Since it was organized as a public high school Woodward has graduated 1 7,922 young men and women. One of them became president and later Chief Justice, of the United States. This was William Howard Taft, graduated in 1874. Both Woodward and Hughes have many other notables, jurists, phy- sicians, attorneys, business men and women, economists, sociologists, scientists, clergymen and writers to their credit. They have served their city, then- state and their nation, some of them very famously. A woman helped to j give them this opportunity. Woodward High School teachers have won a place of their own in the i esteem and, many times, with deep affection of Cincinnatians. Among the notable women educators, now passed away, of this, Cincinnati’s first high school, was MATILDA BRAY, 1858-1864, who on her death left a bequest of $5,000 to Woodward, as part of a list of legacies totalling about $35,000 to various humanitarian and educational organizations of her city. An interesting high light about Matilda Bray is that she married a man whose name was much like her own —Melvin Albray— and that their daughter, SARAH A. ALBRAY, was also on the Woodward faculty. She was teachcr of history and deeply interested in her pupils, an interest that also manifested itself on her death in a bequest, to be applied to scholarships for Woodward graduates. HENRIETTA WALKER, 1865-1892, former teacher of English at Wood- ] ward, was another exponent of kindly and considerate living, in which human helpfulness was the main design. NETTIE FILLMORE, 1879-1921, taught Latin with unusual success in that she aroused in her pupils her own keen interest in the classic language. AD ALINE A. STUBBS, who retired as teacher of history at Woodward in 1928, was instrumental in establishing the fine art collection of the school, in which this former faculty member still takes active interest. LOUISE M. ARMSTRONG, 1886-1921, was teacher of speech and drama and to her is credited the fine achievement of organizing vacation schools as part of the Cincinnati public education system. But for ELEANOR C. O’CONNELL, 1882-1925, the fine collection of Woodward relics which has helped to center interest of students and hold that of graduates in the wonderful early history of their school might never have been possible. She delved deep into the past in order to regain and preserve values tangible and intangible. MARGARETTA BURNET, who retired in 1911, was teacher of biology whose fine ideals still influence teachers and pupils and whose deep interest in Woodward has never wavered. The same is vividly true of ALICE M. DONNELLY, who retired as teacher of Latin in 1919. ISABELLE H. NEFF, 1893-1930, descendant of one of Cincinnati’s most prominent old families, pioneered in the teaching of household arts.
