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Page 19 text:
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Tk omas Gardiner c orcoran Thomas gardiner corcoran. eminent member of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Brain Trust”, was born in Pawtucket on December 29, 1900. At the age of six Tom entered Grove Street Grammar School, where Nelson Eddy too began his education. He was graduated from here in 1914 and entered Pawtucket High School in the fall of the same year. From here, in the early summer of 1918, Tom was graduated at the head of his class. Tom’s father had begun life by working with his hands, and insisted that his son do likewise. From the age of twelve Tom was a wage-earner. He sold papers, worked in stores, and in the summer on a farm. After graduation from Pawtucket High School he proceeded to put himself through Brown University by the three means he had discovered of making money. His skill as a piano player assured him of paid employment in dance orchestras. Then he set about capturing most of the prizes in sight. It is estimated that he earned an average of fifty dollars a month in prize money throughout his college career at Brown. In his senior year he won the hundred dollar prize offered to the student who became captain of the Debating Team. Incidentally this year he was also president of Brown's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. His third way of making money was to act as guide during the summer vacation for the Appalachian Mountain Club at Mount Washington, New Hampshire. Tom was graduated from Brown University in 1922 with the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts. He had specialized, prophetically, in English composition. From Brown he went to Harvard Law School, where he once more led his class. Tom wished to be a professor of law, and won a fellowship in research under the great Felix Frankfurter. He was graduated from Harvard Law School in 1925 as a Bachelor of Law, and remained there one more year to earn the degree of Doctor of Social Jurisprudence, being one of the few holders of this degree in the state of Rhode Island. After graduation he went to Washington as secretary to the late Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. As is well known, it was the amiable practice of that revered jurist to choose a new secretary each year from the current crop of law graduates. This twelve-month period was the most beneficial year Lorn ever had. At the end of his secretaryship he returned to INew York, where a place had been reserved tor him in the corporation law firm of Cotton and Franklin. Tom was the active counsel in charge of brokerage clients and was the firm s representative in the Stock Exchange. In the early part ol 1 32 he was about to become general couns tor an important industrial corporation when he was dratted by President Herbert Hoover to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Except for a few months in the .Treasury Department, Tom served on this board. The rest is history. Corcoran rose from one government position to another, until in 1937 he was recognized as the personal counsel to President Roosevelt. It has been hinted that genial Tommie has written many of the President's speeches, and has been the corrector of many others. His home at 1610 K Street in Washington, which he shares with Ben Cohen, another member of the Kitchen Cabinet, has often been referred to as The Little White House. It was here that White House Tommie” drew up the Securities Act of 1934, and the Public Utility Holding Act of 1935. Tommie prefers to consider himself, in the sense of the British Civil Service, as a professional government servant, to whom a task is now and then assigned, which he dispatches to the best of his zeal and capacity. Herbert Katz [ 15 1
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Page 20 text:
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Class of 1878 SIXTY years ago this June it was Pawtucket High School's first graduation day. Five students sat on the platform of the Second Baptist Church on High Street, waiting to receive their diplomas from William A. Tolman, Principal. Of course there had been a high school before this—since 1855, in fact—but it was little more than a glorified grammar school, and students had attended for as long as they liked, taking as many courses as they were interested in. So we are justified in calling this class the First Graduating Class of Pawtucket High School. In the class of 1878 there were three girls and two boys. Only two of the five are still living: Miss Sarah A. Jenks. who lives at 123 Mulberry Street, and Mr. Frank L. Gatchell, who is an official of the Pawtucket Institution for Savings. The other three were Miss Alice Franklin. Miss Clara Board -man. who for many years taught at East Street School, and Mr. Frank S. Sweet, a lawyer at Bridgewater after his graduation from Brown in 1882. These five fore-runners of the six-hundred and eight members of the class of nineteen thirty-eight studied far different subjects from those in our curriculum. Besides Latin and Greek, mathematics, physics, astromony, and botany were offered, with practical experience in field work. Singing lessons were given once a week by the music supervisor. Mr. Albert O. White. The crowning glory of the class day was a discourse on Mental and Moral Philosophy” (Just think of it!) given by Dr. Wayland of Brown University. This first four-year course was held in the Second Baptist Church, pictured above, which served as a school building until it was blown off its foundations in the gale of '86. SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH The first graduation exercises must have been very interesting. Besides the usual addresses, every pupil read an original essay. Mr. Gatchell recalls that his was on the subject Manual Training in Education”. An extremely radical idea in 1878! There was no class ode or prophecy, but those graduates did have class rings, inscribed with their motto, Certum pete finem”. or “Aim at a certain goal”. Despite all the differences of time and studies, we think the first class of Pawtucket High must have been much like us in hopes and aspirations and in loyalty to their Alma Mater, and we are proud to salute them. We give you the class of eighteen seventy-eight. Jean Hendricks f 16 ]
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