Recently I was made honorary alumnus of Pinkerton Academy. A high honor indeed!
My own high school, Sanborn Seminary in Kingston (now Sanborn Regional), is far different from Pinkerton in that it never taught its students about the school's history. Perhaps the reason Sanborn is so quiet about its past is because it was endowed by Edward Sanborn. He made his money in a very old-fashioned way — he ran a string of brothels in Boston.
Also, Sanborn hasn't turned out many famous alumni. As far as I can figure, the most famous Sanborn graduates are: Dr. Sam Prescott of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pinkerton's Headmaster Mary Anderson and Betty Hill, a lady who claimed to be abducted by aliens in 1961.
Pinkerton Academy's pride in its past is well justified. Since 1814, the school had been honored with remarkable graduates and distinguished teachers. For 196 years, many of Pinkerton's alumni have earned and received honors across America. In 1924, PA was still a small high school with a graduating class of only 51 students. And yet in one week in June 1924, a trio of America's most prestigious universities gave honorary doctorates to three men from Pinkerton. Is there any other high school that could match such an honor?
These three men are:
Professor Ernest Silver (1876-1949). He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Pedagogy from Dartmouth College in 1924. He was a graduate of Pinkerton Academy (1894) who, after graduating from Dartmouth, became superintendent of schools in Rochester and Portsmouth. Silver next returned to Pinkerton Academy to serve as headmaster from 1909 to 1911. In this position, he modernized the curriculum, made the school more available to the sons and daughters of ordinary families and recognized the genius of Robert Frost. Dr. Silver was president of Plymouth Teachers College from 1911 through 1946.
Robert Frost (1874-1963). He was a teacher at Pinkerton Academy from 1906 to 1911. His Derry farm is now a state museum. He followed Silver to Plymouth and after a few years took his family to England. There he published his first book of poetry, "North of Boston." Almost immediately, Mr. Frost became America's favorite poet. He would go on to win four Pulitzer Prizes and be recognized as our nation's first poet laureate.
Frost will always be remembered for his reading of the poem "The Gift Outright" at the 1961 inaugural of President Kennedy. During his lifetime he would receive 40 honorary degrees but his first was the doctorate he received in June 1924 from Yale University.
Robert Lincoln O'Brien (1865-1955) was the third honoree. In June 1924, he received an honorary doctorate from Brown University. He had entered Pinkerton Academy in 1884 as both a post-graduate student and teacher. In 1886, he founded the academy's Philomathean Society. O'Brien later graduated cum laude from Harvard College. He became private secretary to President Grover Cleveland and an intimate friend of President Theodore Roosevelt. After serving as editor of two different Boston newspapers he was appointed by President Herbert Hoover to be chairman of the U.S. Tariff Commission.
Despite being a Republican, President Franklin Roosevelt considered O'Brien to be an important part of his brain trust. In 1936, FDR reappointed him chairman of the Tariff Commission. Mr. O'Brien served as a member of Pinkerton Academy's board of trustees from 1917 to 1948.
Three honorary doctorates in one week. Impressive! Sanborn Seminary, eat your heart out!
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Rick Holmes is the former chairman of the Derry Heritage Commission. Several of his books on local history are available at Mack's Apples.
