Henry's Lieutenants

Frederick Edwards Searle

Frederick Edwards Searle 1871-1972 "The fine tradition you established at the Trade School continues to be reflected in the activities of Ford Motor Company through the many graduates who hold positions of influence and high responsibility in our management. We will always be grateful for that heritage." —Henry Ford II* The education of boys and young men for gainful employment was one of Henry Ford's primary endeavors. Of Ford's many educational ventures, the Henry Ford Trade School and related vocational schools could be considered most successful. The one who headed these institutions for thirty years was Frederick E. Searle. "Pop,, Searle was like a father to many appreciative students. Frederick Edwards Searle was born August 1, 1871, in Westfield, Massachusetts, son of Frank Prentis Searle, an insurance agent and buggy whip manufacturer, and Ellen Edwards Hatch Searle. There were four children in all: Frederick, Herbert, Clara, and Helen. Frederick graduated from Westfield High School with honors in 1889 and enrolled in Williams College to become a teacher. He graduated from Williams with a bachelor of science degree in 1893 and for two years taught at Tarrytown, New York. In 1895, through a teacher's agency, he came to Detroit, where he accepted a teaching position at the Detroit School for Boys, a college preparatory school of sixty to seventy-five students where Searle taught science and mathematics. The school was unique because it also taught woodworking and mechanical drawing. In 1900, the Detroit School for Boys merged with the Detroit Public School System and became Detroit University School. In 1902, the Detroit City Directory lists Searle as director, Home Department, Detroit University School. The Home Department took care of boarding students. Searle married Josephine Hosmer Dewey of Big Rapids, Michigan, in 1903, and in subsequent years both he and his wife lived at the school. By 1906, the school had been moved to 16-48 * From a personal letter from Henry Ford II, on the occasion of Frederick Searle's 100th birthday. 235 Henry's Lieutenants Elmwood Avenue, and in 1914, Frederick Searle is listed as principal and Josephine Searle as teacher in that school. The Searles did not have any children. Edsel Ford attended Detroit University School and took courses in physics and mathematics under Searle during 1911. After graduation, Edsel Ford did not go to college but instead worked for his father at Ford Motor Company. After Samuel Marquis and the Sociological Department of Ford Motor Company had instituted the Henry Ford Trade School in late 1916, Edsel Ford and his former manual training instructor , Clarence Avery, induced Searle to become head of the Henry Ford Trade School in 1917. The Searles then took up residence at 801 Lothrop Avenue in Detroit, where they would live for the next twenty years. The Henry Ford Trade School was an exceptional institution. It offered a practical education to boys whose families could not afford to send them to high school. The Trade School offered them shop work as well as classroom training, with scholarships equivalent to wages. Because the school was accepting some boys as young as twelve, child labor laws did not permit these people to do shop work for "wages." The use of "scholarships" avoided this illegality. The Internal Revenue Service, much later, acknowledged the operation to be a school, and therefore the payments to be gifts not subject to income taxes. Scholarships ranged from about $500 per year to as much as $1,000 as the students became more proficient in their work. The Trade School officially opened October 5, 1916, with six boys and one instructor as a nucleus. At the time Searle arrived, there were about forty boys. Three years later, there were 400 students enrolled and 6,000 on the waiting list. Henry Ford asked, "How many boys are there?,. When told, he said, "Reverse those figures. Let 400 wait.,, So the school expanded further, enrolling as many as 200 a month. Two full-time investigators checked circumstances of applicants, families in order to select those most needing assistance. Enrollment reached 1,000 but by then 15,000 were on the waiting list. The school never did catch up. In 1921, when student enrollment was 1,800, the Sociological Department of Ford Motor Company was discontinued and the Trade School had to stand on its own. Henry and Edsel Ford's personal interest in the school, however, kept it intact. Henry Ford had told Searle, "You know, Fm more interested in...