The role of the Skalel family and their founding of Whitby School in 1958 were the spark that started the Montessori movement in the United States. Ann Skalel was impressed with the Montessori method, having seen it in practice in Ireland, that she wanted to start such a school in Greenwich, CT for her grandchildren. Tragically, Skalel and her husband George died in an airplane crash while still planning their school. The surviving members of the Skalel family promoted the idea of a Montessori school to their friends and they sought someone to lead the school. Later they met Nancy Rambusch, who had trained in England and ran an informal Montessori preschool program in her New York City apartment, and selected her for the post. This article traces the history of the Montessori movement in the US and the role of Nancy Rambusch in the proliferation of the American Montessori Society.