News Detail
Ansin family honored during dedication ceremony
Upper School students celebrated the generosity of RE's Ansin family during an April 11 rededication of the Ansin Aquatic Center. The highlight of the event was an unveiling of a new bronze Raider statue replacing the one that mysteriously disappeared during the 2013-14 school year. The Ansins commissioned the statue for its former perch between the Pagoda and pool deck.
“The Ansin family is very excited to restore the Ransom Raider at the plaza,” Andy Ansin '81 said.
During a spirited mid-morning ceremony, Ansin, a two-time water polo state champion who will become the chair of RE's board in June, addressed some 700 Upper School students, faculty and staff. He shared the colorful history of the mascot as he stood alongside the life-size statue, eliciting cheers and applause while taking several good-natured jabs at a nearby school that also claims a raider as its mascot.
Ansin was joined at the event by his wife Tatsiana Ansin his mother Toby Lerner Ansin and Toby’s partner Sandy Sanford Evans. Brother James Ansin '84 and sister Stephanie Ansin '90 also attended RE, and the Ansins’ eldest daughter Sophie will join the RE Class of 2025 in the fall. Ansin patriarch Edmund N. Ansin founded the Ansin Foundation, through which the family has offered generous support to RE.
“This is about a family who loves your school, and a family that cares deeply about your experience at this school,” Townsend told the students.
Penny Townsend presented Andy Ansin with an RE water polo robe and cap with his old No. 6.
Ansin explained that, back in the 1960s, students at the then all-boys Ransom School sought a team name as they began engaging in competitions with other schools. The boys, who competed on campus as “greens” and “whites,” voted to be called the Ransom Raiders, appreciating the alliteration and sense of power and might the name exhibited. They received the approval of then-headmaster Pierre “Pete” Cameron.
The statue was created by sculptor Uldis Lopez of R.U.N. Art Foundry in Miami.
Middle School
2045 South Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 250 6850
Upper School
3575 Main Highway, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 460 8800
Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.