The Hartford Public High School History Series

NOTABLE ALUMNI

Of the thousands of students who have graduated from the school since 1851, many have excelled in their professional careers, locally and nationally.

There were no diplomas until 1854, and school records do not show who completed the courses of study. The lists for years previous to 1854 have the names of students who probably received a certificate of completion of the course. Students who attended the Hartford Grammar School , i.e. prior to 1847, are mentioned by Henry Barnard in his written works and in The Hartford Grammar School (History Series XXIII).

In the field of education, many returned to teach at HPHS and city schools. Others became teachers and college professors in Connecticut , other states, and foreign countries.

In the field of law, an impressive number became well-known attorneys and judges of the lower and superior courts in Connecticut and other states.

There have been numerous local and state politicians who graduated from HPHS: state senators and representatives, city and town officials, and members of boards of education.

Many are the graduates who served in every war since the Civil War, matched by many others who have performed peaceful missionary work around the globe.

In medicine and science, many have left their mark. Business and industrial leadership by HPHS graduates is significant in the first half of the Twentieth Century. These businessmen often were active in their communities and were trustees on college boards and other institutions.

Graduates who served in the Civil War are listed in Civil War Alumni (History SeriesVIII). Graduates who excelled in athletics are enrolled in the HPHS Athletic Hall of Fame.

Information on graduates from the 1930’s forward is incomplete because their careers and successes were not listed in the 1955 Catalog, whereas this had been the case in the 1941 Catalog. The occasion of the Tercentenary Celebration in 1938 involved an impressive research effort that produced the 1941 Catalog. Credit must be given to the many people who must have had some familiarity with Hartford notables either personally or due to their local fame. Certainly, great devotees such as Clarence H. Wickham, renowned member of the Class of 1879, and Principals Clement C. Hyde and Thomas J. Quirk were involved in the research.

“Notable Alumni” is to be taken as a work in progress, and information will be added as the school receives news about its more recent alumni.

1851 Dr. Edward Minor Gallaudet, Trinity ’56, President of Gallaudett College ,

Washington D.C. , 1864-1911.

1860 William G. Sumner, Yale ’63, organized Department of Social Sciences at Yale, 1872-1910, influential professor and author.

1862 Edgar Thaddeus Welles, Yale ’64, Chief Clerk of U.S. Navy Department, director of several railroad companies, son of Gideon Welles.

1863 Sarah M. Glazier, Vassar ’68, first female HPHS graduate to attend college and also first to become a college professor (Buchtel, Vassar), member of first class to graduate from Vassar.

1864 Charles E. Gross, Yale ’69, director of many corporations in Hartford , President of the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford .

1865 Bernadotte Perrin, Yale ’69, professor at Yale, 1893-1920, translated Plutarch’s Lives.

John M. Holcombe, Yale ’69, President of Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance.

Henry T. Terry, Yale, Professor of Law, Imperial University of Tokyo , 1876-1884,

1894-1912.

1867 Charles Hopkins Clark, Yale ’71, Editor of The Hartford Courant for 21 years.

1868 Edward C. Terry, Yale ’71, inventor, manufacturer in Hartford .

1870 Dr. William F. Henney, Yale ’74, Mayor of Hartford , 1904-1908.

1872 William Waldo Hyde, Yale ’76, Mayor of Hartford , 1892-1894.

1873 Henry Roberts, Yale ’77, Governor of Connecticut , 1905-1907.

William Gillette, actor, famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, built Gillette Castle , his home in East Haddam , CT.

1874 Admiral Harry S. Knapp, U.S. Naval Academy ’78, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces, Spanish American War, Commander of all U.S. Naval forces abroad, 1919.

1875 Frank E. Hyde, Yale ’79, CT State representative, U.S. Consul at Lyons, France, 1893-1897.

1876 Charles E. Chase, President of Hartford Fire Insurance.

1877 Arthur W. Cowles, President of Hartford Fire Insurance, Chief of U.S.

Patent Office, Washington , D.C.

