About Webb
Unbounded Thinking in Southern California
A 150-acre campus in the foothills of Claremont, California – on the front porch of Los Angeles and part of the Pacific Rim. A boarding and day high school (9-12) for boys and girls with a 100-year legacy of putting honor and moral courage above all else. A fully accredited museum of paleontology. A college placement record that includes 90% of each graduating class attending colleges and universities in the top 10% nationwide. Students on campus from 10 states and 15 countries. A commitment to team sports, outdoor adventure and participation in the arts. These attributes only begin to describe what makes Webb, Webb. While the school was founded in 1922 in the great tradition of the best boarding schools of the eastern United States, Webb embraces the adventurous spirit of California where it thrives. Webb is a vibrant community of unbounded thinkers pushing to solve problems and growing as leaders.
The Webb Schools
At a Glance
Webb was founded in 1922.
Webb has 405 students.
Webb is a 150-acre campus.
12 countries and 10 states represented in the student body.
Our Mission
Think, Act, Lead, Serve
The mission of The Webb Schools is to provide an exemplary learning community that nurtures and inspires boys and girls to become men and women who: think boldly, mindfully, and creatively; act with honor and moral courage; lead with distinction; serve with a generous spirit.
The Origins of Our Peccary
So why does a strange-looking, piglike creature adorn so much of Webb’s website, publications and campus? For that answer, we need to go back to 1936, when biology teacher Ray Alf took his students out for a fossil-hunting trip near Barstow. Student Bill Webb ’39, son of our school founder, stumbled across a mammal skull. The young men and Alf dug up the skull and shared it with noted paleontologist Chester Stock at Caltech to identify what they discovered.
Stock identified the 15-million-year-old fossil as a previously unknown species of a peccary, similar to today’s javelinas.
The discovery galvanized Alf and the school, launching a feverish campaign to unearth fossils across the U.S. Soon, the fossil hunters had dubbed themselves Peccary Men, created a theme song and branded their fossil-hunting forays as Peccary Trips.
In 1968, when noted artist and architectural designer Millard Sheets designed a museum for Webb to house the now 1,000s of fossils students and Alf had discovered, he created a mosaic featuring a peccary over the door.
Today, all Webb students take a Peccary Trip as part of their freshman Evolutionary Biology class, learn the Peccary Song and become part of Webb’s Peccary Society. Every summer, more than a dozen students venture into the American Southwest for an extended two-week fossil hunting trek.
Students also explore museum sciences and research through an intensive program of honors and advanced studies that has generated more than 50 scientific papers co-authored by students and published in peer-reviewed journals.
Our 150-acre Campus Home
It’s no exaggeration to say that The Webb Schools rose from humble beginnings. As the story is told, Thompson and Vivian Webb sold nearly all of their worldly possessions in a tag sale to finance a trip from Tennessee to California to take over an abandoned school campus above Claremont. They arrived here with less than $100 in their pockets. Their unlikely success was to be equal parts dream and determination.
In 1922, the asking price for the ramshackle property in the hills above Claremont was somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000. The owners wanted half of the asking price in cash. Well, again, with less than $100 on hand – other arrangements had to be made. And they were.
Learn more about at Explore Campus.
About Webb
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Questions
Webb was founded in 1922. The Centennial will be celebrated in 2022. Learn more about our Centennial at webb100.org.