Treehaven School

History

2010-06-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Treehaven School was founded in 1949 by Bill and Florence Schneider. Its original location was at North Craycroft Rd and East Fourth Street, Tucson, Arizona. Originally started as a nursery and kindergarten, the school grew with Tucson, adding primary grades and then junior high. A residential program was added when the Schneiders were asked to take care of a child who was in Tucson for health reasons.

As the city gobbled up the desert area Treehaven students used for horseback riding, the decision was made to move the school from its original six-acre site to a 65-acre site at 10500 E. Tanque Verde Road, on the city's east side. At the heart of the property was a three-story home built for the Westinghouse family in 1927. In later years it was a guest ranch known as the Diamond W.

Treehaven opened at its new location in September, 1956. Over the years, the property was improved. Tennis courts and an olympic-size pool were added, The school became a non-profit educational institution. The Schneiders retired in 1975, spending their later years in Ashland, Oregon, where they were active in various community organizations. Florence Schneider, taught sociology as an adjunct professor at Southern Oregon State University (now Southern Oregon University) and Bill Schneider was active in the Southern Oregon Foundation. They made a major gift to the university to establish the Schneider Musuem of Art named for Bill's parents who were frequent visitors at Treehaven. The art museum has as a part of its permanent collection a series of oil and watercolor paintings that well-known American impressionist Waldo Peirce did while his children attended Treehaven.

Bill Schneider died on his 83rd birthday, October 11, 1996. Florence Schneider died December 29, 1999.

The Treehaven property is now the home of Circle Tree Ranch, a therapeutic community for substance abusers.

Happy Birthday, Dad

2008-10-10T10:08:00.004-07:00

October 11, 2008 would have been my father's 95th birthday. He died 12 years ago in 1996 at age 83, coincidentally on October 11. Although our relationship was not without its ups and downs, I admired his intelligence and business acumen and I think he was proud of me in his own way. Some highlights of our life together include the cruise we took to Australia and New Zealand when I graduated from high school and his and my mom's visit to Taiwan when my oldest daughter, Lara, was born. I was stationed in Taipei as officer-in-charge of the Armed Forces Radio Network. I often think about what he would have thought about the events of September 11 and now the meltdown of the world economy. Dad's second brother, Ray, is 90 and still with us in California. His youngest brother, Stan Taylor, died October 13, 2007, at age 84. I was able to visit him briefly during the summer before his passing.

Dennis the Menace

2008-10-09T14:29:00.001-07:00

Dennis Ketcham, the original "Dennis the Menace" attended Treehaven in 1963. Here's an original cartoon by Hank Ketcham, Dennis's creator in real life, presented "To the Schneiders and the Treehaven Gang." Dennis is telling his friend, " ... an' after I get three more shoes, I'm gonna save up for a HORSE!"

Mad Men (and women)

2008-10-08T17:27:00.006-07:00

Treehaven graduate Talia Balsam has a supporting role on AMC's critically acclaimed series, "Mad Men," about advertising in the early 1960's. Talia is the screen wife of Roger Sterling played by actor John Slattery. Talia and John are married in real life, too. Slattery won the Emmy in 2008 for best supporting actor for his role as the co-owner of the fictional eponymous Madison Avenue agency, Sterling-Cooper.

I can hear!

2008-02-14T17:28:00.001-07:00

Watch out, Steve Austin, Burt Schneider is here. While I'm not able to do most of what the bionic man could do, with a new chip in my head, I am able to hear on the phone for the first time in years and continue my job in radio, hosting the afternoon radio news programming on KUAZ-FM, NPR in Tucson. On August 29, I had surgery inserting a computer chip (equivalent to a 286 processor) at the base of my skull. It is connected by a cable to 16 electrodes threaded through skull to the cochlea in the inner ear. The electrodes stimulate the auditory nerve. All this is controlled by a hearing aid-sized processor worn on my right ear. The processor samples the sound in my environment 83,000 times per second and transmits its digital representation via radio waves through a magnet which is attached to the back of my head. It might not be the ultimate fashion statement, but this small wonder has allowed me to break my social isolation and start interacting with people again.

When I first had the cochlear implant activated about two weeks after surgery, my brain had to learn to recognize the electrical impulses as sound. Most voices sounded like the Chipmunks on helium. I had to ask people around me what some of those strange noises were I was hearing. Turned out what I thought were banging trash can lids were dogs barking and what I thought were rusty hinges squeaking were birds. Gradually my elastic brain began to make sense of what was going on. Music still sounds like what you get when you don't quite tune in a distant shortwave station, but I am able to enjoy DVD's and TV with a direct connection into the device. I am hoping that with the next chip upgrade, I will be able to have my left ear done as well. I still have trouble hearing surroundings such as noisy restaurants and most movies with their sonic overloads. But it's truly amazing what technology has wrought. To see how the implant does its magic, take a look at this animation.

