High School of Commerce - Caduceus Yearbook (Springfield, MA)

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en Cela Dy USGK Ls group of French girls here to study American business methods. Always the man of the moment, our principal worked out a special course for the benefit of our friends across the water. For this efficient piece of work, the French government presented him with the honorary degree, “‘Officier d’Instruction Publique’. Wesleyan University has pre- sented him with the degree, Master of Arts. He has been president of the Massachusetts Teachers’ Association and of the Eastern Commercial Teachers’ Association which includes teachers as far west as Chicago and as far south as North Carolina. Mr. Ellis could not forget that he had had to work on a farm in order to acquire an education. Therefore, he worked indefatigably for the Carlos B. Ellis Scholarship Fund, established by the alumni and the teachers of the High School of Commerce in the fall of 1921 to help deserving boys and girls in their quest for higher education. Realizing how valuable his assistance is, the alumni have made him a life member of the com- mittee. Led on by his vision, he has carried out successfully many enterprises, but none more wonderful than the founding, thirty-one years ago, of this High School of Commerce and wisely directing it from its beginning. Only a man of courage and initiative with vision could have done this and only one who had power and wisdom could have carried it on. A true vision, however, does not stop with accomplishment, but goes on to greater and better things. The High School of Commerce has become a ‘“‘greater’’ school and that it may continue to become a ‘“‘better school” is still the vision of our honored principal, Carlos B. Ellis. BERNADETTE L)arGIs Cuarces PENSAROSA of the Quill Club Page Seven

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SGZASDL Uc LE US -- ce 4 eee © - a s t ‘ { ues ctpesrae vase 7 A Mar ‘witha Vision 7 I. THE year 1860, on a little farm in Ontario county near Rochester, New York, Carlos B. Ellis was born. It is interesting to know that the little one-story house is still standing and that he has recently visited it. Mr. Ellis first went to school in Victor, New York, where he lived until six years of age. From there his family moved to Niagara County where he continued his school- ing. At nineteen years of age, when the majority of us are just beginning to realize that life is not all play, Mr. Ellis began his life work as an obscure teacher in Niagara County, New York. As this was a farming district, the summer terms were short, but during the long winter months, as he sat watching his class of forty pupils seated at their rough, unpolished desks, who can say that this man did not even then behold a vision; a vision in which pupils would prepare for their life work amid beautiful surroundings and with excellent equipment? His ability as a teacher was quickly recognized and within a few years we find him teaching in a seminary in New York State. After spending two years there, he journeyed to Fort Worth, Texas, where he taught one year; but, eager to advance, he returned to Lockport, New York, to study law. In order to continue with this study, Mr. Ellis taught part of the time in Syracuse, New York. His labor was well rewarded, for in 1889, at the age of twenty-nine, he was admitted to the bar. Teaching, however, seemed to hold his interest, for in 1892, we find him in the Westfield High School. Six years later, he accepted a position as a teacher of commercial subjects to thirty-seven pupils in the Central High School, Springfield. For eight years, Mr. Ellis taught his favorite subjects in only two rooms with the aid of an assistant, Miss Thrasher, a shorthand and typewriting teacher. In 1900, another assistant, Mrs. Bullman, came. In 1906, the commercial department was moved to the Technical High School. Here it remained until 1910, when it was moved to Central. At this time the department met for afternoon sessions only. In 1915, through the perseverance and under the personal supervision of Mr. Ellis, a modern and beautiful high school was erected of which he, deservedly, was made principal. In the next few years, the fame of our principal and his school had spread over the oceans. As a result, in 1918, when it seemed as if all humanity were bent on destroying itself, the French government, realizing that many of her young men who had been filling positions in her ofices would be killed or incapacitated for such work, sent a Page Six

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wn a si NENA a i Sl A lk i a Sh te eC LARD e UG EeUlo ay: essen The Hicu ScuHoor of Commerce, Erected 1915 r A Vision Realized 7 Wrres the taxpayers of a city of 100,000 people vote one million dollars for the erection and equipment of a new high school, the onlooker is naturally curious to know whether the city has been carried away by an educational fad or whether it has some- thing for which it can say, ‘‘value received’. There is no doubt in the case of the High School of Commerce. Before the year 1898, the opportunities for varied study in the secondary schools of Springfield were to be found in two distinct courses, academic or college prepara- tory, and general. These were open to pupils who had completed the elementary school work, and the teaching was done in what is now known as the Central High School. In that year, 1898, Superintendent of Schools Thomas M. Balliet decided that the young men and women of the city should be given the opportunity of taking a com- mercial course in high school, if they so wished. At that time Carlos B. Ellis was teaching in the Westfield High School and Superin- tendent Balliet invited him to come to Springfield and organize a commercial de- partment in the Springfield High School. In 1898, Central High School was opened in its new building and a commercial department was installed under Mr. Ellis with Miss Emma Thrasher assisting. There were thirty-seven pupils in one room. Besides the regular high school subjects, electives were offered in stenography, typewriting, bookkeeping, commercial arithmetic, and commercial law. The first class, composed o twenty-six pupils, graduated in 1900. The commercial course was designed for the young men and women of Springfield who would, upon graduation, seek work in stores, banks, and business offices. In 1906, it became necessary to transfer the commercial department to the newly Page Eight