West Chester University - Serpentine Yearbook (West Chester, PA)

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jfvancis Marvc ? (3rccn (.i o « OR. I ' RAXCTS II R ' KV CREEX was h-.m at P..M,tli ' s O.nier. Delaware Cminty, I ' a., mi May ly, uSOi, and is the son uf Sharpless and Mary Pjouth (ireen. His early education was olrtained at the country school in the immediate neiii ' lihurhood of his Ijirthphice. In the fall of 1S79, he entered the West Chester State Xornial School, and remained throut h the fall and winter term. He taught in the pulilic school at Hanhv ' s Corner, New Castle County. Del., during the spring term of 18S0. and for two months of the fall term of the same vear. He then returned to the State Xormal School and re- mained until his graduation in the class of i88j. flis class was the first one that graduated under the principalship of Dr. (i. M. l ' hili])S. . lwa ' s talented in literary wiirk. he was prominent in such wurk here, and was one of the most active and prominent organizers and charter memhers of the Aryan Society, which was organized in the fall of 187Q. Miss Mary E. Speak- man, Principal of the Model School, and Professor C. B. Cochran, of the De- partment of Science, were prominent memhers of the faculty who were interested in this new literary society, and Miss Carrie E. Benius, Mrs. [ary Sharpless Schaeffer, Grant Pierce, I ' ls(|.. Principal Louis B. Ambler and Warner P. Roberts were among Professor Green ' s fellow-students acti eh ' associated with him in its establishment and organization. Immediately after his graduation, he taught a i)ublic school at Romansville, in Chester Count}-, during the year 1 88 ' - :;, and then at Mar.shallton during 1883-4. In the spring of 1884 he was appointed t 1 take charge of the English Department at Juniata College, Huntingdon. Pa. There he remained until 1888, estai)lishing a reputation fur scholarship and etticiency which is still appreciated at Juniata College. In 1888 he came to West Chester as assistant to Dr. ].] Welsh in the De- partment (jf English, and when, in 1890, Dr. Welsh resigned to become Principal of the State Normal School at i ' .loomsburg. Pa., Professor Green was ajipointed head of the l nglish ilepartment, where he has ever since remained. He sjjcnt 5

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FRANCIS HARVEY GREEN

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the summer of 1890 in the study of English, especially of Anglo-Saxon, at Am- herst College, Mass., and devoted the year 1894-5 to special work in English at Harvard University. Dickinson College has honored him with the degree of Master of Arts, and Temple University with the degree of Doctor of Letters. He has had numerous calls to attractive and important positions, all unsought, but to the great satisfac- tion of the management and of the students, he has remained through all these years at West Chester. He organized the Young Men ' s Christian .Association here on Octoljer i6th, 1890, and has been its president continuouslv since that time, except during his year ' s leave of absence at Harvard, when, at his re(|uest, some one else was elect- ed in his place. The total membership of this .Association during these years has reached 2500. He has made two trips to Europe, the second one during the sum- mer and fall of 19 10, when he spent much time in visiting the homes and haunts of the great British authors. He has published Notes on Rhetoric, has com]Mled numerous quotation books, has written some capital verse, and has contributed most acceptably to var- ious magazines. In addition to his European trips, he has been a great American traveler, and has been especially fortunate in hax ' ing the opportunity to meet and visit many of the foremost literary Americans of the past quarter century. His reminiscences of Lowell. Whittier, Holmes, Hale, Lew Wallace, Riley, and many others, are most interesting. He began puljlic speaking early in connection with Sunday School work and teachers ' institutes, and has become one of the most attractive and popular public speakers in Pennsylvania, if not in the country. He has spoken at Harvard Uni- versity, University of Pennsylvania, at Lehigh L ' niversity, Bucknell University, Dickinson, Lafayette, Haverford. Swarthmore, Delaware and other colleges. He has instructed at innumerable teachers ' institutes in manv States, and has given public lectures in New York, Philadelphia, . tlantic City, Pittsburgh, Dayton, In- dianapolis, Baltimore, Washington, Providence, and many other places outside of Pennsylvania, in New England and in the ' est and South. He has been a lec- turer at the New York Chautauqua as well as at the Pennsylvania and Louisville, Ky., Chautauquas. He has given his lecture on Life ' s Musical Scale in Phila- delphia alone more than forty times. In recent years he has grown to be one of the most popular after-dinner speak- ers in this part of the United States. Among the many engagements of this sort which he has accepted have been the banquets of the St. . ndrew Society of Phila- 6