1935 By Rufus McClure
He was a young four-dollar-a-week office boy in 1917, the year Richard J. Bolles died, but somehow he hung in there and, along with Agnes Cain, eventually gained control of Bolles’ vast estate.
He and Agnes Cain were married in 1923, and in 1925 they built the San Jose Hotel, which was the center piece for the San Jose Estates, which, in turn, was north Florida’s main effort to capitalize on the Florida real estate boom. ***** But the great depression doomed the grand design, and the hotel closed after a few months, following which the white elephant was destined to become The Bolles School.
Anyone who knows anything about the history of Jacksonville will immediately recognize these names of the first Board of Trustees as outstanding corporate and professional leaders. With citizen leaders like these, how can an enterprise like The Bolles School Fail? In fact, their visionary leadership was successfully transmitted to all future boards, thereby ensuring that The Bolles School would ultimately become the great institution that it is today.
Lewis was the head of the academic program when the school opened the year before. It appears that Clemens, upper left, replaced him the second year. We don’t know the reason for the change, but Lewis stayed on as a math teacher until his death in 1937.
Lieutenant Christenbury, as far as we can tell, became the only faculty member to sacrifice his life in the great war that loomed just ahead.
We don’t know much about these early professors, but we do know that Captain Stevens stands out. He was the man who was primarily responsible for building the outstanding naval unit.
Jonathan Yerkes, above right, was the first Jacksonville citizen to sacrifice his life in the great war that loomed just ahead. World War II would eventually claim the lives of twelve Bolles alumni. The Korean War would claim four more, and the Vietnam War another three. All of their names will appear later with the War Memorial. The Yerkes Infirmary, now a science lab, bore the family name.
John Lyons, on right, a boarding student from New York, was the very first Bolles alumnus to die in the war.
There will be more about him in the dedications which appear later.
As indicated previously, Register was the first and only graduate in the first year, 1933, so it seems a bit odd that we would generate an alumni association so quickly.
Then as now the alumni are the heart-beat of the school. Today there are over 10,000 alumni spread all over the globe involved in every enterprise imaginable.
As indicated previously, Captain Stevens was among the most distinguished members of the original faculty.
This is the first picture of the “B� Club. Both Yerkes and Lyons, cited earlier as casualties in the war, appear in the photo. So does Ulmer, who would become the first alumnus to be elected to the Board of Trustees; more about Ulmer, the architect of the current Bolles, will appear later.
Bill Stockton, bottom row, second, scored the winning touchdown, the only touchdown, in Bolles first ever victory: 76, against Fernandina, under coach Madigan, fall of 1934.
It’s always a bit humorous to glance back at the quaint advertisements of our patrons and sponsors.