Virginia Episcopal School

VES is a co-ed college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9 – 12. In our intentionally small, diverse and engaging community—260 young men and women and 40 faculty—we guide students to strive Toward Full Stature in their academic, ethical, spiritual and personal growth.

400 VES RoadLynchburg, Virginia24503
434.385.3600

History

Recognizing a void in educational opportunities in the South, in 1906, Dr. Robert Carter Jett formulated a plan that called for immediate action by the Episcopal Church of Southern Virginia to establish a way for deserving youth from all walks of life to achieve a superior secondary education.
 
The 41-year-old pastor and father of two young daughters followed his passion, zealously inspiring and implementing positive change in education and propelling VES to the forefront of a movement that would extend the advantages of a well-rounded education to a much greater number of boys and, eventually, girls.
 
Dr. Jett and Lynchburg rector and VES co-founder Joseph B. Dunn proposed Lynchburg, Virginia, as an ideal location for this ambitious project. In the first in a long history of philanthropic partnerships, Virginia-Carolina Railway founder Wilton E. Mingea of Abington, Virginia, who originally declared the idea “a delusive dream,” generously put up $5,000 to buy the property, establish a building fund and pay the headmaster’s salary.

The Roots of Our Mission: Toward Full Stature
Mingea proposed the name Virginia Episcopal School, proclaiming that “if Virginia was part of the name, the school would have a history from the day of its opening.”

Dr. Jett, who was named the school’s first headmaster, saw a future in which VES would develop and send into the world capable, ethical and productive members of society. Together, Jett, Dunn and Mingea coined a motto to explain the school's mission. “The Full Stature of Manhood” conveyed their conviction that a quality education meant “training with character as its end."