Reading & Riding

In the fall of 1910 a tall, sandy-haired young Bostonian rented a house in the rugged foothills behind Santa Barbara, Calif., hired two assistants and opened a private school for nine boys. Headmaster Curtis Wolsey Gate, who had been an English master at nearby Thacher School, was convinced that the West could use another school that combined English-style private education with the rough & ready atmosphere of California ranch life. Last week, looking back over 40 years of his experiment, 65-year-old Founder Cate was more convinced than ever.

Santa Barbara School had long since moved down from the hills to a handsome $600,000 Spanish-colonial-style plant on a mesa overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Its alumni, canvassing West Coast parents and public-school principals, had lined up a record number of applicants for the coming year. And Santa Barbara, with an endowment of $200,000, a staff of 13 and 61 students (tuition & board: $2,000), was about to launch a $125,000 building project which would make room for 125 students by 1955.

Change of Collar. Over the years Santa Barbara had made some other changes. At first, each student owned his own horse, was required to feed and curry him every morning before breakfast. Riding was the school's main sport, with students taking long treks through the mountains, and competing in the rough-riding gymkhanas. For dinner, students changed riding jeans and blue shirts for stiff white collars and blue suits, were waited on by Chinese servants.

_ But as the Southern California countryside became more heavily populated, and the cost of living rose, the horse requirement was dropped. The sprawling stables were gradually converted into laboratories and workshops, stiff white collars disappeared and the Chinese servants were replaced by students, who took turns waiting on tables.

Change of Command. The one Santa Barbara tradition which never seemed to change was Founder Curtis Gate himself. For 40 years "the King" had taught the boys classics and the Bible, led the hymns each morning in his booming bass voice. He had been a familiar figure galloping along the riding trails in jodhpurs and long English jacket, or driving pell-mell along country roads in his old Dodge touring car. But one day last week, more than 500 Santa Barbara schoolboys, parents and alumni gathered in the school gym to hear Headmaster Gate talk about one more change.

At 65, he was turning over the reins to 40-year-old Navy Veteran Calvin Miller from Massachusetts' Deerfield Academy. When he moves into Santa Barbara next fall, Headmaster Miller will be inheriting one of the best-run private schools west of the Mississippi.

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