George P. McLean, CT state representative and senator, U.S. Senator, Governor of Connecticut, 1901-1903.

1878 George Dudley Seymour, George Washington ’80, author of works on American History and Architecture. Restored the Nathan Hale Homestead .

Tun Yen Liang, Yale ’82, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China .

Archibald A. Welch, Yale ’82, Lecturer at Yale, President of Phoenix Mutual Life Ins. Co.

1879 Kai Kah Wong, Yale ’83, held government positions in Republic of China.

Albert Carr, Yale, ’83, prominent engineer in public transportation, first subway system

of New York City , hydroelectric development in Mexico , rebuilding of the street

railway system in San Francisco following the April, 1906 earthquake.

Shon Kie Tsai, established Tientsin University, China .

George E. Bowman, Yale ’83, author of works on American Colonial History, compiled extensive Mayflower genealogy.

Louis R. Cheney, CT state representative, Mayor of Hartford, 1912-1914.

Mun Yew Chung, Yale ’83, Secretary and Charge d”Affairs of the Chinese Legation, Washington , D.C. and Madrid .

1880 Charles McLean Andrews, Trinity ’84, author of works on American Colonial History, received Pulitzer Prize, 1935.

Caroline F. Hamilton, Smith, '85, New York Women's Medical College , '88, medical missionary in Turkey for 37 years.

1881 Rev. Frank R. Shipman, Yale ’85, President of Atlanta Theological Seminary.

Dr. Thompson C. Elliott, Amherst ’85, author of works on Northwestern history, Fellow of Royal Historical Society of London.

Gertrude O. Lewis, Founder of the Connecticut Humane Society.

1882 Arthur L. Shipman, Yale ’86, author of works on early Connecticut History.

Henry C. White. He began his painting career by taking private lessons with the landscape artist Dwight Tryon of Glastonbury , CT

and wrote Tryon’s biography, the Art Students League, New York , taught drawing at HPHS, associated

with the Old Lyme artists, but spent most of his time in Waterford . His favorite subjects were Connecticut landscapes and

seascapes, and his career extended over sixty years.

1883 William Lyon Phelps, Yale ’87, Professor of English at Yale for 41 years.

                        Arthur Perkins, Yale, ’87, Associate Judge, Hartford . Spearheaded the effort to make
                        Benton Mackay’s vision of the Appalachian Trail a reality. Organized volunteers to
                        carve out miles of trails and donated his own money to the project. Responsible for the
                        original metal AT symbol which remains the official design.

1884 Rev. Clarence A. Barbour, Brown ’88, President of Brown University .

Gertrude H. Rogers, Head of Rogers Paper Mfg. Co., Manchester, CT, 1912-1928.

1885 Frederick Fitzgerald , U.S. Consul, Cognac , France .

Robert W. Huntington, Yale ’89, President of Connecticut General

Insurance Co.

Ethelbert A. Moore, President of Stanley Works, New Britain , CT.

Joseph R. Ensign, Yale ’89, President of Ensign-Bickford Company.

Charles W. Stiles, Leipzig ’90, U.S. Medical Director of Public Health Service, author of works on tropical diseases.

Ruel C. Tuttle, Trinity ‘89, notable artist.

Edward W. Hooker, Mayor of Hartford , 1908-1910.

1886 Horace H. Ensworth, M.I.T. ’91, industrialist.

Amasa Day Chafee, Yale ’90, Pictorialist art photographer.

1887 William R. Corson, Yale ’91, President, Hartford Steam Boiler Insurance Company.

Robert C. Glazier, President, Society for Savings.

1888 Eliza L. McCook, teacher and missionary in China for 35 years.

Howell Cheney, Yale ’92, silk manufacturer, Manchester , CT.

Knight D.Cheney, Jr., Yale ’92, silk manufacturer, Manchester , CT.

L.P. Waldo Marvin, Yale ’92, Judge of Connecticut Supreme Court.

