In 1939, 24-year-old Hamilton Stillwell became the first male principal of the Cranbury School.
By:Casha Caponegro
In 1939, 24-year-old Hamilton Stillwell became the first male principal of the Cranbury School.
"There was a woman principal at the time who also taught third grade, named Henriette Chittick," said Dr. Stillwell, who is now retired and living in Pennington. "The school board told her to step down and resign."
Dr. Stillwell’s career at the Cranbury School started in the fall of 1937, following his graduation from Trenton State College, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree.
"When I came to the Cranbury School my salary was $1,000 a year," he said. "I was the highest paid graduate of Trenton State College’s Class of 1937. I was also paid $100 extra to coach boys sports."
After teaching eighth grade for two years, Dr. Stillwell became a teaching-principal, meaning that he continued teaching while also acting as principal of the school.
"I worked with all older women who had been there forever," said Dr. Stillwell. "I had a very favorable relationship with the teachers. They liked me and I was very popular. It seemed they were glad to have a male principal."
Dr. Stillwell took a leave of absence in 1941, when he was drafted for military service.
"When I told the board I was drafted, they asked me how much the military would be paying me," he said. "I told them $21 a week and they said they would match that amount. While I was in the service, I received a check every week for $21. When I was made a corporal, however, my salary was raised to $37 a week, which is when the Board of Education stopped paying me."
Dr. Stillwell was discharged from the service as a major, having served with the counterintelligence branch of the Second Air Force, and returned to Cranbury and spent a year-and-a-half as a nonteaching principal.
During Dr. Stillwell’s five years as principal, the Cranbury School participated in various programs and activities, some of which would seem unusual by today’s standards.
"We used to participate in an exchange program with a school in Hawaii," he said. "We would send one teacher to Hawaii and they would send us one of their teachers, who taught the kids the hula dance. At commencement each year the eighth-graders would do a hula dance."
At a time when many schools throughout the country practiced segregation, Dr. Stillwell is proud to say that the Cranbury School encouraged education among all children, regardless of their race.
"There were migrant workers in Cranbury who worked in the potato fields," he said. "Many of them had children they brought with them who had very little education. I organized classes for these children during the summertime while their parents worked in the fields."
Unfortunately, many of Cranbury’s residents at the time did not agree with Dr. Stillwell’s progressive ideas.
"The board and many citizens of Cranbury were upset about making the school available to the migrant workers’ children," he said. "They were afraid they would bring in diseases that would infect the other children.
"We also had summer camps at the school," Dr. Stillwell said. "I remember taking a group of students to Manasquan for the day and not being allowed on the beach because we had black children with us."
According to Dr. Stillwell, one of the biggest changes in education today, compared to 60 years ago, is the increase in the qualifications of teachers.
"Teachers have more advanced degrees today than they did before," he said. "Many of my teachers just had certificates, not four-year degrees. I think teachers are much more prepared today.
"Education is more important today than it ever was," he said. "People cannot get jobs without a degree. Back then you did not really need one."
Dr. Stillwell looks back fondly on his days as principal in the Cranbury School and is glad that the Old School Building continues to stand more than a hundred years after it was built.
"It is well-made building," he said. "I agreed with having it declared a historic site. If you lived in Cranbury, you went to the Cranbury School. It was a center of education."
A dedication ceremony, in which the Old School Building will officially become Cranbury’s Town Hall, has been set for Oct. 14.
Dr. Stillwell received a master’s degree in education from Rutgers University’s School of Education in 1941. He received a doctorate in education from New York University in 1957.
After spending five years as principal of the Cranbury School, Dr. Stillwell went to Milltown, where he acted as supervising principal for six years before becoming a professor of labor studies and industrial relations at Rutgers University.
Upon retiring as dean of the Extension Division at Rutgers University, Dr. Stillwell lived in Michigan for 13 years, where he was dean of the Urban Extension at Wayne State University in Detroit.