Holyoke High School - Annual Yearbook (Holyoke, MA)

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CHARLES HENRY KEYES was born in Bridgeport, Wisconsin on September 6, 1858. His father, Henry Keyes, a railroad master mechanic and engineer, was the youngest son of a Vermont farmer who felt the call of the new west and moved to what was then frontier country in Western New York State. As a young man, Henry Keyes moved west again to help in the construction of railroads in Wisconsin. Charles Henry Keyes grew up in the town of Prairie du Chien, attended the country schools, the local academy, and St. John's College, conducted by the Christian Brothers, a teaching order of the Roman Catholic Church, being graduated A.B. in 1879. He taught country schools in Pepin and River Falls, Wfisconsin, and in the River Falls Normal School. In 1886 he was elected superintendent of schools in Jamesville, Wisconsin. While in Jamesville in 1888, Mr. Keyes was admitted to the bar and to practice in the supreme court in 1889. After a year in the practice of law, he accepted the superintend- ency of schools in Riverside, California. The presidency of Throop Polytechnic Institute at Pasadena was offered him in 1892. This office he filled most ably until 1906. From 1896 to 1897, Mr. Keyes did graduate work at the University of California, declining the superintendency of schools in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Coming east to attend the National Education Association convention in Buffalo in the sum- mer of 1897, he was tendered the principalship of the Holyoke High School by Mr. Preston B. Search, superintendent of the Holyoke schools, who had been super- intendent of the Los Angeles Public Schools. Plans for a new high school building had already been accepted when Mr. Keyes came to Holyoke. Supervision of its construction and equipment, a task for which he was peculiarly fitted, was one of his interesting duties during his first year in New England. After two years, described by an associate as exceedingly profitable for both scholar and teacher, Mr. Keyes went to the superintendency at Hartford, Connecticut where he remained until 1910. From 1910 to 1912, he did graduate work at Co- lumbia University, receiving his Doctor of Philosophy degree in June 1912. In August 1912, he took up his duties as President of Skidmore College in Saratoga, New York, a position he held until his death on January 16, 1925.

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cial, or religious. One of his great delights was The Clubv of which he was a char- ter member. This club brought him into contact with men of such varied interests as those of William F. Whiting and William Skinner, the founders of their respec- tive families here in Holyoke, with Mr. H. B. Lawrenceg Dr. E. A. Reed so long pas- tor of the Second Congregational Church, and Dr. William C. Hammond. Mr. Judd, a firm believer in the Christian verities, took an active part in the life of the three Congregationalist Churches in Holyoke, being at various times, teacher and superintendent of Sunday School. For many years prior to his death he had been a deacon in the First Congregational Church. That Mr. Judd had high ideals as a teacher can be seen in the fact that when he was addressing the large number of Morgan Alumni who came to do him honor at the time of his retirement, he likened his Work to that of a soldier fighting against ig- norance, malice and greed, and striving to inculcate in growing boys and girls an ardent desire to uphold love of honor and principles of high citizenship. Various tributes to Mr. Judd have been paid. It has been said that he was master of his subject as Well as of his class. Whether his subject was Latin or History, he never had a text book in his hand in class. Of him one of his pupils wrote: To hear him with his great gift of graphic delineation of character drives home through the me- dium of his beloved historical men and Women the lesson of right and Wrong was an inspiration. Of him, Dr. Conant said: Mr, Judd was a school-master by instinct rather than by design. His superior qualities of intellect alone entitle him to a high place in the pro- fession he loved and honored. I would, however, base Mr. Judd's claim to an exalted place in Holyoke's Hall of Fame on his personal interest in each boy and girl in his school. His understanding interest and acquaintance extended far beyond the school Walls. 'Thousands rise and call kim blessed? 'Tloe works be did will live after him., In the death of Mr. Judd, Holyoke has lost a Christian gentleman.

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Throughout his remarkably active life, Mr. Keyes held many positions of distinction in teacher organizations, notably the presidency of the American Institute of Instruc- tion, the oldest educational association in America, and the presidency of the National Council of Education, the leading division of the National Education Association. Mr. Keyes was considered by many school administrators to be one of the foremost public speakers in the field of education in America. His varied and comprehensive talks were delivered at teacher institutes, conventions, and summer sessions. Tests of True Teachingv, Life and Growth for the Teacher , Adaptation of Industrial Training to Present School Methods are examples of the subjects he selected. I-Ie was associated with such leaders in this Held as the late Dr. G. Stanley Hall of Clark University, Doctors Thorndike and Strayer of Columbia, Dr. David Starr Jordan of California, Dr. Judd of Chicago, and the late President Eliot of Harvard. On April 12, 1881, Charles Henry Keyes married Nellie Elmira Brown, a teacher in Excelsior, Minnesota. They had two daughters and four sons. Surviving Mr. Keyes are his Widow and daughters, Mrs. Maud V. CKeyesj Decker, Mrs. Helen B. CKeyesj Wright, and sons Dr. Harold B., George T., and Clarence E.