Bloomfield Hills, MI- The Roeper School has launched its 75th Anniversary Website www.roeper75.org featuring the school’s unique history, founded in part as a reaction to George and Annemarie Roeper’s experiences in Nazi Germany; the commemorative events planned throughout the year; and alumni profiles. The school is honoring the extraordinary legacy of George and Annemarie Roeper, who developed and instituted a model for education that encourages compassion, creativity, joyfulness, and connection.
Marcia Ruff, School Historian, explains that, “The 75th Anniversary website will be the hub and repository for the celebration. There you can find the story of the school, access some of George and Annemarie’s intellectual legacy, connect with classmates and colleagues through class photos and My Roeper Stories, find out about upcoming events, and follow along from afar through galleries of photos of events as they occur.”
On the site, an interactive timeline and an essay on the school’s origins accompany a rich archive of photographs beginning with the early lives of the Roepers at Marienau, the school Annemarie Bondy’s parents founded in Germany where George Roeper was a student. When the Nazis came to power, the Bondys had to flee, and ultimately established The Windsor Mountain School in Vermont. In 1941, George and Annemarie married and moved to Detroit where they founded The Roeper City and Country School, now celebrating its 75th year. It is evident throughout the history of both schools that the Bondys and Roepers were deeply committed to a philosophy steeped in the principles of human rights, inclusion and justice over power. The Roeper School, long recognized nationally as a leader in gifted education and the first independent school in Michigan to become integrated, continues to be guided by these principles.
The Roeper School is an independent coeducational day school for gifted children in metropolitan Detroit founded by George and Annemarie Roeper in 1941. The Roepers believed that all human beings have two central tasks: to come to understand themselves and to discover how they will contribute to the world. As a pre-K through 12th grade school, Roeper plays a formative role in the pursuit of these lifelong goals and offers a whole-child education for gifted students that guides them on the journey to becoming discerning, humane, engaged adults. With a dedication to diversity, democracy, and community service that dates to its founding, Roeper students and alumni endeavor to fulfill the school’s mission: Educating and inspiring gifted students to think as individuals and to engage as a community with compassion for each other and this world. For more information, email kari.papadopoulos@roeper.org or visit www.roeper.org.