In 1936 their son Malcolm and his wife Margaret took over as Heads, but he chose to pursue a different career and they sold the school in 1941 at the beginning of World War II, to Ralph and Cleminette Rutenber. The Rutenbers (1941–1972) extended both the reputation of the school and the campus itself, acquiring the athletic field and several large homes on the south side of Central Street and Ames Hill Drive and constructing Rutenber Hall (the school’s main classroom/library facility) and Downing Gymnasium in 1963. Under the Rutenber’s leadership, the school enjoyed its largest enrollments in the 1960s and 70s, reaching 360 boarding and day students from all over the U.S. and abroad.