Detroit Country Day School

Detroit Country Day School (also known as DCD, DCDS, or Country Day) is a private, secular school located in three campuses in Oakland County, in the U.S. state of Michigan, north of Detroit. The administrative offices, facility services, safety and security services, and the upper school (Grades 9-12) are located in a campus in Beverly Hills, whereas the middle school (4-8), and the Lower School (PK-3) are located in two separate campuses in Bloomfield Township, near Bloomfield Hills. DCDS was founded in Detroit in 1914 by Alden Shaw inspired by the Country Day School movement. The school's motto is Mens Sana in Corpore Sano, a Latin phrase meaning "Sound Mind in a Sound Body". The school colors are blue and gold. History Founder, F. Alden Shaw was born to Charles Joseph Shaw and Elizabeth Gahring Shaw in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota on December 20, 1885. Mr. Shaw graduated from the prestigious Boston Latin School in 1905 and Harvard College in 1909. He moved to Paris, France and enrolled in L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, and began raising funds and recruiting students to begin his dream of founding a private school for boys. He soon realized that circumstances in Paris made founding a school an unreasonably daunting task; he decided to return to the United States. On the ship back to America, Mr. Shaw recalls an acquaintance raving about the wondrous opportunities in the blossoming American city of Detroit, Michigan and decided to build a school there. In the spring of 1914, F. Alden Shaw, under the name Detroit Preparatory School, submitted the following advertisement to the local paper: