Comments on: Best Laid Plans

By: Ann Glover

Ann Glover — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:49:13 +0000

My ancestors.Thomas Scott.thank you for the information.

By: Bradford Gioia, Headmaster, Montgomery Bell Academy

Bradford Gioia, Headmaster, Montgomery Bell Academy — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:43:30 +0000

MBA and Vanderbilt University have enjoyed a long and great relationship. I hope that bond grows stronger over time, and I also hope that both Vanderbilt Magazine and Dr. Blackett will work harder to understand MBA’s commitment to Nashville students and the larger community. We value our associations with people from many different backgrounds in Nashville, and our school celebrates these connections–as does Vanderbilt–with the larger worlds beyond our “hill” at 4001 Harding Road. We were proud to be mentioned in your magazine, but were disappointed that our school was not portrayed accurately.

By: James R. Kellam III, BA’60 (Nashville)

James R. Kellam III, BA’60 (Nashville) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:41:07 +0000

The Spring 2008 issue carries comments that require a response from someone who knows a great deal more about Montgomery Bell Academy than does Professor Blackett.
In 1912 my father, truly a “poor indigent lad” from Cheatham County, actually did cross Harding Road and enroll in Montgomery Bell Academy on a financial aid scholarship. After graduating at the top of his class, he began a very successful banking career here in Nashville.

Professor Blackett should also be aware that financial aid has continued to play a major role for the student body at Montgomery Bell Academy without regard to race, religion or ethnicity. Further, many grateful alumni have made sure that nothing “went awry with Montgomery Bell’s plan” to aid “indigent boys” by funding financial aid scholarships well into the future.

Professor Blackett’s research about Montgomery Bell, the individual, may be accurate, but his comments about Montgomery Bell Academy are far off the mark.

James R. Kellam III, BA’60, Montgomery Bell Academy Class of 1956
Nashville

By: Steven M. Zager, BA’79, JD’83 (Houston)

Steven M. Zager, BA’79, JD’83 (Houston) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:40:28 +0000

I am a 1976 graduate of Montgomery Bell Academy. Professor Blackett’s thoughtful historical piece about the life of Montgomery Bell got my attention when it went beyond academic research and writing and expressed an unfounded opinion about my alma mater that portrayed MBA as a school with “iron gates and manicured lawns” inaccessible to the indigent.

In truth, more than 20 percent of the boys attending MBA receive financial aid, and the school’s financial aid budget is significant and growing because of generous gifts. Like Vanderbilt, MBA must rely on donations to increase the availability of financial aid because tuition only covers a portion of the cost of educating a boy.

There is much more to Montgomery Bell Academy than iron gates and manicured lawns. The values I learned there have been the guiding principles of my life. Those values include compassion for the indigent, which I learned through MBA’s commitment to community service.

Please know that I love Vanderbilt. It has become one of this nation’s finest universities, and there is much to admire about the school, including its remarkable history department.
In the end, I guess I found it ironic that the Andrew Jackson Professor of History would indict MBA from his office behind the iron gates and manicured lawns of the Vanderbilt campus. Perhaps, like Vanderbilt, it would be a mistake to judge a school based on its landscaping or the biography of its founder.

By: Jim Gardner, BA’90 (Nashville)

Jim Gardner, BA’90 (Nashville) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:40:04 +0000

It was with a degree of disappointment that I completed reading this otherwise interesting article on Montgomery Bell. You contend that “something went awry” with his plan to fund what became Montgomery Bell Academy, my other alma mater. Given the number of civic, business, academic, medical, military, legal, philanthropic, etc., leaders from all sorts of economic backgrounds that MBA has produced, my guess is that the Pennsylvania Yankee Bell would be proud.

My family experienced financial difficulties in the 1980s and sacrificed significantly to send me to MBA and Vanderbilt. Grants, need- and academic-based scholarships, and student loans paid for much of my college tab. I generated further cash flow by working jobs during the school year and during summer, spring and Christmas vacations. Citing Professor Blackett’s area of historical expertise, I hope you recognize the fallacy of stereotypes, at least as they apply to me in this instance.

It puzzles me that an otherwise fine publication would openly insult a sizeable loyal constituency of the university. I hope it isn’t a not-so-subtle hint that Vanderbilt has limited or no desire to continue a long and mutually beneficial relationship with a fine preparatory school and citizens of its host city.

By: The Rev. M. Dean Anderson, BA’81 (Trenton, Ky.)

The Rev. M. Dean Anderson, BA’81 (Trenton, Ky.) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:39:36 +0000

I always anticipate and enjoy every issue, but just finished Spring 2008 disappointed and embarrassed. In this article, based not on research but his own musings while driving by on Harding Road, Richard Blackett characterizes Montgomery Bell Academy as “Bell’s plan gone awry” and as inaccessible to “poor indigent lads.” That portrayal is completely unfounded and unfair to MBA.

As a graduate and loyal supporter of both MBA and Vanderbilt, I found that article to be unfair to the former and unworthy of the latter. Frankly, I feel certain that Bell would find that today’s MBA is truer to his vision than the Commodore and the Bishop would find that Vanderbilt is to theirs.

By: Letters to the Editor | Vanderbilt Magazine | Vanderbilt University

Letters to the Editor | Vanderbilt Magazine | Vanderbilt University — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:22:43 +0000

[...] because of the real Vanderbilt people involved. The story of Montgomery Bell [Southern Journal, “Best Laid Plans”] was fascinating. I am still reading the summer issue but was glad to see Ray Waddle’s [...]