Louis Zalk was a businessman from Duluth, Minnesota, whose path converged into a partnership and friendship with other founders of the school based on the ideals and activities that bound them together for the rest of their lives. A key link was the joint esteem for education as the best alleviation for society’s ills, especially in the eyes of those committed to nonviolence. Louis was descended from a rabbinical family that, much like the families of Krishnamurti and Rajagopal, sought spiritual as well as sociological strength through learning.