Manvel Schauffler

Manvel “Schauff” Schauffler was born in New York City in 1924, and grew up in New Rochelle, New York. He attended Williams College for a few years before joining the U.S. Navy in 1943, where he served on an LST in the Mediterranean.

He attended Black Mountain College from the fall of 1946 through the spring of 1948, including the 1948 summer session. There he met Verna Raattama from New York Mills, Minnesota. They were married from 1947 until his death in 2013.

In 1947 the Schaufflers and several others from Black Mountain College decided to form a group with the goal of cooperative living, farming, and becoming a part of a small town where they could make a contribution. The town they chose was Estacada, Oregon, where the group lived together on a farm.

Schauffler taught at Estacada High School and led a Boy Scout troop, while earning his B.A. and M.A. at Lewis & Clark College. In 1951 Schauffler began working as a teacher at Catlin Gabel School, a progressive experiential private school in Portland, Oregon. He served as headmaster for thirteen years where he followed the philosophy that students are at the center of education and their voices should be heard.

He de-emphasized grades and made the student body president an ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees. In 1980 the Schaufflers moved to Seattle where he taught middle school at the Bush School and founded the Zushi Kaisei summer program for students from Japan.

While in Seattle, he help found two private schools, Hyla Middle School and Explorer West. Schauffler was involved with peace and justice issues through the American Friends Service Committee and led student groups to England and Germany with the Experiment in International Living.

Biography written by Mary Emma Harris for the Black Mountain College Project.

Asheville Art Museum Collection

Writings about Manvel can be seen in digitized college bulletins on Asheville Art Museum's collection website: collection.ashevilleart.org. They can be found by searching these accession numbers:

2017.40.043 September 1948 bulletin,

"Verna and Manvel Schauffler, Ed Adamy, Dorothy and Hank Bergman have arrived in Oregon and are on the lookout for work there. En route west they visited Dick and Janet (Heling) Roberts in Montana. Harry Weitzer and Harry Holl are living in Troutdale near John and Rachel Wallen; Harry Weitzer is making wooden plates and bowls in his own shop; Harry Holl has a position teaching art in the public school. A recent letter indicated that Warren Blanchard is also in Oregon."

Black Mountain College Project

Mary Emma Harris interviewed Manvel in 1998 and the transcript is available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection.

Topics: Hearing about BMC – Schauffler family members at BMC – Theodore and Alice Rondthaler – Corkran family and Catlin GabelSchool – general classes – M.C. Richard’s class – coordinator of work program – college ball games – John Wallen classes – Karl Niebyl – impact of European refugees – FHA housing – disagreements over nature of BMC curriculum – Viewpoint Community in Estacada – John Wallen – Catlin Gabel School – post-BMC education and career – BMC alumni in Portland area – children – integration of BMC – discussion of BMC photographs – importance of BMC