1889 Louis F. Butler, President, Travelers Insurance.

Fred F. Bennett, Yale ’96 , U.S. Commissioner of the Federal Courts, 1924-1940.

Francis Parsons, Yale ’93, author of works on early Hartford history.

1891 Gen. Sherwood A. Cheney, U.S. Military Academy ’97, Military Aide to President Calvin Coolidge, Military Attaché at Peking .

Philip J. McCook, Trinity ’95, Judge of the New York Supreme Court,

1919-

Dr. Jonathan M. Wainwright, Trinity ’95, President of American

Society for Control of Cancer.

1892 Dr. Matilda S. Calder, Mt. Holyoke ’96, President of Ginling College ,

China .

Samuel Ferguson, Trinity ’96, President of Hartford Electric Light Co.

Henry A. Perkins, Yale ’96, professor at Trinity College, President, American School for the Deaf, Hartford, 1913, Acting President of Trinity College, 1915 and 1919.

Charles W. Gross, Harvard ’98, President, Board of Trustees, Hartford Seminary Foundation.

Rev. Edward T. Ware, Yale ’97, President, Atlanta University .

Edward L. Smith, Yale ’97, Mayor of Hartford , 1910-1912.

1893 Francis P. Garvan, Yale ’97, Dean of Fordham Law School , New York

City.

1894 Rev. Maurice F. McAuliffe, Mt. St. Mary ’s ’08, Roman Catholic Bishop of Hartford , 1934-

1895 L. Edmund Zacher, President, Travelers Insurance.

Allison V. Pattison, first female HPHS graduate in CT State Legislature, 1925-1929.

Morrison Brown Yung,Yale Sheffield Scientific School, '98. Chief Engineer for reconstruction of city of Hankow, Republic of China,

1912-1914, Head of Coal Bureau, Canton, China, under Sun Yat Sen, 1920-1922.

1896 Morgan B. Brainard, Yale ’00, President, Aetna Life Insurance.

1897 William M. Maltbie, Yale ’01, Chief Justice , Connecticut Supreme

Court.

James L. Goodwin, Yale ’02, industrialist.

1898 Newton C. Brainard, Yale ’02, Mayor of Hartford , 1920-1922, President of Case, Lockwood, and Brainard Printers.

Edwin C. Dickinson, Yale ’02, Justice of Connecticut Supreme Court,

1941-

W. Brian Hooker, Yale ’02, author, instructor at Yale, dramatist, translated Cyrano de Bergerac.

1899 Russell Cheney, Yale ’04, notable architect.

Edward H. Lorenz, Trinity ’02, notable inventor.

Elisha E. Hilliard, textile manufacturer.

1900 Annie Fisher, Wesleyan ’04, notable educator in Hartford . The elementary school was named after her.

1901 Dr. Maude Taylor Griswold, Tufts ’05, notable in field of medicine.

1902 Philip E. Curtiss, Trinity ’06, novelist.

Joseph H. Lawler, Georgetown ’06, Mayor of Hartford , 1914-1916.

1903 Dr. Donald B. Welles, Yale ’07, noted for success in treatment of burns.

1905 Montague Flagg, M.I.T. ’09, artist and architect.

Thomas J. Molloy, Yale ’08, Justice of Connecticut Supreme Court.

1906 Donald B. Prentice, Yale ’10, President, Rose Polytechnic Institute.

Thomas Hewes, Yale ’10, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Washington , D.C.

Arthur S. Hildebrand, Yale ’10, author of works on geology, lost at sea while attempting to sail the Viking trail from Norway .

Laura Wheeler Waring, educator and painter known for her portraits of prominent African Americans of her era.

1907 Harold C. Jaquith, Trinity ’12, President, Illinois College .

Walter E. Batterson, Mayor of Hartford , 1928-1931.

Malcolm Davis, Yale ’11, Director, Geneva Research Center, 1925-1927.

