Dr. Frederick L. Dunn, Jr., Principal 1960-1975
From the 1974 Polaris yearbook
by J. Stanton Boteler (Faculty 1973-1981)
The Principal. Dr. Dunn. Fred. Anyone who has been a teacher, student, or
resident within the environs of south Rockville knows that these words refer
to the first and only principal of Robert E. Peary High School. His
reputation extends beyond the community, but it is there perhaps that most
of his efforts and influence have had their greatest effect during the past
fourteen years. Being a high school principal is not easy; and being
appointed principal to a school that is little more than a set of architect's
blueprints can present additional burdens. So it was with care and
deliberation that the Superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools
chose the man who would have the responsibility of opening the new school
on Arctic Avenue. His choice was Dr. Frederick L. Dunn, Jr.
Since that time, the man and the school have become inseparable. He has
watched the school grow from blueprints to a building, seen it double in
size, and awaited the completion of a long-needed auditorium, all of which
have cemented more tightly the bond which was formed fourteen years ago.
But Dr. Dunn is more than a school administrator, and he cares more about
many situations than the physical plant of a school. Too often people have
concerned themselves with the superficial and not taken enough time to
consider the ideals, values, and philosophy he makes a way of life.
Except for a few youthful years spent in Baltimore, Fred Dunn lived in and
attended schools in Washington, DC. As a student at Central High School, he
was on the football team, was captain of the track team, and was president of
the "C" Club. He chose the University of Maryland as the place where he would
continue his his education but spent only one semester there before enlisting
in the United States Navy in 1942.
Like most other enlistees at the time, he took his basic training at the
Great Lakes Naval Training Center and was subsequently stationed there at its
hospital as a corpsman; his next tour of duty took him to Hawaii, and he
completed his service tour back on the mainland. The Navy recognized his
academic potential and sent him to Franklin and Marshall College; and one year
later, he was assigned to the University of Pennsylvania. Celebrating his
completion of military service, Fred Dunn and Janet Elizabeth Griffith were
married on March 23, 1946.
Believing in the importance of education for each individual, he returned to
the University of Maryland to prepare for his own work as an educator and
earned the Bachelor of Arts Degree in June 1948. It was at this time that
he became associated with the Montgomery County Public Schools and began
teaching at Montgomery Hills Junior High School; and during the three years
he spent there, he returned to the University of Maryland's night school and
completed work for the Master of Arts Degree. Because of his new credentials
and his desire to work with "problem" students, he was appointed a pupil
personnel worker, and some of his present convictions about the role of
educators took more solid form.
The many civic, social, and professional organizations to which he belongs
are represented by the numerous awards and honors he has received but about
which he is reluctant to speak. An example of one such award was that of
Distinguished Alumnus of Central High School for 1972, by which he was placed
among a prestigious company of former recipients: Charles Collingwood, Judges
Irving Levine, Ralph Shure, and Alfred Noyes, Congressman DeWitt Hyde, and
J. Edgar Hoover.
Following the United States Supreme Court's decision on school desegregation,
he was named Assistant to the Superintendent of Schools in 1955 and given
the awesome task of desegregating the Montgomery County Public Schools. As
a result of this special assignment, he was a major contributor to the book
Action Patterns in School Desegregation, which was commissioned by
Phi Delta Kappa, a national educational fraternity.
In 1956, he was appointed Assistant Principal at Sherwood High School and
served there until 1958 when he was appointed to the same position at Wheaton
High School. As if his duties were not enough to occupy his time, he took
additional graduate studies at the University of Maryland while meeting all
of his administrative responsibilities. So it was with natural relief that
he left College Park in 1959 for the last time as a student, with renewed
enthusiasm and an addition to his name; he was now Dr. Frederick L. Dunn, Jr.,
and he embarked on his newest challenge in education, that of opening and
being the Principal of Peary High School.
Dr. Dunn made it one of his priorities to become familiar with the personality
and accomplishments of the American hero for whom the school is named, and as
a result Peary is steeped in a tradition that few schools in the country can
match for authenticity and completeness. He believes that each teacher should
lead students to their own discoveries, that each student has a right to an
ethical teacher, and that the school is a dynamic institution which prepares
young people to become emotionally and economically secure adults.
For a number of years, Dr. Dunn served as a member and is currently the
Chairman of the Montgomery County Juvenile Court Committee; and he has the
added distinction of being the only educator on the committee, having been
appointed to it by the Montgomery County Council. During the summers of
1964 and 1965, he was granted temporary leave from his duties at Peary and
traveled to Nova Scotia where he directed the planning and implementation of
the guidance program in the Nova Scotia School System.
Encompassing and permeating all aspects of his personality and philosophy are
two points which must not go unmentioned; the first is something that he has
said, and the second is something that should be said candidly about him.
"Mankind may discuss, invent, and develop to make his future easier and
happier; but his real quest must be in discussing, inventing, and developing
faith in one another, which can only come from constant searching in the area
of interpersonal relationships."
What cannot remain unwritten here about Dr. Dunn is one of the most outstanding
characteristics of the man. Whenever a former or present student has died,
whenever personal tragedy has touched a student's family, whenever a teacher
or staff person has experienced ill health or deep sorrow, whenever there has
been a human need for help of any kind, he has always been among the first to
offer his own personal help. "Can I lend a hand?" epitomizes his life. And
that, very simply, says it all.
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