Thring Society
Westminster established The Thring Society to recognize any member of the Westminster community who has made planned gifts with Westminster as a beneficiary. Such gifts might include naming Westminster in a will with a bequest or in a life insurance policy or a retirement policy. Other popular kinds of gifts are charitable income gifts, such as charitable gift annuities, charitable remainder unitrusts, or charitable remainder annuity trusts. In addition, there are gifts of life insurance or of real estate.
History of the Thring Society
The Thring Society takes its name from the Reverend Edward Thring, Headmaster of the Uppingham School in England from 1853-1887. Thring, the younger son of the rector and sole landed proprietor of the parish of Alford in Somersetshire, attended Eton and Kings College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself as a scholar and took holy orders. In 1853, at the age of 32, Thring was elected Headmaster of Uppingham School, a small, obscure local grammar school that had been languishing for virtually all of its 270 years. When Thring died in 1887, it was one of the great public schools of England; Thring himself was the only English schoolmaster of his generation widely and popularly known by name.
Thring's view of education had an enormous impact in America, as well as in England, and most certainly on William Lee Cushing, Westminster's founder. The radical ideas that Thring developed at Uppingham - the importance of individual attention, the need for structure and balance in school activities, the shared joy in learning and playing together, the value of discipline with freedom - became, through Cushing's leadership, an integral part of Westminster. Today, as in days past, Thring's teachings, as interpreted by Cushing, serve as the invisible cornerstone of Westminster School.
The symbol for the Thring Society is the school's oldest landmark, the bell at the peak of the main building designed in the style of Thring's Uppingham School. As the bell has called generations of students to work and play, the thread of Thring's philosophy winds through the Westminster years, adapted to each Headmaster's set of challenges.
The support of thoughtful alumni and friends who remember the school with their bequests and planned gifts will significantly help perpetuate the excellence of Westminster's education for future generations of students.
Building Westminster's endowment is more important today then it ever has been. A growing endowment provides a reliable source of income essential to offering competitive salaries for teachers, making available the Westminster experience to a broad and diverse base of students, and to maintaining the school plant in top condition.
If you have questions about bequests or if you would like more information on gift planning opportunities, please contact: Maggie Pinney, Director of Development, 860-408-3051,mpinney@westminster-school.org
