The School is named after Shri Satyanand Stokes who came from a distinguished and affluent American family and adopted India and its people as his own. His contribution ranges from working in a leprosy asylum at the age of twenty one, fighting for the rights of the hill people during the begar movement, to being jailed by the British during the Independence movement. He transformed the economy of Himachal Pradesh by the introduction and propagation of apple cultivation in the state. His role as an educationist is less well known. In his early years he ran and financially supported one of the oldest schools in the state. In later years he ran a free school for the local village children on his own estate, which he supported from the earningsfrom his orchard. Mahatma Gandhi described him as “the veritable guide, philosopher and friend of the hill men”.

Our Society has named the school after him in the hope of providing the kind of empowerment which might produce some much-needed independent thinkers and courageous doers.