Ten facts about Stephen Eckard (ASL 1951-71), ASL’s founder

During the 2020-21 school year, we're celebrating ASL’s 70th anniversary with a series of 70 stories highlighting our school’s vibrant past, present and future.

Stephen Eckard

“With the ever-increasing numbers of American families coming to London on business or of'cial or service jobs, it’s about time something was done to help them with the problem of suitable schooling for their children.” — Stephen Eckard, Anglo-American News, January 1951

1. Stephen and his older sister, Margaret, were raised in Rockland County, New York, in a town called Monsey.
    
2. His father, Bayard, was also a leader in education. He served as headmaster of the Herriman Farm School in New York in the early 1930s and later the Asheville Farm School in North Carolina.
    
3. Stephen’s middle name was Larned, the maiden name of his mother. He frequently excluded it in his signature, however, signing letters as Stephen L. Eckard.
    
4. He studied at Princeton, where he was a second bass in the Princeton Glee Club, and a member of the Key and Seal Club. Stephen graduated in 1934.
    

   Stephen, third from left in the third row, sang with the Princeton Glee Club as an undergraduate

5. Stephen’s teaching career began at Allen-Stevenson, an all-boys independent school in New York City, where he taught for eight years. 
    
6. During World War II, Stephen was stationed in London as Deputy Director of Civilian Relief for the American Red Cross, eventually becoming the area executive who helped oversee the organization’s closing operations in England. It is believed he met his partner, Peter Waller, during his Red Cross service.
    

7. Following a brief stint in Geneva helping with the League of Red Cross Societies’ war-relief efforts, Stephen returned to London to be a producer for the BBC’s North American service. 
    
8. The idea for starting a school in London with an American-based curriculum was generated, in part, by the expat parents Stephen encountered who were on short-term work assignments in the UK and had trouble finding schools for their children. Thus, in April 1951, Stephen founded the American School in London “...to keep the lamp of learning alight and both flags flying.”
    

   Stephen presides over a school assembly where both the UK and US flags were displayed

9. Experiential learning, a tenet of today’s ASL curriculum, was a chief component of Stephen’s educational philosophy. He believed children should be given “...every opportunity to learn and appreciate the historical and cultural heritage of Great Britain” through regular excursions. In the early years, field trips ranged from trips to Westminster Abbey and the British Museum to Christmas-tree chopping in Hampshire with the first class of seniors and Stephen in charge.
    
10. The number of original ASL students taught by Stephen is unknown, as different sources report different numbers. According to a Princeton alumni newsletter from 1953, there were 12 students enrolled during ASL’s first year of operation; a newsletter published ten months later claims there were only four. Stephen’s obituary shared there were nine boys in the initial class, and according to our records, there were 13. What we do know is that Stephen started ASL from his flat in Knightsbridge, where a small group of pupils sat around a table to pursue their studies. Within two years the enrollment grew exponentially, requiring a move to a townhouse in Grosvenor Square. This growth and relocation would happen several more times over the next 20 years, until ASL and its 1,000+ students found its home at One Waverley Place.

Stephen with some of the first ASL students outside his flat, where they were taught

Stephen hosting school in his apartment in Knightsbridge

Do you have memories of Steven Eckard? Share your stories with the alumni office!