Education: Orson’s Alma Mater

Prize alumnus of the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock, Ill. is a chub-cheeked young precocity named Orson Welles. Silver-haired Headmaster Roger (“Skipper”) Hill, watching Orson’s progress, has hoped ever since to turn up a few more like him. Last week Orson Welles made the lightning stroke more possible by giving his alma mater a check for $10,000, enough for five two-year scholarships.

The boys (preferably ten to 13 years old) will be nominated by public-school principals. Headmaster Hill will choose the five winners by simple criteria : they must be well-balanced emotionally, possess out standing aptitude in some, particular field.

But dramatic ability is not one of them.

Says Mr. Hill : “We have no valid tests on this. . . . Besides, the precocious child-actor is apt to be pretty much of a brat.” Roger Hill, who was born there, inherited Todd School from his father in 1928. He believes that budding geniuses should be nurtured. Todd’s curriculum is designed to prepare boys for college, but extracurricular activities are Hollywoodian: boys paint, act, design stage sets, make sound films, radio speeches.

Orson Welles has formed a sort of educational partnership with Headmaster Hill.

Their collaboration, when Orson was 17, on Everybody’s Shakespeare, a simple adaptation of Shakespeare’s plays for high schools, has sold over 100,000 copies; their collaboration on Todd has greatly stepped up its extracurricular activities.