John A Johnson High School - Maroon Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

Page 15 text:

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Page 14 text:

H 'Erfhtite Miss Jennie Ickler died at her home in this city April 17, 1915, after a linger- ing illness. She was the first teacher appointed to the Johnson-Cleveland High School when the work began under Principal S. A. Farnsworth in 1893. Miss Ickler was a graduate of Vassar College and later did graduate work in Latin at the University of Michigan. She taught one year at the Faribault High School, but her life work was here. She was a great teacher. When she began her work here the High School was small and almost unknown. But little by little she searched out and gathered up the scattered and half formed desires of parents and children for more school- ing, fostering and helping them until the school was a growing and successful institution. It was my privilege to go with her on several occasions as she tried to help parents plan to give some ambitious boy or girl a chance at high school. I shall never forget the tactful, yet steady insistence upon the future good of the child, her broad outlook, nor the earnest pleading which generally won the day. Under the leadership of Mr. Farnsworth she laid the foundations of the school broad and deep, with a high standard of scholarship and an emphasis upon the development of the individual student which at once stamped the school with what has always been its most marked characteristic-the personal relation of teacher and student. Miss Ickler always inspired a love of learning in her pupils. Hundreds speak of the pleasures of her class-room work, of the vivid interpretations of her lessons, of her thoughtful comments. Some remember with joy the afternoons when she read to them from Homer or the Greek Testament. Indeed, it was the call of her classes that kept ,Greek in our curriculum long after every other high school in the state had given it up. Her whole aim was to help young people to develop themselves, and she brought to the task a sympathy that won the most difiicult natures and unlocked the most reserved heart, a clear sightedness that saw every phase of the problem, a sincerity that banished sham and pretence, and a faith that made one long to live up to her expectations. Thousands today bear witness that her scholarly accuracy, her thoroughness and fidelity to truth, and the sight of her daily devotion to duty have helped them to be better men and women. Her nature was unselfish, modest and retiring. Few people outside of the school knew what a marvel of strength, of foresight, of decision, of executive ability she was. That infinite capacity for taking pains showed when she taught her own classes, was acting principal, and carried the school quietly through all thejmmense detail of examinations, changing programs, and entering classes during the six weeks in which we were without a principal. But that terrible strain of work laid the foundation of the weakness which culminated in her untimely death. Of her relations with her fellow teachers it is difficult to speak. Our love for her was too great to talk about. How sincerely and graciously she welcomed a newcomer, how loyal to her colleagues, how gentle and considerate to every- one, how enduring her friendship, how often she spared others-herself, never. She is not dead. She lives forever in our hearts. FLORENCE M. PERRY.

Page 16 text:

QUE? miss tillimotfe A elass adviser or a friend Has never lmeen, we're very sure, More kind her willing aid to lend, XN'ith hardest tasks, than our Miss Moon So glad to do a helpful deed- The love of any Class she'd win. For if 'tis true of friends in need A friend indeed to us she's been. XYhat time and eare the elass well knows You spent for us these four years thru, And now, as quickly comes the elose, VYe realize our delmt to you. And when these elass days soon shall end. And we shall, scattered, Climb life's hill. XYe want you then to he our friend, Be our kind adviser still!