RE LOG Fall 2024

16 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2024 As the cultural revolution of the ’60s arrived at both campuses, the schools simultaneously experienced changes in leadership that hastened the loosening of rules and move to coeducation. In 1969, Cameron retired, and Marie Swenson stepped down as president of the Everglades board. A year later, Gertrude Peirce – who had served as Everglades’ first head – retired. As Robert Walker took over at the Ransom School, Robert Macdonald, a progressive headmaster, succeeded Peirce. “There were tremendous changes in style and culture,” Buermann said. “When I came back as a member of the faculty after I graduated from college in 1973, it was a totally different landscape.” Cigarettes, long hair and hippies By 1970, bell-bottom pants were permitted at the Ransom School, boys over age 16 who had their parents’ permission could smoke on campus, and chapel had been replaced by a secular school meeting. The changes attracted the attention of The Miami Herald , which in 1971 published a story with the headline: “Ransom School: where tradition survives along with liberal changes.” A year later, Ransom ended its option for student boarders. “The hippie movement was pretty important at that time,” Graham said. “All of the sudden you saw guys wearing floral ties and seeking to wear tie-dyes ... The hair got longer. The sideburns got longer. That was difficult for Ransom, because [even] the best of students, their hair – all of a sudden – was below their collar. The school had some things to say about that, but the kids won out over the course of time.” Students sought freedom from rules and structure in other ways, noted Dessaint. “There were other activities on campus,” he said. “Below the house here, we called it ‘the swamp’; it had trails, and sometimes they’d have to go roust some of the guys out of the swamp. We had, behind Ludington Hall, we called it ‘the pit’ ... It was a very liberal campus at the time – very free spirited.” “By the end of my term, it was platform shoes, polyester pants, Nik Nik shirts … You still wore a tie, but it could be a bow tie; it could be what ever you wanted.” – Rudy Prio Touzet ’76