The 126-year-old New York Military Academy located in the Orange County village of Cornwall-on-Hudson closed suddenly on Monday, leaving students and parents dismayed and angry. The prestigious institution is the alma mater of Donald Trump, Stephen Sondheim, Francis Ford Coppola and John Gotti among many others.
The school is set to be auctioned at the end of the month for a minimum bid of $9.5 million and the new buyer of the 113-acre property is not required to run it as a school. The New York Military Academy had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, reports NBC New York.
"It got me away from my mother - she babied me. It made me get out on my own, grow as a man, made me responsible. I couldn't depend on my mother," said Gotti, whose father, John J. Gotti, was the boss of the Gambino crime family, while speaking fondly about the school, reports The New York Times.
"I can tell you that one of the great choices I ever made in terms of success is the choice of going to NYMA. I loved it. It was terrific training. It was tough, but it was good," Trump told CNN, according to Business Insider.
The academy has seen difficult times in the recent past, with enrollment dropping from 500 in the 1960's to about 100 last year. Alumni and students hold on to a faint hope that Trump might pitch in to help save the school, but when he had been asked for about $7 million a few years back, Trump had refused opining that the school was a failing enterprise.
The school previously said in the statement that classes would start on Sept. 14, and the sudden move has shocked many. "It was an emotional roller coaster. When we were supposed to be visiting colleges in the spring, we were visiting high schools. My son is angry. He's still angry," said Jane Opie, whose 18-year-old son was unable to obtain a scholarship in his new school, to which he moved in July.
