Downtown Venice (Venice Avenue
West)
The
Kentucky Military Institute (KMI)
was a military preparatory
school in Lyndon,
Kentucky
and Venice, Florida
, in operation from 1845 to 1971.
One of the
oldest traditional military prep schools in the United States
, KMI was maintained in the vein of the Virginia
Military Institute
, in that all of its students were classified as
cadets. It was founded in 1845 by Colonel Robert Thomas Pitcairn Allen
and chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky
in
1847.
KMI
wintered in Eau Gallie,
Florida
from 1907 to 1921 when the campus there burned to
the ground.
Due to financial troubles, the campus moved many times in the late
19th and early 20th centuries, and was closed in 1924; it reopened
the next year.
It moved to Venice, Florida in 1932, where winter classes were already being
held. Charles B. Richmond was appointed as superintendent
and the school thrived until the late 1960s, when dwindling
interest in enrolling in the military, coupled with higher tuition
fees, caused the school further financial trouble. Its final class
of cadets graduated in 1971, and its doors closed for good that
summer.
KMI merged into Kentucky Country
Day School
.
Notable alumni
- Jim Backus, actor; credits included
Thurston Howell III on Gilligan's
Island
- John Y. Brown, Jr., Governor of Kentucky (attended)
- Stephen Gano Burbridge,
Union Army major general
- John A. "Jack" Hillerich III, current Chairman of the Board of
Hillerich & Bradsby
- Robert Hoke, Confederate major
general
- Robert A. McClure (Class of 1915), Chief of
Intelligence to General Eisenhower's Allied Forces in Europe during
World War II
- Victor Mature, actor; credits
include Samson and
Delilah, My Darling
Clementine
- Samuel Woodson Price,
artist & soldier; Union Army major general
- Danny Sullivan,
race car driver; winner of the 1985 Indianapolis 500
- Fred Willard (Class of 1951),
actor; numerous television and film credits include Best in Show , This Is Spinal Tap
References
External links
Wikis
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