History of LWS
Lowell Whiteman, Our founder (1918-2001)
As early as the 1930’s, Lowell Whiteman had a dream to start a summer boys’ camp in the Rocky Mountains. He felt it would compliment a famous local girls’ camp called Perry Mansfield which specialized in theater in dance. Lowell was an avid camper and horseman. He saw an opportunity to give boys the chance to grow and test their mettle in the surrounding wilderness doing the things he himself enjoyed growing up.
(Lowell is pictured at right, leading boys on a trail ride in the 1940’s.)
Lowell was a staff member of the Perry Mansfield dance camp for a number of years and his education included a Bachelor’s degree from Pomona College and a stint at the American Theater Wing in New York City. He had also studied acting under Lee Strasberg and dance with Hanya Holm. All of these experiences gave Lowell’s dream shape.
Lowell was sidetracked for four years serving as a deck officer for the Navy Reserve in W.W.II. He was involved in five invasions in the Mediterranean Theater and was awarded a Navy Commendation for an amphibious landing on the island of Elba. He returned to the US and opened the Lowell Whiteman Ranch for boys in 1946 on land given to him by his mother, Olive. She believed in his dream of education in the great outdoors.
Lowell’s philosophy for the camp was well known and novel at the time - campers all learned to ride and handle a horse - everything from riding and grooming to fence building. Lowell felt viewing the Colorado Rocky Mountains from the back of a horse enriched the human spirit. He combined this with a full-blown camping program. The idea that “roughing it” builds character and teaches values now sometimes missing in modern life. Learning, he said, was a daily occupation that should continue for a lifetime.
Campers learned to work with their hands….all had chores and a sense of sharing the load which an important part of growing up in Lowell’s view. Students who had never had such opportunities left with a wealth of rare experiences and stories to tell. The word spread about Whiteman Ranch.
The camp grew and prospered until 1957 when the Whiteman School was established as a private, co-educational college preparatory boarding school. It was renamed in Lowell’s honor and his philosophies continue to this day. Camping and outdoor education are still a large part of the LWS program and the horse program continues as one of the longest running horse programs in the United States.
The Foreign Trip program was an extension of Lowell’s already full blown “experiential” educational program. In the early days, Lowell felt the foreign trips should include third world countries where students could fully experience life on another level. Lowell felt this was essential for students to learn to value their own cultures and freedoms as well as to understand and appreciate those of other countries.