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Preparatory Academies and Vanderbilt University
Headmaster
| 1908-1952 | Marvin T. Duncan |
Duncan School
... Nashville, Tennessee
1908-1952
Courtesy of Tennessee State Library and Archives
Marvin T. Duncan, a Webb School and Vanderbilt graduate, founded the Duncan School after teaching at the Wallace School and the Massey School. His wife, Pauline, was the assistant principal and mathematics department chair, and a graduate of the Columbia Institute. Duncan emphasized classics and held daily chapel meetings, and his focus on scholarship helped prepare his students, mostly boys but there were a few girls, for automatic entrance to Vanderbilt and the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.
Courtesy of Tennessee State Library and Archives
Duncan closed school in 1952 due to illness, and died a few months later. Vanderbilt got the property, tore down the school in 1958 and built the Vanderbilt Memorial Gym on the property. Alumni were so committed to the Duncan School ideals that they raised the money for Brentwood Academy’s library as a memorial to the Duncans. The Duncan Memorial Library houses a Duncan School memorabilia collection.