Reflections of Anna Head and Josiah Royce

Reflections on Anna Head and Josiah Royce

BY SUSAN FRATIS PENNY ’56

Head-Royce School ··· Spring 2014

“Where did Royce come from?” my daughterin-law asked me after driving her son to the school for the Holiday Basketball Tournament at Head-Royce last December. That prompted my search for information about the founders of the school. It also became part of a deeper appreciation of my experiences at the school during the “Dewey Years” and the much different institution it has become today.

Anna Head was born in Boston May 6, 1857.

Her father was a lawyer and her mother, Eliza, was an educator. The family moved to San Francisco in 1861 and soon after to Berkeley where her father became a judge and her mother educated young women in manners, French and English. The new state of California was in transition from a territory where gold mining brought men from all over the world to the more sophisticated society that emerged in the years following the discovery of gold. There were few women in California and the work of Eliza Head was all the more remarkable during the early years of statehood when there were few young women, and fewer trained in social graces.

Anna Head studied education at the University of California at Berkeley and graduated in 1879. Then she traveled in Europe, particularly Greece, and focused on learning about methods of education.

Josiah Royce was born in Grass Valley, California November 10, 1855 to parents who had traveled west in a covered wagon in 1849. His father had a general store and his mother was a teacher. His early education was with his mother until he was

11 years old and he was then sent to Lincoln School in San Francisco. He attended the University of California in Berkeley and graduated with a major in classics in 1875.

He spent the following year in Europe, mainly Germany, where he studied philosophy. Thus began his interest in and contribution to the field of philosophy. Upon Royce’s return to this country, he attended John Hopkins University and graduated with a Ph.D. in Philosophy in 1878. He returned to Berkeley and taught there until he was asked to teach at Harvard while William James was on sabbatical in 1882.

Royce married Katherine Head, Anna’s sister, in 1880 and they had three sons. The youngest son was born the year after Royce had a nervous breakdown in 1888. After a long sea voyage, he recovered and continued teaching at Harvard until his death in 1916. He became a close friend of William James and their debates on the nature of religion is reflected in much of their publications and was motivation for James’ book Varieties of Religious Experience. In 1887 Royce dedicated his only novel, The Feud at Oakfield Creek to William James.

He was one of the foremost leaders in philosophy with extensive publications and involvement in the development of pragmatism and transcendentalism and is still acknowledged as one of the pillars of that field. Royce was known by the world even while he was in Berkeley and became more famous and respected throughout his career on the East Coast.

In 1887, Anna’s mother, Eliza, retired and gave the proceeds of her business to Anna, then 31 years old, to open a school for young ladies. Later that year, Anna began the school in her home on Channing Way in Berkeley. The school remained all female until well after it moved to Oakland almost a century later.

I was saddened by the decision in 1979 to make the school co-educational, because I believe there is a place for women’s educational institutions. I attended Anna Head during high school, graduating in 1956, with an unusually large class of 44 students.

Our gray wool uniforms led to the students referring to ourselves as “gray ladies.” Our

Head-Royce School ··· Spring 2014

clothes were covered by long coats after school to trek to the King Pin Donut Shop at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Channing Way where we conversed about the school day over French fries and cigarettes. I remember on the day of graduation the class of ’55 took their place on the stairway in the front of the school named the “senior steps.” When they left to relinquish it to the incoming seniors, it was school tradition to shower the outgoing seniors with rose petals.

With several classmates, I stood in the bathtub on the second story of the building above the front stairs, scattering rose petals out the windowand showering the outgoing seniors as they sang the school song and made way for the incoming senior class.

When Anna Head retired in 1909 she sold the school to one of the instructors, Mary Wilson.

The school had been established as one of the most admired in the country, drawing students from all over. The writer Mary McCarthy recalls in her autobiography her disappointment at not being able to attend Anna Head.

Upon Mary Wilson’s retirement, the school was bought by the Hydes, who later sold the school Head-Royce School ··· Spring 2014

to the Daniel Dewey family, whose four daughters attended the school until each became high school seniors. The Deweys were vigorous participants in the education provided by the curriculum. I remember Daniel Dewey’s sense of humor when metering out decorum.

In 1955, the Deweys were notified by the University of California, Berkeley that the property the school stood on was being taken by eminent domain for expansion of the university. This led to the school evolving as we know it today. The Deweys could not afford to relocate and began the process to create a trust. During our senior year, 1955 –1956, the new trust was implemented.

The new trustees began raising funds, asking for contributions from the alumnae, parents of students and the community. In 1964 the school relocated to the Oakland hills where it has grown and expanded. In 1971, the Josiah Royce School began as a boys’ school in a leased campus across the street. In 1979 the schools were combined into the co-educational school that expanded into the campus of today. It continues as an innovative and respected educational entity.

After visiting the campus, I realize that, to survive in changing times, the trustees, faculty and students developed the school to be innovative and responsive to the needs of the community, echoing the original efforts of Anna Head in the late 19th century. I remember talking to a student soliciting donations for the school and remarking that the school was much bigger and quite different than it had been while I was a student.

The student remarked that she had often heard that comment from older alumni but said, “Once they experience the new campus and learn of the programs, they leave smiling.”

After becoming familiar with the progress of the campus, I respect the foresight of the community of trustees, faculty, students and alumni in meeting the challenges of evolving into the 21st century. Anna Head would also leave today’s campus smiling.