Imagine moving your wife and three kids to a new state. Having to leave behind friends and the familiarity of home to completely start over and the whirlwind of emotions that comes with that experience.

After growing up in New Jersey, later teaching in Michigan, and ending up in Florida for nine years, Jim Marsh, Head of School, was called to St. Louis to join a new community and the Westminster family.

Rich Van Gilst, upper school math teacher, and Marsh had been friends in Florida. Van Gilst taught and coached baseball at Ft. Lauderdale Christian School and Marsh was the Head of School there.

In 1984, Van Gilst moved to St. Louis to teach at Westminster and notified Marsh of the Head of School position that would be opening up for the next school year. Marsh asked him to give WCA his name and number.

“I was so taken by the community and how committed the parents and the families were to Christian education. I was caught up in the school’s vision and big faith,” said Marsh.

After what seemed like an adventure, a challenge, and a leap of faith, Marsh moved his family to St. Louis.

During his first year, as his family was getting settled in, Marsh proposed the idea of having a leadership retreat. The rest of the administration ran with his idea and started it his second year at WCA.

“The first leadership retreat was held at Trout Lodge in old, dilapidated cabins. It was a small group around twenty students and it started a tradition that we still have today,” said Marsh.

Marsh has been on all twenty-seven leadership retreats and has helped to turn students into influential leaders.

Jack Oliver, former student, went on the first leadership retreat and he went on to be the Chief Fundraiser for President Bush and was passionately involved in the Republican Party.

Though the leadership retreat was a new tradition, Marsh fondly remembers another tradition that was started.

One day the junior class officers approached Marsh with an idea to have a school carnival. Specifically, Stephanie Mackris, former student and president of her junior class, did not want a small get together with games. Instead, she wanted a huge carnival with rides and a ferris wheel like some of the other schools’ carnivals.

The students were so excited and did all of the research for what they wanted. They even promoted the event around the community to draw more people in.

“I’ll never forget driving up to school that day. The sky was lit up with rides and the juniors could not be any more excited that they had pulled it off,” said Marsh.

At the end of the night, the officers gathered in Marsh’s office to count all of the money that had been made from the carnival and laid it all out on his desk. They finished counting it around one in the morning and found that they had made over three thousand dollars.

“My job during the first few years of my career was working more with the teachers and the students. It was neat to see a tradition established that was completely student generated that is still happening today, twenty-seven years later,” said Marsh.

Marsh was able to keep up with his former leaders and see how they have impacted the world today.

“Stephanie Mackris went on to be a leader for Campus Crusade at Miami of Ohio. Later, she married and now runs a Christian camp in Texas,” said Marsh.

Marsh’s ideas, leadership, and love for Westminster has had a key role in cultivating students, building a firm foundation for the school, and starting lasting programs that have become unforgettable memories for students, teachers, families and administrators.