letters
from Mr Tee .
Founder’s Day, our special nod to Severn founder Rolland M. Teel, was celebrated on November 13 duringtheDistinguishedAlumnusceremonyforAdmiralTedWalker. HeadmasterDougLagardepreparedpassagesfromFaculty Emeritus Robert Gray’s 1970 interview with Mr. Teel that Middle and Upper School students read to the audience. The Bridge proudly shares these selected passages with special thanks to Bob Gray and Doug Lagarde.
My wife had a little bit of money and I had
a little bit of money and we pooled it together and we started this school. We looked at several places and locations and we decided on this one because here was just what was necessary; a railroad station, a post office, a freight office, telephone exchange, and a couple of grocery stores. So, I bought this place where we are now. And here is the part I can never quite understand. I borrowed a little cash to start with. My brother who was in business in New York took me to a hotel and restaurant supply house from which I bought a load of kitchen equipment, dishes, etc. on an open account. And in those days there was no such thing as installment buying. They gave me full credit for them. We got mattresses and pillows from Schuster & Company in Baltimore. I bought some beds and bedroom furniture from Stuart & Company Department Store in Baltimore, and I bought some classroom chairs and classroom equipment from a firm
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in Baltimore. Two banks in Annapolis loaned me quite a sum of money. And I had no security except my life insurance policy which I had taken out while I was a boy. And I look back up on that as utterly astounding – how people would trust me to that extent. Today the banks would not be allowed to do that. Now why in the world those people were willing to trust me that far, I just can’t understand.
We started out with about two or three students. Mr. Hawkins had gone in with me from the very beginning and we worked this whole thing out together from the educational standpoint. And what a wonderful loyal person he was. He was a jewel beyond words. For the first year we ran the whole thing ourselves as far as the teaching was concerned. He taught the English and history and I taught most of the mathematics, and I handled the correspondence myself. There wasn’t an awful lot of it at that time.