English High School - Blue and Blue / Record Yearbook (Boston, MA)

Page 9 text:

During his boyhood, Malcolm Barrows acquired, by means of his traveling, a keen perspective of places and people which has been one of his outstanding aids in his relations with almost half a century of school boys. From Norway, Maine (where Malcolm was born in 1868) the family moved to Lowell and then to San Francisco. There he prepared for college, entering the University of California in 1888. After two years he returned to the East and finished his college course at Dartmouth. Besides doing good work in his studies, he found time to play on the class baseball team and to display his rapidly developing vocal ability in the college glee club. Mr. Barrows first taught in the schools of Bethlehem, New Hampshire, then in Bald- winville, Mass. His first major step upward was his appointment as sub-master and instructor in Greek and English in the schools of Melrose. It was from Charlestown High School, however, that he came to English High in 1903 as a member of the English Department. Within ten years his hard work was rewarded by promotion to the head of his department. Two years later he became chairman of the Program Committee of which he had been a member since his first year in the school. In this dual role Mr. Barrows has served for the last quarter century. He was a motivating force in systemizing the details of our school ' s present efficient management and operation. The instance brought most forcibly to the mind of the average student is that Ba symbol on eich boy ' s program card, without which the Ipoy can not enter his first classes. To give some idea of the importance of such a seemingly minor detail, the program cards made out since 19 15 would, without the Ba stamp, have kept about 60,000 boys from their classes. But the intense activity with which Mr. Barrows pursued his present vocation must not make us think that he had no outside interests. Indeed, so much did he enjoy and so well follow one of his interests that his career as an educator was almost forsaken for the tinsel of the legitimate theatre. Fortunately for us, the tempting offers of the dramatists and producers did not attract him enough to cause his predetermined path to be forsaken. His love for dramatics was given an outlet in his hobby of coaching amateur theatricals and in play- ing leading roles in many of the non-professional productions in and around Boston. Then, too, the voice which had shown so much promise in the Dartmouth Glee Club was heard to great advantage for more than twenty year:; as first tenor of the Boston Apollo Club, and the vocal experience thus gained was passed on to younger men when Mr. Barrows served for several years as coach of the Harvard Glee Club and for four years as director and instructor of a highly successful Glee Club in our own English High School. Perhaps Mr. Barrows would be better known to the world at large if he had decided to be an actor, — perhaps his splendid voice would have brought him more wealth if he had determined to become a professional singer, — but we are sure that his name could not excite a fraction as much love, respect, and admiration as it does now, and will for years to come, in the hearts of a generation of English High School men. At different times throughout our lives, we suddenly realize that here is a book, a beautiful experience, a song, or a friend that is one of the supreme things of our short term on the earth. We feel that our acquaintancs with Mr. Barrows is one of the experiences which we shall remember for years to come. Nominally, we are breaking a precedent in dedicating our yearbook to any one man. Actually, we are simply using this, our last chance for a reminder to the Class of 1938, to set up an ideal of Service to Mankind, — an ideal that has been achieved by one man and that we hope shall be achieved again by some members of this class. — an ideal of Service that is as practical as it is liable to be often thankless. Thankless, but in the heart- warming knowledge of a hard job well done, it is of immeasurable influence for good on the minds and characters of a generation of future citizens of the community, the state, and the nation. (5)

Page 11 text:

Boys of 1938: Despite all that you hear and see today, this is a pretty good world in which we live. However, you will agree that the best part of it is right here in the United States of America. Yet you say: Things are far from perfect here. Well, you are right. But, after all. where else in the world are conditions as good? You may well be proud and thankful that you live in America. You are graduating from The English High School, the oldest general high school in America, whose history and traditions extend back to the days when Boston was but a town, not a city. I am confident that by your lives you will make Boston a better place in which to live, that this Commonwealth of ours will add to its traditions through you. and that this land of America will have many of its problems solved by men like yourselves. The faculty of this school has confidence in you. It is essential that you have con- fidence in yourselves. Keep your chin up — always! Self respect inspires respect from others. The measure of this respect, both on the part of yourself and others, is based upon your own character. Your character is your greatest asset. Through life — keep it that way — an asset. Remember: The aim of every English High School boy is to become a man of Honor and Achievement. What is Honor and Achievement . ' ' Service to Mankind is Honor and Achievement. God Bless and Guide You — Every One Head Master