Brooks School

Brooks School is a private, co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school in North Andover, Massachusetts, United States, on the shores of Lake Cochichewick. History Brooks School was founded in 1926 by Endicott Peabody, the headmaster of Groton School at the time, and was named after Phillips Brooks (1835–1893), a well-known clergyman and author who spent summers in North Andover, Massachusetts, and briefly served as Bishop of Massachusetts in the Episcopal Church during the 1890s. The school opened on September 29, 1927, with fourteen boys in the first and second forms (seventh and eighth grades), two masters, a headmaster and headmistress, and one dormitory. The school added one form (grade) each year thereafter until it comprised grades 7–12, denoted by the British educational notations, Forms I, II, III, IV, V, and VI, respectively. Forms I and II (seventh and eighth grades) were later dropped. Brooks School has had just four heads of school in over 80 years. The school's first headmaster, Frank D. Ashburn (a graduate of Groton School, Yale University and Columbia Law School), was appointed at the age of 25 and served for 46 years until his retirement in 1973. Ashburn was succeeded by H. Peter Aitken who served until 1986 when Lawrence W. Becker succeeded him. Becker, who stepped down in 2008, was succeeded by John R. Packard, previously the Dean of Faculty.