out integration of faith and learning begun by my grandfather ninety years ago, has served as both the genesis and pace-setter for excellence in college preparatory education conducted within a dedicated Christian context. My family and I fully support this archival project, and encourage community support for it as well. The digital restoration and organization of Stony Brook's historical and relevant documents will enable future historians and any interested scholar to more easily plumb the rich depths of our School's wonderful story. This is a story worth knowing and telling. As a historian myself, I am thankful."

Mr. Harris encourages individuals interested in the project, or those who have materials related to the founding or early decades of The Stony Brook School, to contact him at archives@stonybrookschool.org.