St. Mark's to a friend as a school that "sets out to be a sort of American Eton”. Auden was reportedly struck by the “dimness of the boys and the reverence of America for the average.” Eberhart briefly memorializes Auden's time at St. Mark's with his poem “To W. H. Auden on his Fiftieth Birthday”, in which he mentions the school in passing. Parkman left the school in 1942 – to enlist in the army – and never returned, although he remained active in independent school policy all his life, eventually rising to the presidency of the National Association of Independent Schools in Boston. World War II World War II changed the campus. In 1942 Parkman was replaced by William Brewster, an Episcopal clergyman who remained only until 1947. Brewster's democratizing tendencies were abetted by exigencies of the war effort. The school was forced to cope with labor shortages that forced students to work in dormitories and in the dining hall. The maids and domestic help vanished with the war's labor shortage and never returned. Twentieth-century elitism Headmaster Brewster disliked the clubby atmosphere of the school, reforming admission policies during his brief tenure. Famously hearing one alumnus describe St. Mark's as the best club he had ever joined, Brewster subsequently fought to make admissions merit-based, and expanded financial assistance. His successors continued this battle. The school began to focus more on academic as opposed to social merits, and by the late fifties was admitting only about one applicant out of five. In 1948, Headmaster William Wyatt Barber Jr. assumed leadership of St. Mark's. Teaching Ancient Greek and coaching hockey, Headmaster Barber emphasized character building. Under Mr. Barber, the school offered scholarships to students from military or moderate income families. Challenge of modernization In 1968, Edward T. "Ned" Hall became Headmaster. Beginning in the early 1970s, St. Mark's relaxed many traditional, formal requirements of school life. St. Mark's reduced the number of required chapel services from six days per week to five. St. Mark's reduced the number of sit down meals. The School introduced a "December Week" of alternative course offerings, and experiments in co-education. Headmaster Hall announced his resignation at the beginning of the 1973–74 school year, effective the following July. In 1974, the trustees hired Rev. Robert R. "Red" Hansel, a former chaplain at St. George's School. Hansel's four-year tenure was controversial. Changes under Rev. Hansel, like coeducation, were