News Associate Editor
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles chronicling important stories from past one hundred years of The Choate News. The News is grateful to the School Archivist, Ms. Judy Donald, for her assistance in the research for this year-long project.
The St. John family’s prescence arrived at Choate as George St. John (father of Seymour St. John) advanced the school’s headmastership in September 1908. Previously, George St. John had taught English at schools in Pennsylvania, Florida, and New York. When George St. John arrived at Choate with his wife, Clara, and daughter, Elizabeth, Choate was a small school struggling to survive debt and other challenges. His friends warned Mr. St. John that Choate would cost him time and money and would give back neither in return.
Upon George St. John’s arrival, only 51 boys attended the school. “We all knew that we were a small school and young: only by the character of our school, by strengthening good tradition and establishing new, could we hope to make the present day Choate a future day Choate that we could take pride in, to tell people, ‘With that we had something to do.’,” George St. John stated in his autobiography, Forty Years at School. Throughout his thirty-nine years as headmaster, he certainly accomplished his goal: by 1947, Choate’s enrollment had increased to 533 boys.
Choate Rosemary Hall would not be the respected establishment it is today without George St. John’s determination and ambition: he saw potential in the tiny, debt-ridden school of 51 boys. During his time as headmaster from 1908-1947, George St. John fostered the growth of Choate and dramatically increased its enrollment and prestige.
