Springfield Trade High School - Beaver Yearbook (Springfield, MA)

Page 13 text:

He lea De ees SA Sve beh 11 Sa — Bit — Dr. James H. Van Sickle Former Superintendent of Schools The late Dr. Van Sickle became Sunerintendent of Schools in Springfield in nine- teen hundred and eleven, the same year that the Vocational School became a state- aided school. It was he who presided over the simple ceremonies when the first graduating class received diplomas. He retired in nineteen hundred and twenty-three after twelve years of eminent service. During all this time he was ever on the alert in the interest of vocational education. Many of Trade School’s most cherished traditions are traceable to his wise counsel and benevolent co-operation. The Trade School honors his memory with sincere gratitude.

Page 12 text:

10 Ts Eee els Abe Lene ons Vat Mr. Robert 0. Small State Director of Vocational Education “Upon this twenty-fifth anniversary of the first graduating class in the Springfield Trade School, I come to you bearing personal and professional greetings from the Commissioner of Education and the Division of Vocational Education. Well do I remember the difficult conditions, the curtailed opportunity, and the meager enrollment of those first years. The professional zeal of your teachers has been equalled by the hearty enthusiasm of the pupils graduated and the results they have achieved. I have seen this school, waxing strong and prospering, come to the threshold of a much wider expansion and much better housing. Words of mine can not adequately set forth the degree of commendation the success of the school warrants. It gives me great pleasure to express these sentiments and to close by wishing it an ever broadening usefulness and an increasing measure of the type of success achieved in the last twenty-five years.”

Page 14 text:

12 THK ek AcDele sbeki Ay Vv: Hesk Mr. Harry T. Perry Mr. Harry T. Perry, veteran of 24 years of teaching in the Cabinet shop came to Springfield from Franklin, New Hampshire where he had been a builder. He first worked for the City Property Committee but soon began teaching. His first experi- ence was in evening classes at the Springfield Boys’ Club and in the East Longmeadow Junior High School. In September, 1913, Mr. Perry became an instructor in the Vocational School, then on Taylor Street, where he was one of a faculty of six. The enrollment at that time was about 60. The seniors of 1937 wish Mr. Perry good luck and good health in the years to come.