Etc. -- Wm. H. Smith, veteran teacher, to be honored
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A lightly edited transcription of a page 1 article in the 15 Jun 1916 Simcoe Reformer newspaper.

To Honour Their Veteran Teacher

Port Dover People are to hold a reunion 
of W. H. Smith's Old Boys and Girls 
on Dominion Day.

The people of Port Dover are preparing to mark with appropriate ceremonies the completion of 
Mr. W. H. Smith's 43rd year as principal of their school.

The function is to take place on the school grounds on Saturday, 1 Jul 1916, and an invitation is extended to every ex-pupil who sees this, to be present.

In connection therewith the following has been sent in to us from New York for publication:

William Henry Smith

As one of his "old boys" it is with a great source of pleasure and pride that I pen this humble tribute to William Henry Smith.

It has been said that the best kind of teachers are born teachers. Mr. Smith is a living acknowledgement of this statement's truth. His native ability made skill in teaching possible, while knowledge and training added to natural endowment, made such skill an actual a dependable possession.

Mr. Smith is the very embodiment of ability and aptitude for imparting instruction and for stimulating and guiding the young in their struggle for knowledge and self-improvement.

Most among the hundred of his old boys and girls, in different sections of the globe, who have made good, owe it to a large extent to Mr. Smith's painstaking endeavor. He laid for them a sure foundation upon which to build their structure of success and splendid renown. To those who have failed, the fault is their own, and obscurity in the world's affairs is their portion. 

Mr. Smith's birthright manifested itself in a natural interest in and a love for them all. He was endowed with the happy faculty to awaken interest in further study and to inspire enthusiasm for the task and the opportunity before them.

Mr. Smith was more than a born teacher. He was a citizen of whom any town might well feel proud, and to those whose good fortune it was to penetrate his reticent nature, he was the best of friends. 

I have compared and contrasted him with hundreds of people both in New York and in the West, and my conviction remains that his was the most perfect character I have ever met.

Mr. Smith's fellow citizens of Port Dover are to be congratulated in seeking the co-operation of his former scholars to honor the man who for over 43 years has honored them -- a man whose character and ability make him worthy of a testimonial such as will be accorded him on Canada's natal day.

I rejoice at the prospect of a great gathering of Mr. Smith's old boys and girls on that day, and I am not alone, I am sure, in extending congratulations and in expressing the hope that the end of his useful and honorable career is yet afar off.

W. F. McGilvery,
2061 Story Ave.,
New York.


 

Copyright 2016 John Cardiff