Death of a Friend
William Beach Olmsted, Headmaster 1919-1929
Following the death of thirty-five-year-old Athletic Director Charles E. “Dutch” Brown, Mr. Olmsted offered a heartfelt eulogy in the October issue of The Pontefract:
“For nearly fourteen years, Mr. Brown had been a master here, and what he did for Pomfret in the athletic world is far too well-known to repeat. No one who was connected with the school during all his life with us failed to realize and fully to appreciate this.
“Far beyond and of greater value, however, than Mr. Brown’s remarkable technical skill in football, which was second to none anywhere, and in other fields of athletic endeavor, was his peculiar and pervading influence over everybody by his generous and never-ending sympathy and help. It is hard to realize the supreme value of this indefinable quality which he possessed in so rare a degree. It is not possible within our limited space even to begin to estimate the passing from our midst of such a personality as his. It is, however, possible to record the fact that no one who has had a part in the day’s work and the life of the school has ever left so indelible an imprint of self-sacrifice and untiring devotion.”
