The esoteric namesakes behind the Upper School classrooms

By Priya Klein ‘26

Photo by Priya Klein ‘26

Classrooms on the Upper School campus have taken on names that go far beyond numbers and building codes (for the most part). Inspired by everything from celebrity crushes to scientific icons, the naming process offers a small glimpse into the personalities and priorities that shape the Catlin Gabel School (CGS) identity. These titles–official or not–turn simple learning environments into something far more memorable; they are reflections of CGS’s distinct humor, history, and community.

Take The Pitt, for example–double T very much intentional. This classroom, primarily used for Rick White’s Calculus classes, traces its name back to actor Brad Pitt. “You could ask any teacher in the high school what actor I’m obsessed with…It’s Brad Pitt; It’s an ongoing joke,” said White, a longtime math teacher in the Upper School.

White’s interest in the heartthrob celeb is fueled by both a love of ‘90s action movies and a willingness to lean into the silliness of his minor crush on the actor. Sometime in the early 2010s, faculty members made a cutout of the actor and left it in the classroom to scare White. The cutout stayed in the back of the classroom for years, becoming somewhat of a recurring joke in White’s classes. 

The classroom was only really unofficially christened years later after a student in White’s class, Jackson Jones ‘19, was admiring the Brad Pitt cutout looming in the back of the classroom and suggested the now iconic classroom name: “The Pitt.” Jones’s suggestion–meant to be a play on both the cutout’s last name and the pit-like design of the classroom–was well received by White and the rest of the class.

Jones suggested they make a name plate for the classroom, but White knew that wouldn’t be enough to cement the nickname in the minds of students and faculty. “If you really want to make a name stick, you've got to get it on a kid’s schedule–you've got to go to the registrar,” said White. So, on the last day of his senior year, Jones managed to get registrar approval, and with enough faculty buy-in, the name stuck onto schedules, the classroom’s new name plate, and the collective consciousness of students and faculty.

Once The Pitt got its name, the rest of the math classrooms followed in quick pursuit, each named by a math teacher at the time. There’s The Black Pearl, named by Kathy Sloan for the Captain Jack Sparrow cutout that used to reside in the classroom; TARDIS, named by former math teacher J Wysocki for the “Dr. Who” franchise; and Heine-Borel, named by former math teacher Kenny Nguyen in honor of the calculus theorem of the same name. According to White, this proved to be difficult because teachers “couldn’t find a cutout for Heine-Borel.

Later, the Upper School librarians named The Situation Room, which, despite its menacing name, is actually just a reservable study room in the Upper School Library. “We were inspired by the math building to give it a fun name,” said Upper School librarian Sue Phillips. “We thought that study rooms, when groups are working, can have a lot of excitement, enthusiasm, and intrigue–people get kind of fired up.”

Thus, The Situation Room was born, named after the White House bunker of the same name, where military officials and presidents handle global crises. CGS’ version is a bit more low-stakes: mostly meetings and study groups, only occasionally chaos. 

For a while, the room came with its own espionage-themed rule sheet posted on the door for “agents” using the room to sign in. For added import, Phillips would post political portraits of prominent world leaders–the CGSA president included–on the window. Lamentably, Phillips admitted that the window is not updated as frequently as she would like it to be.

Political portraits on “The Situation Room” window.

Photo by Priya Klein ‘26

Meanwhile, the science classrooms have had official names for decades. “Each room was named by the primary teacher using it, and they’re all named after famous scientists,” explained Upper School science teacher Becky Wynne. 

There’s Curie, named after the pioneering two-time Nobel Prize chemist Marie Curie; Pauling, named after Oregon’s own Nobel Prize-winning chemist, Linus Pauling; Carson, named for the boundary-breaking marine biologist Rachel Carson; Newton, named for physicist Isaac Newton; Mendeleev, named after the creator of the periodic table, Dmitri Mendeleev; and finally Galileo after the famed astronomer, Galileo Galilei. 

“For the most part, they all matched the type of science that’s taught there,” said Wynne. She noted that the coordination of names and subjects may help students become more immersed in what they’re learning.

In recent years, there’s been some talk of renaming the classrooms in the Science Building to reflect more diverse perspectives. “We’ve discussed making them more inclusive,” said Wynne. “But we haven’t done it yet.” Wynne noted that the science department has specifically struggled with deciding exactly which scientists to honor. 

Many of the Upper School buildings themselves are named with CGS’ extensive history in mind, some reaching back decades. The Dant House traces its name to Jack Dant, whose former estate helped form the CGS campus in 1958. Likewise, the Vollum Building honors Howard Vollum, a Tektronix co-founder and parent of CGS alumni, whose financial bequest transformed the school in the 1980s.

The Vollum building, used primarily for English and social studies classes, has yet to establish curated names for the classrooms. “We’ve talked about it for years,” said Upper School social studies teacher Patrick Walsh. 

While the science department chose to honor major scientific figures, the social studies department remains hesitant. “We’ve joked about naming them after historians, but the problem is, none of our students have heard of them,” said Walsh. 

He also expressed concerns about the longevity of the names. “Once you name something after a person, it can get complicated,” said Walsh. 

They’ve also considered alternative approaches. “We thought about doing something like the middle school, where the names are silly and fun, or tied to books or baseball stadiums,” said Walsh. “The issue is, there are five people in our department and we’re all opinionated individualists.”

While the department still has yet to decide on formal names for the building, it seems one Vollum classroom has already earned a cryptic but equally cool name of its own: The Batcave. Located in the depths of the Vollum Building (the lower level), this classroom is noticeably dark, windowless, and seems to be the ideal setting for grading essays. Though not formally named after the DC superhero’s hideout, the classroom is known familiarly by students and faculty alike as “The Batcave.” 
For years, these classroom names have reflected the character of the teachers who claim them and the students who carry their stories forward. They speak to CGS’ uniquely progressive culture–one that values both intellect and imagination. As more classrooms find names of their own, the question isn’t if they’ll stick, but what legacy they’ll leave behind.