Rampart College

Robert LeFevre, 1986

LeFevre bought “Glenrose Park,” a 320-acre ranch in Douglas County, south of Larkspur, in the state of Colorado in September of 1955, using the inheritance he received from his mother’s estate, and started enrolling students in 1956.[5]He purchased the property explicitly in order to establish a school to teach free enterprise principles.[6] Rising to over 7,000 feet above sea level, the forested land contained several cabins of “questionable condition.”[7] The first Board of Directors included Ruth Dazey, William J. Froh, Lois LeFevre, Robert LeFevre, Majorie Llewellin, Robert B. Rapp, and Edith Shank.[8]

During the winter of 1964, the Trustees of the Freedom School decided to officially rename the educational institution Rampart College after the nearby Rampart Range mountains.[9] Bill Froh assumed the position of president while Robert LeFevre was named dean and put in charge of instruction.[10] By October of 1964 the institution claimed that over 730 students had completed courses at Freedom School since 1956. From 1965 to 1968, Rampart College published its primary publication—Rampart Journal of Individualist Thought— which ran a number of stories favorable to individualist anarchism, such as Roy Child’s article that explained why Ayn Rand’s Objectivism “necessarily implied anarchism.”[11] In addition, the journal featured an article that proposed a new way of looking at the political spectrum, which was to become an early version of what was later to be known as the Nolan Chart.[12] By 1968, Rampart College had come to a point where they believed they could offer master's degrees to the general public.[13]

Robert LeFevre lecturing at his Colorado-Springs based Rampart College/Freedom School

Over 50 teachers, guest instructors and guest lecturers taught at the school in Colorado. Some of the more notable lecturers included Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, Leonard Read, F.A. Harper, Elgie Marcks, Ellis Lamborn, Frank Chodorov, Hans F. Sennholz, R. C. Hoiles, Percy Greaves, Ruth Maynard, Oscar W. Cooley, R. C. Hoiles, A. Neil McLeod, and Butler D. Shaffer.[14] According to Brian Doherty, some of the other speakers included Rose Wilder Lane, Gordon Tullock, James Buchanan, and Roy Childs.[15]

Over 14 inches of rain drenched the Palmer Range above Rampart College on June 16, 1965, causing a torrent of water to fill the cabins with mud halfway to the roof, causing $150,000 in damages.[16][17] The flooding and mudslides destroyed most of the campus, which halted its operations. With the school’s total indebtedness of close to $700,000, it became apparent that the entire 320-acre campus had to be sold.[18] Near the end of 1968 the land and facilities of Rampart College, still often referred to as the “Freedom School campus,” were sold. The property was bought by a religious organization, the Mennonites, who had been searching for a location to use for educational purposes. [19] According to Jeff Riggenbach, who visited the former school in 1981, the facilities looked more like retreat for troubled boys.[20]

In November of 1968, LeFevre moved to Southern California and took possession of the 7,000 sq. ft. house on two acres in Arcadia, California, under the name of Rampart College. He planned to hold college courses and lectures at the residential property, but was unable to convince city officials to re-zone the property to establish a small college.[21] To resolve this and other problems, LeFevre signed a six-year lease for a suite of offices on the top floor of the First Western Bank Building in Santa Ana and sold the Arcadia property. During this time period, Rampart College produced two 16mm color documentary films: “Property: A Basis for Morality” and “The Meaning of Responsibility and Obligation,” narrated by Robert LeFevre. A number of seminars were conducted across California, including some on the island of Catalina and the Carmel Valley area.[22] In addition, the institute produced two home study courses, the Fundamentals of Liberty and Raising Children for Fun and Profit, along with 50 thirty-minute lectures on cassette tape based on LeFevre’s Fundamentals of Liberty home study course.[23]

In January of 1973, LeFevre resigned from Rampart College and turned over its assets and presidency to Sy Leon, an instructor and administrator of the college since 1966.[24][25] Leon focused on organizing speaking tours for author Harry Browne, managed a series of libertarian programs, and arranged media interviews to promulgate libertarian principles.[26] Within a few years, Sy Leon was unable to make rental payments to keep Rampart College afloat and the college closed its doors.

In 1980, LeFevre and others attempted to revive the institution by establishing another school and “Freedom” library under the name of Rampart Institute. However, LeFevre passed away in 1986 before he was able to acquire a new site for a libertarian-orientated college.[27] [28]

• A Basis for Morality, Part 1
• A Basis for Morality, Part 2
• The Meaning of Responsibility and Obligation