01 - Carl Curtis, Founder

Carl Curtis, founder of our school, was born in Ohio in 1887 and grew up in Covington, Kentucky, where he was an accomplished amateur athlete. He was reportedly proficient in many, if not most, fields of athletic pursuit, including gymnastics, swimming and diving, boxing and wrestling, and excelled at dancing. Mr. Curtis was a director of large-scale physical education and fitness programs at YMCAs in Ohio and Michigan before moving his family to Los Angeles circa 1918-1919. In 1925, Mr. Curtis opened his school with the purpose of developing children with strong minds in strong bodies. Our mission statement today reflects the continuity of Mr. Curtis’s educational philosophy throughout the school’s history and its succession of campuses and leadership: