SEDONA, Ariz. — As a government official in World War II, Hamilton Warren was outraged to learn that a black colleague made half as much as his white peers. So, after the war, the wealthy Harvard graduate and his wife, Barbara, pitched up a tent in a remote corner of northern Arizona. Working together with the Hopi people, they built a school open to every race, creed, orientation and nationality, and dedicated to values of environmental stewardship, physical labor and cultural understanding.
Verde Valley School was and remains among the most genuinely progressive boarding schools anywhere. It is surely the most American.