Dear Shady Side Community,

For nearly a century and a half, Shady Side Academy has been shaped by people willing to make decisions to meet the needs of future generations they would never meet.

In 1916, trustee Wallace H. Rowe stood on a quiet hillside in Fox Chapel and imagined something that did not yet exist: a country school in Pittsburgh with the ambition, character, and permanence to stand among the nation’s finest. While others questioned whether the vision was too distant or too bold, Rowe and his fellow trustees looked beyond the horizon. They believed that the physical shape of a campus could help cultivate both intellect and character. Their investment was an act of confidence in the future.

Today, Rockwell Middle School stands as the latest expression of that same conviction.
More than a beautiful new building, Rockwell represents the Academy’s ongoing commitment to creating the very best environment for teaching and learning. Designed around the ways middle school students actually learn and teachers do their best work, it offers spaces that encourage collaboration, inquiry, flexibility, and connection. Just as importantly, it empowers our faculty in their craft, removing obstacles and supporting the relational teaching at the heart of a Shady Side education. 

The building has what I have started describing as “its eyes outward” — the long sightlines and generous windows opening students to the campus and the hills beyond. The view is a reminder that the work done in these classrooms is meant to carry beyond this building, beyond this hill, and into the wider world they are being prepared to lead.

The opening of Rockwell Middle School also marks an important chapter in the evolution of our campus configuration. Bringing grades 6 through 12 together creates a more connected student experience: more opportunities for mentorship, stronger traditions across divisions, and more time spent learning and building community rather than traveling between campuses — an enhancement to the daily life of the Academy.

None of this would have been possible without the historic leadership and generosity of Kent Rockwell ’62 and Pat Babyak. Their transformational commitment reflects a profound belief in Shady Side’s past, present, and future. Their vision inspired a community of alumni, parents, grandparents, and friends whose collective generosity has created a place that will shape students for decades to come.

Every generation inherits a school built by those who came before it and accepts the responsibility to strengthen it for those who will follow. Wallace Rowe understood that his vision would likely not be completed in his lifetime — he passed away before the completion of Rowe Hall, the building that now bears his name. He trusted that future leaders would carry the work forward. More than a century later, Rockwell Middle School stands as further evidence that they have.
We are stewards of an institution whose mission extends well beyond our own years. The buildings, programs, culture, and community we build together ultimately stand as an act of faith in lives yet to be lived.

Rockwell Middle School is the newest chapter in that story, and I have every confidence that the students and teachers who fill its classrooms will carry its promise far beyond this hillside for generations to come.

Glory to Shady Side, 

 

Bart Griffith ’93 P’28
President