Central Faculty Additions 1910-11

New Faculty 1910-11

For the 1910-11 school year,  Central added three faculty members, one to replace the departed A T Roark as director of the Commercial Dept. and athletics business manager. For the first time, photos of the faculty are available with the issue of Central’s first Yearbook, The Sleepless Eye.

William Ketcham Anderson was a math teacher at Central only for the year 1910-11, while taking courses at UC. He was born April 27, 1888 in New York City and graduated from Wesleyan (CT) with a BA in 1910. He left Central and attended Columbia University, receiving an MA in 1913, then to Union Theological Seminary for a Bachelors in Divinity in 1914. He then performed missionary work in Europe and Africa, and became a pastor at Ohio State University 1915-18. He married Fanny Spencer  Dec  19, 1916 and had two daughters -Almeda Jane (1918) and Elizabeth Cushman (1921). After serving as a pastor in Pittsburgh, he relocated to Nashville in 1939 when  the Methodist Episcopal Church, North, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Methodist Protestant Church reunited, and Nashville was chosen as the site for a consolidated publishing facility–the Methodist Publishing House.  Anderson is credited with editing and publishing many religious books, tracts and pamphlets during his eight years  there. He died in Nashville Feb 7, 1947 and was buried in Vanhollow, NY.

Frank Eugene Gunn was born in 1877 to Melvin and Peorlina Gunn of Novelty, MO. He served in the Spanish American war and afterward entered Simpson College (Methodist college in Indianola, IA), receiving  a BA degree in June, 1903, and was married in Villisca, IA on July 22 of that year to Delia B. Jones of Princeton, IL.  Gunn came to Chattanooga as a teacher in the Hamilton County Schools and by 1906 was Principal of the East Chattanooga School.  Gunn came to Central in the 1910-11 school year as an English and history teacher, even though Central already two English and one history teachers on board.  At the end of that school year it was revealed in school board hearings that Superintendent Brown intended to not renew Principal Darrah’s contract and that his main ally was Gunn, whom he had personally appointed to Central. Gunn was bolstered the following year by appointments of Selcer and Rankin to Central by Brown to help end Darrah’s reign. After Darrah had been deposed in 1912, Gunn remained at Central as a history teacher (as Harriett Greve took leave for a masters degree) and instrumental music instructor (replacing Charles Garratt who was booted along with Darrah). Gunn left Central at the end of the 1915 school year (Greve returned the following fall) and took a similar position at City High, where he remained until retirement around 1940. He was the Chattanooga Area Leader of the Boy Scouts for 8 years.  Gunn passed away in Chattanooga on July 31, 1957. He and Delia had no children.

Walter Leo Harrington replaced A T Roark as Commercial Dept. instructor for just  the 1910-11 school year.  Harrington was born  Nov 26, 1871 in Boston, MA  to John and Mary Noonan Harrington, the fifth  of six children.  Harrington attended the Boston Latin School, taught elementary school  until entering Harvard in 1898, and received a BA in Commerce from Harvard University in 1900. Harrington returned to teaching and was headmaster of the Charlestown Evening School in Boston until 1905.  During that time he co-authored four books on English as a second language, based on his experience as headmaster.  He pursued a writing career until 1910, then inexplicably migrated to Chattanooga. Once at Central, Harrington was probably overwhelmed with managing the ambitious football program under Rike, as only four games were scheduled that fall; none with local teams.  However the Sleepless Eye gave kudos for Harrington in scheduling basketball games, in which Central was undefeated for the year, and he authored a rousing  write-up of Central’s Commercial Dept in the 1911 Sleepless Eye.  Harrington  relocated to Greensburg, PA and was a no-show for a commercial teaching position in New York in the fall of 1911. Working with Coach Rike had longer-term benefits, as Harrington next surfaced in fall of 1917 as the head football coach and commercial instructor of Rollins College, Winter Park FL, announced in the Sept 6, 1917 Winter Park Post, page 4. Fortunately for Harrington, Rollins only enrolled 10 male students that fall, so the football season was forgone.  Harrington, as a business professor, became a fixture in the local papers for his speeches on the bright future of Rollins College and the inevitable  economic boost on Winter Park.  Harrington was last reported by the local newspaper as having a serious illness in Washington DC while on a recruiting trip for Rollins in late March, 1918. Harrington re-emerged as a commercial instructor for the Charleston, WV schools in 1918-20, then as a speech instructor at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN for 1921-22.  He authored a fifth book entitled, “Speaking Well: The Art of Conversation” in 1924, and faded into obscurity afterward.