Boston Latin School - Liber Actorum Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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PHILIP MARSON “P(n tiii(i Is Such Siccct Snnoic . . — Shakespeare Confronted with a request to write a one-page message, the long- time adviser to the Rcnistcc and the Liber Actojinn was baffled. Several courses were open to him: (a) to write a true account of his life, revealing for the first time the Machiavellian personality of the Monster of 235, with his secret pipeline to the green inkhelds which produce more low grades in composition than any other gusher in the English- si)eaking world; (b) to confess how an E.H.S. alumnus, laboring under the horrible handicap of never having been an undergraduate at either H.L.S. or Harvard, has struggled vainly for thirty-one years to raise the scholastic standards of the school which he had been conditioned to deride as the home of stoop-shouldered, bespectacled “squares”; (c) to produce the time-worn cliches about how hard it is to tear himself away from his sad-eyed colleagues and his grief-stricken students; or (d) to compose a profoundly philosophical and thoroughly boring piece of ad- vice to the ])oor young devils who must continue to shovel academic coal under the ])rodding of a faculty api)ropriately provided with pitch- forks. I have decided to adopt none of these nauseating alternatives. Be- low, for posterity (which is going to pay even less attention to what I say than have my puinls) I am leaving a few biographical notes, which may partly exjilain how I have, for these many decades, evaded the men in the white coats; what in my background accounts for my odd behavior; and why I have tilted with ever more stubborn windmills in attempting to teach the beauties of literature ami the intricacies of composition to resistant adolescents. fti]

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Headmaster’s Message This is an age of confusion. With the ever-present menace of cold wars, ])olice actions, and nucleai’ weapons, the nation’s populace is in a constant state of turmoil. There is little wonder that this state of con- fusion and indecision has spread to the younger generation. Life must go on. If we give in to the troubled thoughts so j revalent in the world today, we are adopting an attitude of fatalism. This out- look has been more than evident in the rising generation. In past years, boys and girls of high school age have been avid, alive, and ambitious. The young folks of today have shown a tendency to be lethargic and indifferent. This is a most unfortunate situation. We are still a flourishing nation. Our economy is sound. Our defenses are in excellent hands. The rising generation must be ready to take its ])art in the American Way of Life. Here at the Boston Latin School, your Masters have done their utmost to give you a good foundation. We strongly believe in the old- fashioned precepts of education. Over one hundred years ago Lord Brougham, in addressing the British Parliament, said : — “Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive ; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.’’ These words are as true today as they were in 1828. Education is the salvation of our nation. You have made your start here under a program enriched by a tradition of three hundred and twenty years of classical studies. Your choice may be the liberal arts, the sciences, or business. Whatever it is, you have the foundation for success. However, if success is to come to you, you must not succumb to the temptation of the times and coast along. Whatever is worth having is worth working for. Give your utmost to whatever task confronts you. If you follow the advice and entreaties of your Latin School Masters, you will be the success we wish for you. The decision is yours to make. [ 5 ]

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Excn-pts from “ Hiupya phia Aa r l varkia” 1892: Shortly after birth, when shown an ant-hill, the subject mani- fested linguistic precocity by re])lying to his mother’s (piestion in perfect German as he aliirmed his desire for food by shouting, “Ja! Ja! Ja!” Five days later, he ama .ed the household by shifting to Russian as he said clearly “Da.! . . . Da!’’ 1899: On a visit to Germany, his philological information was greatly increased as he learned to distinguish between Pilseim- and Mini- chner: to digest PinnpevHickeJ . VL( ' iie)-i chinfz(‘J, and Haseii pfeft ' e)-; and to pronounce Koiist(nu)i()poIif(niisrhrirl() 0 (hpHackpf( ' ifn-(irs( ' U- schaft. 1900: During the next nine years, although learning at first to play the violin under the tutelage of Emmanuel Fiedler (father of the famous Arthur), he drove seven consecutive teachers and his neighbors to near-madness as he proved that fiddling was not his forte. 1906-1915: Like the normal American boy, preferring sports to phi- lology and music, he concentrated on football, basketball, and baseball. In fact, if at the time he were asked which he preferred — a varsity letter or a Phi P eta Kappa key, he would have an- swered by dashing for the nearest gymnasium, diamond, or grid- iron. 1916-1957 : During the next forty-one years, he taught in five preparatory schools, a very difficult foreign language — English. He was, in addition, an athletic coach ; a camp director ; an adviser to clubs, publications, and many individuals as puzzled and perplexed as he ; a lecturer ; a reader of college entrance examinations ; a hus- band, a father, and a grandfather. At St. Paul Academy, he was suspected of being the mysterious Duke of Duluth ; and up to the time he began his checkered career at Latin School, he was known as the “Duke” to hundreds of schoolboys. Later he became the “Chief” to thousands of campers and counselors at three summer camps. Finally, at B.L.S., his greatest honor came when the in- ternational society which he had founded, the A.O.A., crowned him the Wise Old Aardvark. [FJxif, lanfihing.] Philip Mat-son, B.S., M.Ed., IF.O.A. English H.S., ’10 Boston Latin School, ’57 [ 7 ]