Warwick Academy revisited, 80 years on

One of Warwick Academy’s oldest ‘old boys’ has returned to the school after nearly 80 years.

Bill Stoops was a pupil at the school between 1936 and 1939, along with his brother, Reginald, while the family lived on the island.

Over the years Mr Stoops, who is now 90, has been back to Bermuda several times on holiday.

But last week he returned to the school for the first time and was given a guided tour of the campus.

He told the Bermuda Sun: “Mr brother and I had come over from Rhode Island along with my mother when we were young.

“I would have been 13 when I started at Warwick, while my brother was 11.

“Back then Bermuda still had a railway and there were no cars.

Biking to school

“We would often bike to school together, and after we had finished class we would fish, swim and sail.

“It really was the most idyllic place to live.

“Any boy that was my age living in Bermuda at the time was probably one of the luckiest boys alive.”

Mr Stoops and his family returned to Rhode Island in 1939 and he signed up to join the US Navy and served onboard minesweepers during World War II.

He went on to become a management consultant and raised a family in Freedom, New Hampshire.

His son, Peter, and daughter, Caroline Marston, organized the latest trip to Bermuda as a Father’s Day present.

During the recent visit Mr Stoops also spent a lot of time with former Warwick alumni and famed diver Teddy Tucker, who was in the same class as his brother and died just a few days later.

Mr Stoops said: “Although I have come back to Bermuda on a number of occasions I had never actually been back to the school. I have driven past it on many occasions and thought I should return. But this time was the first time I have been back inside the old quad.

“In my time all the classrooms were based around the quadrangle and there were only around 100 pupils. So to see the way in which it has grown was really quite impressive.

“I very much enjoyed seeing the old buildings and it brought back many fantastic memories.”