Howalt Hall Dedication Marks New Era for Boarding at Baylor

Baylor Board Chair Alexis Guerry Bogo '89 celebrates with Head of School Chris Angel '89, Trustee Chip Howalt '85, and his wife, Cindy Howalt

---

In preparation for an expansion of its boarding enrollment in the coming years, Baylor School dedicated the new Howalt Hall dormitory on Wednesday, Sept. 20, ushering in a new era for the school's boarding program.

The event comes on the heels of opening the 2023-24 school year with a record enrollment of 220 boarding students from 19 countries and 26 states.  The school’s total enrollment for grades 6-12 is 1,080.

Since 2017, applications for Baylor’s boarding program have increased significantly and in 2022, the school outlined plans to increase boarding enrollment to 250 students in the coming years.  “The number of students in the Residential Life program for the 2022-23 school year was limited to 200 boarders due to current program and facility resources, said Head of School Chris Angel ’89. “With the start of the 2023-24 academic year we are celebrating our 131st year as a college preparatory school and have opened with record boarding enrollment. We are excited to be in a position of growth.”

Baylor School Trustee Chip Howalt ’85 and his wife, Cindy, made the lead gift to support the growth of Baylor’s boarding program through on-campus renovations and new faculty town homes and apartments. Howalt Hall, which originally opened in the fall of 1954 as Lupton Annex and contained a combination of classrooms and faculty apartments, is now home to 23 boarding students and two faculty families.

Howalt is president and COO at Textile Rubber Chemical Company in Dalton, Ga. and attended Baylor as a boarding student from 1983 to 1985.

In addition to increasing the dormitory capacity, the construction of seven new townhomes is underway to accommodate an increase in the number of faculty living on campus to support the number of students living on campus.  “As we grow our boarding enrollment it is critically important to provide the best possible dorm faculty support for students in our Residential Life program,” said Angel.

Howalt Hall is one of seven dorms on campus and the first to be built since 2009.  "Throughout history, this community has also benefited from the contributions of individuals and families who deeply valued their Baylor experience," Angel said in his remarks at the ribbon cutting.  "This rich tradition of giving back and paving the way for current and future students is quite possibly as characteristic to Baylor School as is our beautiful campus, our dedicated faculty, and our unmatched school spirit. The family names on our dormitories and other buildings and fields – and even classrooms-- represent some of the most supreme feelings of gratitude and most significant acts of generosity in our school’s history."