Kemper Military School to close Friday

BOONVILLE, Mo. -- After flirting with bankruptcy two years ago, the cash-strapped Kemper Military School will close Friday, the school announced Tuesday.

In a written statement posted on its Web site, the school said it had failed to gain enough enrollment and fund-raising to remain open. Kemper president Edward Ridgley asked a reporter waiting outside Ridgley's office for an interview to leave the campus. Ridgley did not comment on the closing.

Kemper -- the oldest military school west of the Mississippi River -- filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection two years ago and had operated under a reorganization plan for the past year.

Kemper had filed for bankruptcy after officials announced in May 2000 that the school needed $1.3 million to stay open. Alumni and cadets raised about $650,000 to keep the school from closing immediately. To pare expenses, the school closed its junior college program.

Last August, a judge approved the academy's bankruptcy reorganization plan after the alumni association offered to spend $30,000 to buy out the only creditor who objected. That allowed the Boonville school to reopen in September.

About 135 students in grades six through 12 attended the school during the last academic year. The academy graduated its 158th class May 18.

"It's going to be quite a change to not see cadets in the downtown area, and the loss of jobs will have an economic impact on our city," said city administrator Tracy Walkup.

She said the Kemper cadets in their traditional blue uniforms stood out in Boonville.

"If you see a Kemper cadet on the street, you know them," she said.

Mary Ellen McVicker, a former teacher at the school who now works with the Boonville Historical Society, stopped at Kemper Tuesday morning to talk about the historical archives that should be saved.

"There is no one alive who remembers when Kemper was not here," she told the Columbia Daily Tribune. "It also brought in a group of professional people that Boonville's going to miss."

Other Boonville residents expressed sadness as word spread about the plans to shut down the school. Gene Reagan, owner of a downtown sporting goods store, reminisced about serving as Kemper's athletic director from 1966 to 1969, and said the school means a lot to Boonville.