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J. Hyde Savage, one of the tough guys on the Oak Ridge Institute football team during the 1925-26 season, wanted his only child to attend the school — an idea that at first didn’t appeal to his son.

“My father had such good memories of his days here,” said Jim Savage, now director of the academy’s museum and archives. “They said Dad used to practice for football by tackling cows. He broke his shoulder one time doing that.”

But Hyde Savage came from tough stock, having been born in Alaska, where his father was involved in the Klondike Gold Rush. Military school was simply another way to develop character and discipline in a young man, he said.

“Then we came out here to a Mothers’ Day parade one weekend when I was 12, and I was hooked,” Savage said. “That was the neatest thing I’d ever seen. I loved it and I’ve loved it ever since.”
Savage started school there at 13, finished high school at the academy in 1962 and junior college in 1964, and now is a retired major with 26 years’ service in the U.S. Army Reserves.

Even at 64, his love for what is now known as Oak Ridge Military Academy hasn’t faded. He longs for the school to return to the glory days that he remembers when he was battle group commander at the academy. It was a period when the school enrolled about 200 to 210 cadets each year and wasn’t plagued by financial woes as it is today.

Carrying a heavy debt today and with enrollment down from Savage’s “glory days,” the academy faces a financial battle to stay open.

Savage is optimistic that President Col. Roy Berwick and other school leaders will find financial help, and the school will open on time this fall. Berwick has said he is in negotiations for financial help but is unable to talk about those negotiations.

“We’ve had some great people come through here — and we’ve participated in every war that this country has been involved in since the Civil War,” Savage said. “The school has a great tradition; it is the only military school remaining in North Carolina. There used to be 35 or more.”

Envisioned as a private school in 1850 and started in 1852, the academy didn’t become a military school until 1917. The school’s history has been dotted with downturns, such as having several campus buildings destroyed in fires and having to raise money to rebuild, or to close down temporarily, as it did during the Civil War.
The current crisis is another one of those “dots.” “My dream is for the school to be here and to stay here,” Savage said.

There is still a place in today’s culture for military schools, he said. “This needs to remain a military school and be a feeder school to four-year military schools like The Citadel and VMI,” he said. “There are so many things that you get that you don’t get in a classroom. I learned how to work with people, and I learned the values and principles that have been a very important part of my life.”

He recalled his arrival.

“When my parents brought me here, my father said to me: 'I’m 26 miles from here (Winston-Salem), but don’t come home every weekend. Come home only on extended weekends. You need to stay at school and learn how other people live.’ That’s probably the best advice I ever received,” Savage said.

“My father wanted me to learn how to stand on my own two feet and grow up,” he said.

Savage estimates that at least 28,000 students have attended the school since 1852. War has been a contributor to some of the institute’s best — and worst — years. During wars that America embraced, ORMI contributed well-trained soldiers to help defend the country, but the controversial Vietnam War caused a downturn in enrollment. Oak Ridge even removed “Military” from its name for a few years.

“During the Gulf War, enrollment got up to 300 or more, but having that many students is not routine. We had 140 students last year. When I came here in 2003, there were 90 cadets. Dr. Berwick came in 2005 and has raised the number of students enrolled,” Savage said.

“We have one of the greatest teams (faculty and staff) that we’ve ever had, the best board we’ve had in years,” he said. “Many more of our alumni are coming back.”

Savage thinks the school is poised for resurgence. But the math is simple for that to happen: “We need relief from our financial problems; and we need to increase enrollment,” he said.

Another factor, perhaps, would help Oak Ridge return to its once-celebrated status: More alumni like Hyde Savage need to decide they want their sons and daughters to have the same type of experiences that molded their lives.

Contact Bob Burchette at bburchette@triad.rr.com.