Altamont School

The Altamont School
Established	[[1975]]
School type	Private
District
Grades	5-12
Principal	Tom Wheelock
Enrollment	425 (2005)
Colors	Gold and White
Mascot	Knights
Location	{{{address}}} [[{{{city}}}]]
Website	www.altamontschool.org

The Altamont School, located at 4801 Altamont Road in the Redmont neighborhood of Birmingham is a private, college-prep day school with coeducational enrollment of 425 in grades 5 through 12.

The school was established in 1975 as a merger between the Brooke Hill School (a college preparatory school for girls founded in 1940), and its counterpart, the Birmingham University School (founded in 1922). Much of Altamont's success is due to its former headmaster Martin Hames who emphasized academic excellence and urged students to look beyond the boundaries of Alabama to further their education.

Alumni include several notable and celebrated writers such as Pulitzer Prize winner Diane McWhorter, whose book Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution chronicled the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham. Others include Daniel Wallace, who wrote the novel that was the basis for the movie of the same name: Big Fish, and New York Times reporter Warren St John who authored the book Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer about University of Alabama football fandom. Perhaps the most famous is National Book Award winner Walker Percy, who attended Birmingham University School in primary school before moving to Greenville, Mississippi to be raised by his uncle, poet William Alexander Percy. Further, other notable alumni include Ambassadors William J. Cabaniss, Margaret Tutwiler, and society mogul Charles Alexander Whatley.

References

• "Altamont School." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 11 Nov 2006, 07:36 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 11 Nov 2006 [1].

External links

• The Altamont School website