Longwood College - Virginian Yearbook (Farmville, VA)

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IRobeit jfraser, H. riD., %%, S). ROBERT FRAZER was born in Orange County, Va., fifty-eight years ago. Fony- three years have been spent in school — seven- teen as student and twenty-six as teacher. At the age of five, he was put in school at home and before reaching ten he was sent, with an older brother, to a boarding-school. In 1856 he entered the Brook- land Academy, established that year by William Dinwiddle, to prepare boys for the University of Virginia. After three sessions here, he went to the University. During his second session there the war between the States came on, and, in company with a number of fellow-students, he enlisted as private soldier in the Rockbridge Artillery, Stone- wall Brigade. A ruder transition could hardly have come into a boy ' s life than this exchange of the quiet routine of student work for the ordeal of privation, conflict and exposure through which this command passed in the famous campaign, 1861-62. In the campaign of ' 62, young Frazer received five Avounds, two at Kernstown, in March ; one at Sharpsburg, in September, and two at Fredericks- burg, in December. Permanentl) ' disabled by one of these last, he returned to the University in the fall of ' 63, and be- gun the study of law, — during the course of this session he was offered a professorship in the Mil- itary Institute of Florida, at Tallahassee, but de- clined it. This offer being renewed in the autumn of ' 64, it was accepted. The surrender of our armies led to the closing of the Institute, and Mr. Frazer returned to Virginia and opened a school for boys in his native county. In 1870, upon the organization of the present public school system of Virginia, he was appointed County Superintendent of Orange. At the end of

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ROBERT FRAZER, A. M , LL. D.

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a year, having established thirty-odd schools in the county, ' . resigned this position to take cha ' cc of the Fauquier Female Institute at Warrenton. Here, in 1873, he married Miss Florence Spilman. In 1882 the trustees of the Judson Institute at Marion, Alabama, asked Mr. Frazer to take the presidency of that school. The Warrenton Insti- tute was young and flourishing, the Judson was ap- proaching its semi-centennial ; and, though, for a number of years it had held dominant sway in the educational and social life of the Gulf States, it was beginning to show signs of decadence. It was em- barrassed by debt and its patronage had so fallen off as to awaken serious solicitude for its future. It was natural that under these circumstances the young teacher should deline the honor. But the ofifer was made again and again, until, finally, at the solicitation of friends, whose judgment was entitled to moie than ordinary weight, the Virginia school was left for that in the South. If a movement may be estimated with reference solely to altruistic considerations, this one may be justified by its results ; for whilst, with other things, it invoked for Mr. Frazer the loss of health, it did for the school that which characterizes his work there as in some important respects, the best and most successful of his life. During the five years of his administration the work of the school was recast with reference to extension and strength, the patronage, more than doubled, the debts were all paid and additions- were made to buildings and equipments amounting, altogether, to some forty thousand dollars with several thousand dollars left still in the treasury. Under the strain of these five years Mr. Frazer ' s health gave way, and by direction of phy- sicians, he sought restoration in more active pur- suits. Seven years ago he resumed school work, as president of the State Industrial Institute and Col- lege for Women, at Columbia, Mississippi. This position he resigned to take that which he now oc- cupies in the ' irginia Female Normal School. With the exception of his war experience, and several years spent in Italy as American Consul, Mr. Frazer ' s life has been devoted to the cause of educa- tion ; and, except in the professorship in Florida, his past student work has all been in the relation of either principal or president.