Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Getting schooled on some school names
Columnist Bill Rettew gets ‘schooled’ on the names behind some West Chester schools.
It is sometimes a bit confusing for someone who is not from West Chester.
When it was time to board the school bus, after night skiing at Doe Mountain, ski area staff would call school names over loudspeakers that were hanging from the lift towers.
Our school name was often botched. “West East Chester” or “Chester East West,” was often announced. Rarely would we hear the proper moniker, “West Chester East.”
Much as has occurred in Downingtown, the West Chester Area School District has named some schools using geography. East High School, and North and South middle schools, were named after the points on a compass.
Since then, North and South were renamed after longtime school district employees.
While I attended Stetson (formally South) and Fugett (originally known as East Junior High) I knew nothing about the people behind the school names.
I then discovered a book given to me by West Chester Area School Board member Sue Tiernan. The Spellman Administration Building was named after her father, Elwood M. Spellman.
“A Legacy of Learning: The History of the West Chester Area Schools,” by Florence Sechler Miller, contains comprehensive information concerning the namesakes for six of seven WCASD schools.
For the following sketches of school officials, I relied heavily on Sechler Miller’s book.
• B. Reed Henderson High School.
(Principal of West Chester High School from 1924 to 1952)
“His happiest memories were those of the girls and boys who passed through the halls of the West Chester High School and who had come to him from time to time for advice,” according to the Daily Local News, May 22, 1964.
Henderson was principal when the high school building on North Church Street burned down in 1947.
William Buffington graduated from high school in 1947 and said Henderson was a disciplinarian.
“He was tough,” Buffington said. “He didn’t fool around.”
Buffington recalled when students were “chewed out” when they booed at a sporting event.
“West Chester High does not boo ... it’s not good sportsmanship,” Buffington quoted Henderson as saying. “It won’t happen again.”
• Joseph R. Fugett Middle School
(Principal, 1920-1955, of the all-black Gay Street School, which was later named after him) Subsequently, East Junior High was named after the principal.
Sechler Miller wrote that Fugett “developed a sense of black pride in young students.”
A Henderson High School caseworker, Alice Thomas, said Fugett was
“quiet” and “strong.”
Dr. Spellman said in 1965 that Fugett “was speaking out for better race relations long before the others we hear today were standing up and talking on the subject.”
• Mary C. Howse Elementary School.
(West Whiteland Board member 1945-1961)
Howse grew up near what is now Exton Mall in the historic Zook House. The property was built in the mid-1700s and had been in her family for at least 10 generations.
She attended a oneroom school house. Howse was known for her interest in libraries. She established the first school library in West Whiteland at the Exton Elementary School.
• Elizabeth N. Peirce Middle School.
(Principal/Assistant Principal 1918-1951)
Children had not changed over the years, Peirce said.
Peirce said she believed in central principles of a good citizen ... integrity, dependability, self-reliance, truthfulness and courtesy.
Peirce was firm but fair, according to Sechler Miller.
Student William Lear remembers a set of chairs and table set up outside Peirce’s office.
“These were reserved for the culprits – the doers of evil deeds who, like me, had chewed gum, thrown spitballs, dipped girls’ flowing tresses in the ink well, or gotten into a fight while standing in line,” Lear said.
Lear talked about experiencing “fear, regret and remorse.”
“When Miss Peirce talked to you in her stern, yet kindly manner, you were afraid and ashamed.
“But when you walked timidly away from her office, you were determined to lead a new and better life, for Elizabeth Peirce had somehow, somewhere, made an impression.”
• Dr. G. Arthur Stetson Middle School
(Superintendent 19381962)
Stetson served during the time that Gay Street School was closed, remodeled and re-opened as an integrated school.
“This was not done by people demonstrating,” said Errol Anderson, the first black teacher at the integrated school. “This was done by Dr. Stetson and the school board because they thought it was the thing to do.”
Stetson increased guidance work, introduced German and Spanish language studies, expanded the vocational program
and introduced team teaching.
• Sarah W. Starkweather Elementary School.
(Superintendent 18811889)
Starkweather developed a distinct four-year high school program, pushed for individualized learning, “social promotions” for students lagging behind, vocal music lessons, mechanical drawing, woodworking and the importance of a solid reading foundation.
“Miss Starkweather was a strict disciplinarian, who won the love and respect of her pupils by her exact and fair dealing,” reads a 1918 school board resolution. “Her strong personality impressed itself upon all pupils who came under her care.”
• Bayard Rustin High School
(born 1912- died 1987, Civil Rights Movement Activist)
The former night club and stage singer worked behind the scenes for pacifist groups while practicing non-violent protests.
Born in West Chester, Rustin worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and advocated for non-violent resistance as he had learned from Mahatma Gandhi’s movement in India.
Rustin was an organizer for the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 to 1968. He organized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Rustin’s philosophy was based on socialism and Quaker pacifism.
After a little reading, I now know more about many of those who shaped my education.
Our school superintendents, principals and teachers are leaders of our community and have a huge impact and continue to do so.
May their contributions not be forgotten.