Rabun Gap is notable for initiating the Foxfire magazine project in 1966, experiential education based on interviewing local people, and writing and publishing articles about their stories and oral traditions.

The school combines a strong academic program, mountain setting, and Presbyterian heritage to nurture and challenge students of diverse backgrounds as they prepare for college and a lifetime of service.

Donations to the school declined during the World War I period (1917–18), but Ritchie traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, and New York City to solicit funding.

The Carnegie Foundation, the John D. Rockefeller family, and other northern philanthropists provided generous support for his idea.

With additional support from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the school expanded with more acreage and the construction of farmhouses and barns.

The farm family program remained successful until the 1970s, when textile manufacturing became key in Rabun County.

After a 1926 stove fire destroyed the school, Rabun Gap merged in 1927 with the Nacoochee Institute, founded in 1903 and formerly located in Sautee, Georgia.

In 1934 Ritchie and members of the board of trustees added two years of junior college to the Rabun Gap curriculum.

In 1966 students in the English class started writing and publishing Foxfire, a quarterly magazine with articles based on their interviews with residents about Appalachian culture.

It was a project initiated by the teacher Eliot Wigginton to engage students in learning to use proper English.

It gained national attention after a collection of articles was published in book form in 1972 and became a surprise bestseller.

Struggling financially with the loss of public monies, the school suffered from less stable enrollment and the need to reconnect with its core strengths from the past.

Anderson retired as president in 1984, and his successors were the Reverend Bruce Dodd (1984–92), Robert Johnston (1992–96), and Gregory Zeigler (1996–2004).

Dr. Sgro also helped grow Rabun Gap's international student population increase to represent 50 countries.