Timeline of The Roeper School

1910:  George Alexander Roeper is born in Hamburg, Germany, on September 7.

1918:  Annemarie Martha Bondy is born in Vienna, Austria, on August 27.

1920:  Max and Gertrud Bondy, parents of Annemarie, establish their first school in Bruckenau, Germany, in partnership with Ernst Putz.

1923:  The Bondys part ways with Putz and establish a school of their own in Gandersheim, Germany.  George Roeper arrives as a 13-year-old student in 1924.

1929:  The school moves to Marienau, near the village of Dahlenburg, outside Hamburg.

1937:  Max Bondy is forced by the Nazi regime to sell Marienau; the family operates a school in Gland, Switzerland, called Les Rayons for several years.

1939:  In March, the Bondy family sails to the United States, where they join George Roeper, who had come ahead in November 1938 to find property for the Bondys to start a school.  The Bondys’ school, Windsor Mountain School, opens in Windsor, VT, in 1939, moves to Manchester, VT, in 1940, and finally settles in Lenox, MA, in 1944, until it closes in 1975.

1941:  George and Annemarie Roeper, now married, move to Detroit.  Annemarie begins as Director of the Editha Sterba Nursery School (founded 1939) on Woodward Ave. in Highland Park; George founds the Roeper Grade School in the same building.

1942:  The school outgrows its Highland Park building and moves to 668 Pallister Ave., in the New Center area of Detroit.

1946:  The Roepers purchase a house and 4 acres in Bloomfield Hills in April.  In September the school opens in the new location, under the new name of City & Country School of Bloomfield Hills with 90 students through 6th grade.

1947:  First season of summer camp.

1952:  The Roepers purchase 8 more acres in Jan 1952 to complete the Bloomfield Hills campus.

1955: The Roepers integrate the student population, becoming the first integrated independent school in Michigan. The school had integrated the faculty in 1942.

1956:  In June, the Roepers convene the Gifted Child Institute, chaired by Dr. A. Harry Passow of Columbia University, to develop a curriculum for gifted children.  In September the school opens as the nation’s second elementary school exclusively for gifted children. Roeper is now the oldest independent school for the gifted in the U.S.

1960:  Four classrooms of the Middle Building open in September.

1961:  The two-story addition to the Middle Building provides four more classrooms.

1964:  The first 9th grade is formed.

1965:  Quad Building opens in spring 1965.

1965:  The previous year’s 9th graders all go on to other high schools, but this year’s 9th grade goes on to become the Class of 1969, the first graduating high school class

1966. The school is renamed Roeper City & Country School in honor of its 25th anniversary.

1969: The Domes open in September and the Trojan Horse is installed in October.

1970: The Domes are dedicated as the Martin Luther King, Jr., Domes in May. 

1972:  Duplex Science Building opens.

1978:  George and Annemarie receive honorary doctorates from Eastern Michigan University in the spring. The first volume of The Roeper Review, a quarterly professional journal, appears in October.

1979: George retires in June 1979.

1980:  Annemarie and Phillip Parsons direct the school; Annemarie retires in June 1980.

1980: Pam Dart becomes Head of LS and Phillip Parsons remains as Head of US.  Philip leaves at the end of school year and Pam becomes Head of School.

1981: The Birmingham building is purchased in June 1981 and grades 6-12 move to the new campus for the 1981-82 school year.  Grade 6 (which had been part of Lower School) and Grades 7 & 8 (which had been part of the Upper School) are reorganized into the school’s first Middle School.

1988:  Linda Chapin becomes Head of School

1989:  Libby Balter-Blume becomes Head of School.

1990:  Chuck Webster becomes Head of School.

1992: George Roeper passes away on August 24 at the age of 81. A memorial service is held at the school on September 20.

1993:  The school changes its name to The Roeper School.

1998:  Ken Seward becomes Head of School.

2001:  Birmingham interior renovations completed by start of the 2001-02 school year. 

2003:  Swim Center opens spring 2003; Steward Classroom Building opens in September 2003.

2004:  Randall Dunn becomes Head of School.

2006: New Trojan Horse dedicated at Founders Day on June 12, 2006.

2007:  Our Community Center is completed in the spring of 2007.

2009: Mariann Hoag passes away July 6, 2009.  She began working at the school as George’s secretary in 1948, “retired” in 1997, but continued managing the financial aid process until her death.

2010: School celebrates centenary of George Roeper’s birth.

2011: Philip S. Deely becomes Interim Head.

2012: The Children’s Library opens in spring 2012; Annemarie Roeper passes away May 11 at the age of 93. A memorial service held at the school on August 25. David H. Feldman becomes Head of School.

2016: School celebrates its 75th anniversary.

2017: Dennis Naas Learning Center on the Birmingham campus opens in September 2017.

2018: School celebrates centenary of Annemarie Roeper’s birth.

2022: Christopher Federico becomes Head of School.