Milton Hershey Founder's Hall©

Milton Hershey School
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Originally named the Hershey Industrial School, the institution was founded and funded by chocolate industrialist Milton Snavely Hershey and his wife, Catherine Sweeney Hershey. The school was originally established for impoverished, healthy, male orphans, while today it serves students of various backgrounds. “It was Kitty's idea,” Milton Hershey always said when he spoke of the Hershey Industrial School. “If we had helped a hundred children it would have all been worthwhile.” Fifteen years younger than her husband, Catherine Hershey developed an undiagnosable illness circa 1901, and was increasingly sickly for years. As Kitty was unable to bear children, the Hershey’s decided to give needy kids the kind of upbringing he never had. Milton and Catherine Hershey established a home and a school for “poor, healthy, male orphans between the ages of 8 through 18 years of age.” The first class consisted of 10 students, and by 1914, there were 40 boys enrolled in the school.

While Hershey consulted with experts on managing the school, he used three guiding principles to ensure the students had a good education, a sense of stability and security: every graduate should have a vocation, every student should learn love of God and man, and every student should benefit from wholesome responsibility. After Kitty’s death in 1915, Hershey gave his entire personal fortune - thousands of acres of land, and controlling interest in the company, worth US$60 million - to the school. He continued to be involved in the school’s operations until his death in 1945.

(photographs taken in 2012)

Видео Milton Hershey Founder's Hall© канала Peter Pronych