Word: starrs
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...first time Floyd Starr heard the word adoption, he was a little boy and its meaning had to be explained to him. The idea appealed to him. As he grew older, he decided that some day he would adopt some children (though he had a wife and two kids of his own). In 1913, with $60,000 he had inherited, he bought 40 acres of rocky land just outside Albion, Mich, and opened the Starr Commonwealth school. The entrance requirements were the reverse of most prep schools': he wanted no boys of good reputation...
While his first building was being put up, Starr and his first two pupils slept in a hayloft near by. Soon he was getting 1,000 applicants a year. Most were sent by judges, after being tried for such crimes as robbery, assault, attempted murder and rape. The rest were problem boys whose parents could no longer handle them...
Past Forgotten. Floyd Starr's thesis has since become a rallying cry: "We believe there is no such thing as a bad boy." In the first interview with a new boy, Starr likes to talk about anything but what has brought the boy there. "You're a big fellow," he is apt to say. "Ever play basketball? We have a fine team, but we need a center." The boys have work to do, but never as punishment (the only punishment is loss of vacation). Once a new pupil was assigned the job of sweeping the stairs and defiantly...
Future Comfortable. Through the sale of special Christmas seals, Starr takes in $100,000 a year, which pays most of the school's expenses. He bought more land, overlooking a large lake, built ten "cottages" on his campus, furnished them with rugs, books, and pictures. When his school expanded to 150 pupils, he took over five more houses, dotted over the rolling farmland beyond his campus. He hired nine teachers to instruct the boys...
V.F.W. National Commander in Chief Louis E. Starr wired Washington and demanded a full and immediate explanation. When he got no answer, he announced: "Too little is being told to the people of this country...