Sidwell Friends School

Sidwell Friends School is a Quaker private school located in Washington, DC and Bethesda, Maryland. It was founded in 1883 by Thomas Sidwell. Along with the St. Albans School and National Cathedral School, it is considered to be one of the most prestigious private schools in the Washington, DC area. Sources of criticism of the school in recent years have been its perceived focus on college admission and legacy admissions, which some believe are inconsistent with its Quaker identity. However, sons and daughters of Quaker alumni do not contest this policy, nor do many Friends who believe that competence derived from a rigorous education is prerequisite to an effective life of service. Over 30% of the graduating class attend Ivy League institutions.

Alumni

Distinguished alumni of Sidwell Friends include:

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• William Henry Harrison (representative) ('14 or '15), Republican Representative from Wyoming (note: this was President William Henry Harrison's great-great-grandson)
• Robert Carter Cook ('16 or '17), director of the American Eugenics Societyhttp://www.eugenics-watch.com/aeugensoc/aedir-a.htm
• Oleg Alexandrovich Troyanovsky, Soviet ambassador to the United Nations
• Hanna Holborn Gray ('47 or '48), historian and President of Yale University and later the University of Chicago
• Walter Gilbert ('49?), Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry
• Charlie Gibson, host of ABC's Good Morning America
• James K Glassman ('65), editorialist, syndicated columnist, and author
• Bill Nye the Science Guy, television personality and scientist
• Margaret Edson '79, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Wit
• Anne Applebaum '82, journalist and author
• Ana Gasteyer '85, actress
• Princess Setsuko Chichibu '28, princess of Japan
• Henry Masur, doctor who described the first cases of AIDS

The following notable people attended Sidwell but did not graduate:

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• Charles Lindbergh, (attended 1913-1915)
• Nancy Reagan, former First Lady (attended the elementary school 1925-1928)
• Gore Vidal (left in 1936)
• John Dos Passos, (attended 1902-1903)
• George A. Akerlof, Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

In addition, the following children of famous people have attended Sidwell:

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• Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt, Jr. '04?, son of Theodore Roosevelt
• Allan Hoover? '25?, son of Herbert Hoover
• Valerie Rumsfeld, Donald Rumsfeld's daughter
• H.R. Haldeman's son?
• Tricia Nixon Cox '64 and Julie Nixon ('66, left in 1961), daughters of Richard Nixon
• Dawn Rather '76, daughter of and Daniel M. Rather '78, son of Dan Rather
• Chelsea Clinton '97, daughter of Bill Clinton
• Albert Gore III '01, son of Al Gore
• Nancy Davis Reagan, daughter of Ronald Reagan
• Nadav Savio '88, son of Mario Savio