Evening star., 1940-06-02
By JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

by JESSlE AN i Et Ans.
Upon the dingy, time-staired
front wall of the general shop
room at the old Abbot Vocational
School, on o street between Sixth
and Seventh streets NV, is promi-
nently displayed an inscription,
cleverly utilizing the names of tools
of the carpenters trade. 1t reads:
Lets follow the golden rule,
Brace up bit;
Be plane (plain) and always on
the square"
This has been not only an in
spiration to the thousands of boys
who have worked here under the
guidance of Fred L. Harries, general
teacher of shop at this school, but
in effect has been his own life
motto.
Seventy years young-as is at
tested by his springy step and up
right carriage-he is retiring this
June after 81 years of "eminently
superior teaching'-in the words of
the official report of Dr. Frank w.
Ballou. superintendent of schools.
This summary of Mr.. Harries' rec
ord goes on to say: Mr. Harries
has for 81 years rendered service
of the highest type to the schools
of Washington. He has always had
the highest sense of responsibility
In his work as teacher. and his
great loyalty to the public schools
and to his work is known to all
of his associates. His wholesome
influence on the thousands OF boys
who have been in his classes will
long be remembered by them"
Prize Winning Handiwork Shown.
Proudly Mr. Harries pointed to
pictures showing the handiwork of
former students that has won dis
tinction in national and interna-
tional exhibits and eXpositions.
Among the pieces shown is an in
laid box which received an award
of merit at the Paris Exposition
the work of the late Alan Branni-
gan. who occupied a position of
trust and Importance in the United
States Government.
Several times during our inter-
view Mr.. Harries excused himself
to 60 to the rescue Of overall-clad
boys in the rear of his classroom
who were building wooden rack
to hold chemical equipment for the
new type of work that is to be
taught at the school next fall
His first Intervention took this
form: wait a minute boys! Let's
plan this work ahead before we
jump into it. How about having
that trestle ready before you get
out your saw?"
Mr.. Harries' teaching position. by
an odd coincidence. ceases with his
retirement. 1t has been his par
ticular field to discover in what
specific classes his students were
best fitted to work. Now, under the
new set-up in the vocational schools,
this will be ascertained farther down
the line. In between the sessions
of his last classes, his classroom
which for many years has echoed
to the sound of the hammer, the
saw, and the plane in action. Is now
being fitted up as trade chemical
laboratory.
One of Is Children.
Mr.. Harries is the only living male
member Of family that once num-
bered Is children, among them q
brother, Gen. George H. Harries
formerly president of the Board OF
Education of the District. Mr.. Har-
ries was born at Haverford West
Pembrokeshire, Wales. AS boy he
lived for year in the Hudson Bay
country of Canada before the FAM
lily came to the United States in
1880.
BY a second odd coincidence, Mr.
Harries ends his teaching career
within a square of the old Henry
School, where he began his own edu.
cation in the public schools, anc
Just across the street from the little
brick house in the loft of whose
stable, now a garage, he held hi
first carpentry shop for boys. Then
as now, the Washington school.
were overcrowded and without ade.
quate classroom facilities. He re.
members his particular grade hae
no permanent classroom and, with
their chairs upon their heads, mi
grated from one vacant point o1
teaching vantage to another a.
opportunity offered, sometimes "set'
ting up school" upon landings o.
in Easements.
Later he attended a school known
as the old Brewery School," upor
the present site of Homeopathi,
Hospital. AS its name would indi'