Brookline High School - Murivian Yearbook (Brookline, MA)

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WILFRED H. RINGER HEADMASTER 0

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mnsb To open the doors of learning to all — that has been the achievement of the American High School. In it are found untold opportunities for advancement and education. But these become available only through the medium of the printed word. Five centuries ago the printed word had not yet come into being. Not until the invention of the Guten- berg press in 1441 was the wide- spread dissemination of learning made possible. As the art of print- ing progressed, so progressed the education of the people. Therefore, it is particularly ap- propriate in this anniversary year, to present to you the record of Brookline High School for 1940-41. through the theme of the develop- ment of printing.

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This year is Mr. Ringer ' s tenth in service as headmaster of Brookline High School, and at this time, the Murivian Committee takes great pleasure in pay- ing tribute to the achievements which have been his within this decade. Mr. Ringer was educated in the environs of Boston, graduating from Bos- ton Latin School, and receiving degrees from Tufts College. He then taught English in the Chicago schools and in Auburn, New York, where he also coached football. For the next several years he headed the department of English at Holyoke High School, and from there went to serve as headmaster in Leominster High School. The next eleven years saw Mr. Ringer as head- master at Gloucester High School, from which he came to Brookline. During Mr. Ringer’s headmastership here at Brookline, he has effected many valuable changes. Notable among these is the now-famous House Plan, which has afforded each student greater opportunities to participate in school activities and to feel at home in such a complex organization as a large high school. Then too, many new clubs have been founded to provide students with more avenues of expression. In these ten years the High School has also grown physically. The most important structural change has been the addition of several modern sections to I ' eplace that part of the “old school ' destroyed by the catastrophic fire of 1936 . Besides directing the administration of the High School, Mr. Ringer has found time to indulge in many supplementary interests. Those in the field of education include the following: Vice-President, the New England Associa- tion of Colleges and Secondary Schools and past Chairman of the Public Secondary School Division; member, Executive Committee and Committee of Uniform College Administrative Forms, National Association of Sec- ondary School Principals; member, Executive Committee, C.E.E.B. (only public secondary school representative) ; Secretary-Treasurer, Massachusetts High School Principals’ Club; past Director, Massachusetts Schoolmasters’ Club; former chairman of several important committees. State Department of Education; delegate, Massachusetts Teachers’ Federation; member. Har- vard Teachers’ Association. Mr. Ringer has given a course at Massachusetts State Teachers’ College, and was University Lecturer at Tufts College in March of this year. He has frequently delivered addresses at both educational and communal meetings, such as those of Harvard and Tufts College Teachers’ Associations; the State Teachers’ Associations of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut; and the Federated Council of Churches, New England section. In community service Mr. Ringer has been active in Scouting, holding the post of Chief Justice, Brookline Boy Scout Court of Honor and serving as a member of the Boston Council of Honor; and as a member of the Boston and Brookline District Councils. In addition, he is now serving as chairman of the Pilot Committee of the Brookline High School Mariner Ship, “Westward Ho.” In the civic field, he not only organized the Rotary Club of Brookline, but served as its first president, and its immediate past president and member of its Board of Directors. To those of us now about to leave the walls of Brookline High School, Mr. Ringer has been an understanding guide and counsellor. Much of what the school has contributed to our knowledge and growth has been made possible by his wise leadership. We extend to him our sincere wishes that the new decade upon which he now enters, may continue to realize the many hopes and plans he has for Brookline High School. 7