The Club

The Darwin Club began during the 1918–19 school year and offered three activities for boys at Loomis: the Gun Club, and the Natural History and Wireless Radio Divisions. Special events such as photography contests, and lectures by students and visiting experts highlighted these topics.

While the Gun Club broke off from the club and became the interscholastic rifle team, other subdivisions were introduced, including the Photography Club, the Aeronautics Division and the Astronomical Division. Each spring, the group held a carnival with games, music, and food to raise money for the school and the club.

In 1923, the Darwin Club moved to a room on the first floor of the newly constructed Warham dormitory. The room featured a large aquarium and ample space for the natural history collection. Knower Mills, an early faculty advisor to the club, poked fun at the group in his 1925 poem, “The Darwinian Introduces Himself (a theoretical conception of a composite Darwinian)”. These boys, according to Mills, had an almost unfathomable breadth of knowledge.

I am the very model of a modernized Darwinian; I’ve information
vegetable, mineral and simian;
I know the flowers and the trees, the angleworms and butterflies,
whene’er I take a photograph, I know how fast my shutter flies

While interest in the club waxed and waned over the years, by the 1980s the club became inactive, apparently lost in a changing world.

Thanks to the efforts of faculty member Pete Gwyn, the Darwin Club flourishes once again at Loomis Chaffee. Since Pete’s revival of the club in the 1990s, male and female students organize canoe trips and club overnights, help to build bridges on forest trails and construct toboggans for hauling gear on the club’s winter trips. Darwinians also undertake community service opportunities pertaining to the outdoors. In 2009, the Connecticut Forest and Parks Association recognized the club’s dedication to keeping the state fun and safe by honoring its work restoring local trails.
 

The Cabin

In the 1950s, the Darwin Club built a cabin in East Hartland, Connecticut on land donated to the school. Loomis science teacher Howard “Squirrel” Norris headed the construction work. “Darwinians” of that time recall many nights of campfire songs and s’mores, and faculty members remember square dances and hiking trips at the cabin. Longtime faculty member Don Joffray recollected that “[no one ever] attempted to lock the cabin, but left a ‘welcome visitors’ sign”.

As interest in the Darwin Club declined, so did the use of the cabin. In the early 1980s, the structure mysteriously burned. Pete Gwyn planned to reconstruct the cabin in the early 1990s and built a lean-to on the original site. According to former Loomis Chaffee science teacher Keith Palmer, “construction soon came to an end. But, not in any way contented, Pete began to make plans for a full-sized cabin.” In 2009, students and faculty finished a new structure complete with sleeping lofts, a wood stove, and a porch. Club members enjoy group overnights there and the opportunity to interact with the surrounding natural landscape.

All the major logs used for the cabin were debarked and cut onsite. The beams and planks were cut on a saw mill lent by Trustee Wilkes McClave, and much of the wood was provided by Grimshaw Tree Service.
 

Faculty Advisors

Phillip H. Cobb, the Darwin Club’s first faculty advisor, made the club a grand success. The 1925 Loomiscellany noted that Cobb “was the instigator of much that has been accomplished”. His legacy lives on in the annual Cobb Award presented to a Darwin Club member.

Knower Mills took the helm in 1925 and steered the club towards expansion and continued success. At his retirement in the 1940s, the club was placed into the hands of Howard “Squirrel” Norris. Legendary math teacher, Don Joffray helped Norris build the original cabin along with a group of dedicated students. In the years that followed, Joffray and Norris lead the club on kayaking and canoeing trips and hikes.

Physics teacher Keith Palmer actively mentored the club for many years. Even after Palmer’s retirement in 1995, he spent endless hours working on the cabin in East Hartland with Pete Gwyn and club members.
 

The Future

More and more students are realizing the importance of a natural retreat even during this era of fast-paced technology. Thanks to a vibrant history, an inviting cabin, and dedicated faculty and student leadership, the club will likely thrive for years to come.