Ypsilanti High School - Ypsi Dixit Yearbook (Ypsilanti, MI)

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managed them with marked success for six years. During his superintendency, these schools increased in value and reputa- tion. He established a training school for teachers and a de- partmental school, one of the first in the state. He came into the Normal School as professor of rhetoric in 1879. In 1882 he became director of the training school. His work in this department of the school was characterized by his untiring energy and good judgment. He prepared a broad plan of or- ganization, which included in its scope a kindergarten, a well equipped primary and grammar school of eight grades, with critic teachers for each grade. The work of teaching was thoroughly systeinatized and the value of the school was very greatly increased. Besides attending to the work of his own department, Professor George was always active in furthering any enter- prise looking to the good of the school as a whole. He pro- posed and started the Norma! News, becoming financially re- sponsible for its support. He was influential with the legisla- ture in securing an appropriation for the erection of the gym- nasium. He secured by his own personal efforts the sum necessary to purchase the grounds upon which the gymnasium stands and at the dedication of the building delivered the ad- dress in behalf of the faculty. He took charge of the city schools as superintendent in 1896. He came into the superintendencv at a critical time and under some unusual conditions, but he was peculiarly fitted for this work by natural traits of character and bv long ex- perience in various positions in educational fields. His influ- ence upon the schools was in every way of the most happy character. The spirit of kindliness and helpfulness always manifested by him in his official and personal relations, both to instructors and patrons, kindled the same spirit in them. He knew how to give suggestions and advice and council with- out seeming to dictate or even to advise. I am sure the young ladies and gentlemen of the high school will remember and recall hereafter with gratitude the brief lessons bearing upon practical every-day life and conduct given in connection with the chapel exercises-lessons intended to impress upon young minds high ideals of manhood and womanhood--lessons of integrity, honesty, truthfulness, kindness and courtesy.

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Superintendent Austin George. UPERIN'1'END13NT GEORGE was a man of varied interests and activities. He was a man among men, citizen among citizens, a public officer 'for some time of the city. We cannot speak of him in all of these relations in a brief paper. It is not our purpose to give a biography of his life. A public school paper naturally takes notice of him as a public school man and speaks chiefiy of his work in the Ypsilanti public schools. He was a Michigan man, receiving his early education in the public schools of the state. He had an opportunity to know the schools through and through during his life. He was educated for the work of a teacher in the Normal School under the superintendency of Professor A. S. VVelch, and he gradu- ated from the school in the spring of 1863 and did his first teaching after graduation in the high school of Kalamazoo. Thetthen superintendent of the Kalamazoo schools writes thus of him: In the spring of 1863 there came to my home in Kala- mazoo to assume a responsible position in the schools of which I had charge, a young man fresh from the Normal School of Ypsilanti. I had no personal acquaintance with him, nor with his fitness for the work he was to do. He came upon the recom- mendation of Professor XVelch, then principalof the school, whose judgment had been trusted to select such a teacher as was needed. The young man of two and twenty was Austin George. The judgment of Professor NVelch was justified. The abounding physical vitality, the vivacity of speech. the quickness to perceive the needful and appropriate, the desire and readiness to help whenever and wherever help was needed, the capacity for work-all of these qualities combined to bring about a strong mutual regard. ripening in due time into lasting friendship. After teaching for a time in the Kalamazoo schools, Mr. George pursued higher studies in the University of Michigan and at Kalamazoo College, from which institution he gradu- ated. Subsequently he engaged in various kinds of business, of which it is not necessary to speak in this article. He became superintendent of the public schools of Kalamazoo in T873 and

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It was his purpose from his lirst connection with the schools to restore the Ypsilanti High. School to its place of esteem, honor, and pride in the'minds of the citizens of the town. In the early history of the school, while under the charge of Professor Estabrook, the school had'been an object of great pride on the part of the people. Gradually it had lost this high place. Systematically, Professor George set about creating the old feeling in the minds of the people toward the school. It is not necessary to say here how fully and thor- oughly he accomplished his purpose. The second o-biect he had in view was to create in the alumni of the school a feeling of pride in the school and re- gard for it and a desire to labor for its advancement and pros- perity. He created the organization of the alumni association. Into this association a very large part of the alumni now living were gathered and the animal meetings of this association con- tributed very much to increase the esteem in which the school was held. The third purpose which he had in view was to create an C'.S'f7l'I-f do mrfvx in the teachers of the school and to lead them to think that they were a body of co-laborers in a great work and in an honorable sphere of action. I-low well he succeeded, the teachers can testify. Connected with this, he also aimed to create in the minds of the pupils of the school a becoming p1'ide in the institution itself-a spirit of loyalty to it and an enthusiasm in its support. How well he succeeded in this, the pupils of the school can testify. It will be no more than the truth to assert that the schools, their teachers and pupils have 1'CCOV6l'CCl to a very large degree the high position which they had during the administration of Professor Estabrook: and the administration of Professor George will go down in history side by side with that of the first great superintendent of the schools. Professor George will be remembered in Ypsilanti as a public spirited citizen, one ready to do his full share of public work without regard to compensation. as a warm personal friend to a great number of people in the town: but he will be remembered especially by those who during the years of his superintendencv went out from the schools bearing the impress of his high and manly character.