Kent School - Kent Yearbook (Kent, CT)

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The 1936 YEAR BOOK of Kent School 1906-1936 Compiled and Published by THE SIXTH FORM Kent School, Kent, Connecticut

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Thirty Years at Kent A Tribute to Father Frederick Herbert Sill, O.H.C. . IT HAS al ways been an accepted fact with us since our Second Form year that A we are the thirty year class, and that our graduation marks the end of a gene ration in the life of Kent School. What does this mean, “the end of a generation”? It means a good deal. Kent is now recognized as one of the more outstanding schools of this country. It is known everywhere here, and in many places abroad. It has already built up a reputation vying with those of older schools, and comparing more than favorably with most. Thirty years: that is a short time to take from the life of a good many schools, yet it is the whole of Kent’s life. And in those thirty years Kent has started from scratch and risen to a size predetermined as its ideal, an enroll¬ ment of three hundred. In seven years there were a hundred and six boys at Kent, and now many more boys have applied for admission next year than can possibly be accepted. All this in thirty years; what does it mean? It is true that Kent has a wide reputation, but the mention of its name is always linked with that of its founder and Headmaster, Father Frederick Herbert Sill, O.H.C. Without him Kent would never have existed, and it is a safe state¬ ment to make that no other man by his own efforts could have built it up to its present standard in a short thirty years. Kent grew rapidly. It started with but eighteen boys and three masters besides the Headmaster, and reached its maximum enrollment three years ago. We can trace the development of the School, and through it all can we see Father Sill’s guiding genius, but it is beyond our capacities, perhaps beyond any capacity, to show clearly all those qualities of his which have made his School as well as himself outstanding figures in an overcrowded field. It is easy to say “He has a fine understanding of human character, especially of the adolescent mind”, or, “He is a brilliant organizer and director.” There is an infinity of such statements, true in themselves, but superficial. It is not qualities that can be named and numbered that constitute Father Sill ' s greatness, but something that runs deeper, and is genius. We can do no better than to make the history of the School itself the history of Father Sill, and the ultimate and truest tribute to him. Kent was visualized first when Father Sill was still at Columbia University. He and his roommate, “Hank” Littell talked over plans for a school of its type and he never forgot them. He joined the Order of the Holy Cross, and it was not long before he obtained permission from Father Huntington to organize the school which is Kent. Eighteen boys and three masters started the School year in September, 1906. It was a struggle. The School building was full of incon¬ veniences and cold during the hard winter. But difficulties only bound the School together the more, and those first boys set down the standards of loyalty and cheerful co-operation which still persist. I’dyc three