1908 Chun Wing Sen Afong, Yale ’12, Commissioner of the Chinese Navy.

1910 Edward J. Daly, Cornell ’14, Attorney General of the State of Connecticut, 1934-1937.

1911 Nicholas F. Rago, Yale ’15, Deputy Attorney General of the State of Connecticut , 1939.

John E. Griffith, Trinity ’17, Vice President, Aetna Life Insurance.

1912 Samuel Berkman, Trinity ’16, Director, Hartt School of Music.

1913 Clinton L. Allen, President, Aetna Fire Insurance.

Ethel Donaghue, Vassar ’17, first female HPHS graduate to receive LL.B degree (University of Pennsylvania, 1920).

1914 Frazer B. Wilde, President, Connecticut General Insurance.

1915 Admiral W. Irving Leahy, U.S.Naval Academy ’19, Commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet.

1916 Herbert Stoeckel, historian, reporter.

1917 Barnard Flaxman, Syracuse ’22, Vice President, Hartford Insurance Group.

1919 Edward A. Suisman, Yale ’25, industrialist in Hartford .

Samuel C. Suisman, industrialist in Hartford .

1920 S. Richard Rapport, Middlebury, ’25, Vice-President, Hartford National Bank.

1921A Howard L. Warring, Howard ’25, first African American HPHS graduate to earn the M.D., practiced in Hartford for 47 years.

1921B Philip Kappel, Pratt Institute ’24, well-known artist.

1922B John M. Bailey, The Catholic University of America, ’26, influential State Democratic

Party Chairman.

William H. Mortensen, Mayor of Hartford , 1943-1945, Director of the Horace Bushnell Memorial.

Lewis Fox, Princeton ’26, prominent member of Hartford Board of Education. The middle school was named after him.

Nelson R. Burr, Princeton ’27, author of works on local history.

1924B Raymond Kennedy, Yale ’28, well-known, progressive professor of Sociology at Yale.

1930B Lemuel C. Custis, Howard ’38, one of the Tuskegee Airmen, WW II.

1932B Barnaby C. Keeney, Univ. of N. Carolina ’36, President, Brown University .

1933A Gwendolyn B. Clarke, aka Gwen Reed. Actress, storyteller and teacher. In 1937, she had a small role in Trilogy in Black, a production of the Connecticut Federal Theatre Project’s Negro Unit. Later she was in productions of The Emperor Jones, The World We Live In, Mississippi Rainbow, and One Third of a Nation. She performed in or directed over 25 theatrical productions in the Greater Hartford area. She often appeared on the “Ranger Station,” a children’s program on Channel 3, and started the Playtime for Tots program for pre-school children in Bellevue Square , Hartford . From 1946 to 1964 she toured the country portraying “Aunt Jemima” for the Quaker Oats Company

1936B Elsie Kornbrath, aka, Elyse Knox Harmon. Performed in over forty Hollywood films from 1937 to 1999, with her first leading role in The Mummy’s Tomb with Lon Chaney, Jr. She appeared in morale-booster films made during WWII, and portrayed Anne Howe, the girlfriend of fictional boxer Joe Palooka in the Joe Palooka series.

1937 Robert Killian, Lieutenant Governor of the State of Connecticut .

1939 Mary C.Fitzgerald Aspell, St. Joseph College ’43, first female HPHS Graduate on CT Superior Court.

William E. Budds, Fordham ’43, President, Charter Oak Bank.

Herbert E. Abrams. Norwich Art School, Pratt Institute. Internationally famous portrait painter whose portraits of Connecticut

governors Meskill, Grasso, and Weicker are on display in the CT State Museum in Hartford . General Westmoreland, Presidents

Jimmy Carter and George Bush, Barbara Bush, Arthur Miller, members of Congress and heads of corporations are among the varied

subject Abrams is known for. He re-designed the U.S. Air Force insignia, now one of the best known designs in the world.

