Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-08-09
PENN CHARTER
NEW HEAD is
NATIVE OF MAINE

Mdlly lrlendS Will De interested IN
the announcement that Frederick L.
Smith, who is passing the summer as
usual at his summer home at Castine,
has been appointed headmaster of the
famous Penn Charter School in Phla-
delphia to succeed Dr.. Richard NJ.
Jones' LII. D., whose death was re-
corded last week in the Journal.
Like his predecessor Mr.. Smith is a
rative of Maine, being a son of Hon.
2. W. Smith, senator from York
county, and a brother of Hon. George
H. Smith, also a senator from the
same district. Mr.. Smith married
the daughter of DR.. George A. Wheeler
of Castine and passes his vacations
there or at his summer home, Craig
mere, at East Orland. Mr.. Smith was
graduated from Bowdoin College in
SO.
By the death of DR.. Jones the coun-
try loses its best known schoolmaster
The Penn Charter School is one of the
Oldest in the country, having been
chartered by William Penn in 1859,
and has continued its corporate ex-
iStence ever since. DR.. Jones has con-
trolled the destiny of this school for
q years, and has often been called by
his students, the DR.. Arnold of Amer
lea.
Born in South China, DR.. Jones re-
turned to his summer home in this
state each year. He had always been
most loyal to his native state, and has
secured many members of his staff
from Bowdoin College.
Built His Own Bungalow.
ten-room bungalow, on an inland
wooded lake, twenty miles from Cas-
tine, is most striking evidence of his
mechanical versatility. 1t has been
built in its entirety by his own hands
during his vacations. Here he re-
ceives visitors who come to see the
house that a school teacher built"
In appearance Mr. Smith looks the
typical business man and is never
mistaken for a school teacher. He is
nearly six feet tall and weighs 1S5
pounds 1t is significant of his great
physical activity that his weight does
| not vary today five pounds from that
OF his graduation day. 81 years ago.
Mr.. Smith is an effective public
speaker, and has made many Memorial
Day addresses in Maine and Massachu-
sets. He has often participated in the
political campaigns in his native State
He Is president of the Bowdoin Club
of Philadelphia and the Cum Laude
Society. He has an inexhaustible
fund of humorous stories and is at his
best as afterdinner speaker.
Mr.. Smith has been connected with
the school for 25 years and intimately
associated with DR.. Jones, he seems
| peculiarly fitted to take up the work
where Dr.. Jones left off. He is a man
of the highest character. broad schol-
arship and the widest teaching ex-
| perience.
! He was born in WATERFORD in 1865,
and was graduated at Bowdoin Col
| lege in S. the first scholar in his
class and a Phi Beta Kappa man. AT
the end of his sophomore year he won
the Greek, Latin, and mathematical
prizes, and in his senior year he was
IVY Day orator and won all three
prizes in written and spoken English
He was also prominent in athletics
telng stroke on Bowdoin's famous
four oar crew, full back on the vars
ity. and substitute pitcher on the nine.
He gained his first teaching expert
ence as an assistant in chemistry in the
Maine Medical School Compelled to
give up his projected study in a Ger
man university, Mr. Smith worked his
way in six years from the Acton dis
trict school, where he received less
than $500 per year, to the -princi-
palship of the Chelsea (Boston) High
school numbering nearly 500 pupils.
He was successfully principal of the
Lindsey, Me, High school, the New
market, \. H, and the Nedham.
Mass, High schools
But it is not to the scholars of his
classes that Mr.. Smith markes his
strongest appeal. His special interest
is directed to the less fortunate lad.
In this particular he has no superior
and is willing to spend any amount of
time and effort to attain any degree Of
success.
For eight years Mr.. Smith has d.
rected the cricket. winning the cham
pionship of Philadelphia seven out of
eight times. For eighteen years he
has had the business oversight of the
school magazine which has grown to
be among the best publications in
the country