In 1960, Rambusch organized the American Montessori Society (AMS) to Americanize the Montessori method and to make it relevant to the popular culture of the day.[5] In 1958, the Whitby School was founded in Greenwich, Connecticut as the first AMS Montessori school in the US, followed in 1960 by the opening of the Sophia Montessori School opened by Screen actor, director, writer, Tom Laughlin with trained Montessorians Johannes and Joanna Laven, immigrants from Amsterdam. The school was later renamed Santa Monica Montessori School 2 In 1962 by the Caedmon School in New York City opened. Ernest Wood and Hilda Wood, who had worked with Maria Montessori in India, started the School of the Woods in 1962 as well, in Houston, Texas.