1942 Charles S. Stone III, White House Correspondent, Editor of Washington African American, writer.

1946 George A. Athanson, Amherst , B.A, Univ. of CT , M.A. International Relations, Univ.

of Chicago Law School , J.D, Mayor of Hartford , 1971-1981.

1949 Lindy J. Remigino, Manhattan ’53, winner of two gold medals in track, 1952 Olympics, teacher, HPHS.

Carrie Saxon Perry, Mayor of Hartford , 1989-1994.

1950 Carmen R. Arace, University of Connecticut , prominent educator in

town of Bloomfield , middle school named after him in 1987.

1951 Emilio Radocchia, aka Emil Richards, a graduate of Julius Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford . He joined the Hartford

Symphony Orchestra while in tenth grade, working under Arthur Fiedler and Fritz Mahler. In 1959 he moved to Los

Angeles where he recorded for Frank Sinatra, Nelson Riddle, Judy Garland, Sarah Vaughan, and Doris Day. In 1962, in response to

a request from President John F. Kennedy, Emil and a small jazz combo joined Frank Sinatra on a tour around the world

for the benefit of underprivileged children. This group helped to found the first hospital in Israel for Jewish and Arab children. He has

recorded on over 1350 film scores and counts over 650 artists that he has recorded and performed with. He has won the

National Academy of Arts and Sciences Most Valuable Player Award for six consecutive years.

1957 Robert J. Giard, Jr., Yale ’61, professional photographer and teacher of photography.

Richard Don Tulisano, University of Connecticut , University of CT School of Law, CT state representative for Rocky Hill, chairperson of the judiciary committee, a zealous guardian of individual rights.

1958 Les Payne, Univ. of CT , 1964, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist, New York Editor of

Newsday magazine, a founder of the National Association of Black

Journalists.

1960 William M. Brown, aka Lew Brown, broadcast journalist in radio and television in Hartford . He created the Sunday morning “What’s

on Your Mind” program which highlighted African American issues for twenty years. Active in many civic affairs and committed to the

Hartford community.

James A. Ratches, Trinity, ’64, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, PhD., ’69, Chief Scientist Night Vision Optics U.S. Army.

Developed the U.S. Army’s night vision optics system for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Maurice A. Finocchiaro, MIT and UC Berkeley. Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas;

recipient of fellowships, grants, and awards from the National Science Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, American

Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, and International Society for the Study of Argumentation. He

has published eleven books and hundreds of articles and book reviews on logic and argumentation theory, the

history and philosophy of natural science, and the history and philosophy of the social sciences. A recurring theme in his research and

publications is the relationship between science and religion. Two of his well-known books are The Essential Galileo

(2008), and Defending Copernicus and Galileo ( 2010).

1961 Donald C. Johanson, Univ. of Illinois ’66, anthropologist, discoverer of “Lucy,” Director, Institute of Human Origins, Tempe, AZ.

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, Central Connecticut State University ’65, writer with a critically acclaimed body of work.

1962 Herbert Vilakazi, Columbia University , ’66, college professor, South African diplomat, ambassador to Uganda , 2002.

1969 Franklin Chang-Diaz, University of Connecticut ’73, astronaut, 1981-2005, President,

Ad Astra Advanced Space Propulsion Lab., Webster , Texas .

Denise L. Nappier, Virginia State University ’73, Treasurer of the State

of Connecticut , 1999-

1972 Tony Todd (Anthony T. Todd), African American actor and producer, appeared in more than 100 screen and television films.

1973 Dana Backman, professor of astronomy, known for his skills in infrared astronomy and discoveries in the formation of planetary

systems. In 2003, he became the manager of SOFIA E/PO, a program subcontracted by USRA to the SETI Institute and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Prior to that he was a professor of physics and astronomy at Franklin and Marshall College in

Lancaster , Pennsylvania for 12 years.

1976 Eddie A. Perez, Trinity ’96, Mayor of Hartford , 2001-2010.

1979 Maria Perez-Brown, Yale ’83, creator and executive producer of

television series programs for adults and children.

R.J. Luke Williams, 2013