We're going to Disneyland

2006-08-26T17:28:00.000-07:00

Starting in 1955, the year the famous theme park opened, Treehaven offered a bus trip to the Magic Kingdom. In the early years, it was a long ride. This was before the Interstate Highway System was completed and we usually spent the first night in Yuma before visiting San Diego and its world famous zoo. Life was simpler back then and we got pretty excited about those "E" ticket rides. Generally, the kids were pretty well behaved -- no drugs and alcohol in those days. My favorite trip was with a student from Pennsylvania who had missed the group trip because of illness. His mother paid for us to go on a flight from Tucson to LAX and then by helicopter to Disneyland's own heliport.

You were how old?

2006-08-26T14:27:00.001-07:00

Some people were shocked when they found out that Treehaven had boarding students as young as five years old. There were many circumstances that dictated sending kids away to school. Some parents worked overseas, others were too involved with their careers; in some cases, parents had problems with drugs and alcohol, or the family doctor or a psychologist recommended it. Mrs. Schneider would sometimes say some children just needed a "parentdectomy." If you were one of these kids, we'd like to see what you have to say. Was it a good or bad thing that you were sent away to school?

Seems like only yesterday

2006-08-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

They got off to an auspicious start in 1957 broadcasting on the "Voice of Treehaven" from the third floor studios of the Main House to a captive audience of Treehaven's boarding students. That's Burt Schneider and Ray Lindstrom, Catalina High School students and founders of southern Arizona's first rock and roll record label, Zoom Records. They're still best friends and still involved in media. Ray's latest creation is one of the net's fastest growing sports sites, The Jock Report.

From the New York Times

2006-08-22T07:22:00.000-07:00

SCHNEIDER-Florence Hemley. 85 years old; Ph.D Bryn Mawr College. Resident of Ashland, Oregon; formerly of Tucson, AZ, and Crestwood, NY. Departed peacefully in her sleep December 29, 1999. Beloved wife of the late Bill Schneider; loving sister of Eugene and the late Arnold and David; a devoted mother of Patty and Burton; and grandmother of their children. With her husband Bill, she was the founder and head for many years of Treehaven School in Tucson, AZ; the Schneider Museum of Southern Oregon State University and the Ashland Community Educational Services Volunteer Organization for the Ashland Oregon School District. Also the Schneiders were major contributors to many charitable, religious, cultural and educational funds including a Scholarship Fund for the Graduate School of Social Work and Research at Bryn Mawr College; Rogue Valley Symphony; Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Rogue Valley Opera; Temple Emek Shalom; Special Facility for Ashland Community Hospital and endowments for Providence and Rogue Valley Memorial Hospitals; a general charitable fund with emphasis on the underprivileged in Jackson County, Oregon; and many others. During her life, Florence taught at the University of Arizona-Tucson, Santa Monica College, Rogue Valley Jewish Community Religious School, Southern Oregon State University, and conducted ''Perspectives For Women'', a monthly series of breakfasts for professional women at the Medford Chamber of Commerce. She started her working career as Director of Fact Finding of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs. The documentary film ''The Women of Summer'' was prompted by her doctoral research work at Bryn Mawr. All who knew Florence appreciated her intense interest in participating in the life of the communities she lived in, with a primary interest in helping the underprivileged. She was an energetic, dynamic, ethical, loving and sympathetic person who throughout her life devoted herself to many worthy causes. She will be sorely missed by those with similar interests but primarily by her extended family and her many, many friends throughout the country. In life she made a significant, beneficial difference, and now will live on in her good work. ''Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake. For Death he taketh all away, but them he cannot take''.

Names you know

2006-08-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

Burt Schneider lives in Tucson where he is the afternoon host of "All Things Considered," at KUAZ and KUAZ-FM, Tucson's NPR stations.

His children who attended Treehaven in their early school years are: Lara Young ,a teacher in Pickerington, Ohio. She has a son, Justin Thornton. Andrea Matheson is a lawyer in Tucson and has a son, James. Jennifer Ochoa is a reservation sales representative for American Airlines at DFW. She has two daughters, Nicole and Michelle. Burt's sister, Patricia Henry-Schneider, is a licensed professional counselor and therapist in Eugene, Oregon. She is the mother of three grown children and has three grandchildren.

Other notable alumni: Tatum and Griffin O'Neal. Dallas and Jordan Smith, the sons and stepsons of Roger Smith and Ann-Margret; Talia Balsam who was married briefly to George Clooney; Henry and Patrick McGuinn (Patrick is a film maker in New York); and a special salute to Treehaven's first boarding student,Harold Schifman, who is still in Arizona.

Where's Waldo?

2006-08-21T06:53:00.000-07:00

You may remember the colorful paintings by Waldo Peirce whose children, John and Karen, attended Treehaven beginning in the mid-1950's. Often, when he sent tuition checks to the school he decorated the envelopes with fanciful watercolor images. The Schneider grandchildren have some of those artifacts.