Читать книгу Memoirs of Milwaukee County, Volume 3 - Josiah Seymour Currey - Страница 14

Robert L. Cooley, a prominent educator and one of the founders of the Milwaukee Vocational School which is today one of the largest of the kind in the country, was born at Fredonia, Ozaukee county, Wisconsin, in 1869. His early educational training was received in the village graded school and eventually he completed a course of study at Waubeka, after which he obtained a certificate to teach in 1886. He then taught in a country school for two winter terms and when not thus engaged his attention was given to work on farms and in factories. He was at all times ambitious to improve his own education, however and he eagerly utilized every opportunity in that direction. For one year he was a student in the Oshkosh State Normal School, which he left in order to teach in a graded school at Newburg, Washington county. He thus augmented his financial resources, after which he returned to the Normal School and was graduated with the class of 1894. In the same year he accepted the position of assistant in the high school at Oconto, Wisconsin, and in the following year he became city superintendent of schools and principal of the high school at that place, there remaining until 1903, when he came to Milwaukee as principal of the school at Eighteenth and Cedar streets. He was afterward transferred to the school at Ninth and Ring streets, where he served until November, 1912, when he became the director of vocational schools, which at that time were being inaugurated under the law passed in 1911. Work under this law was not started until November, 1912, when the local board of industrial education elected Mr. Cooley as its first director and in this position he has continued. He has gained fame and prominence as an educator and especially as one of the founders and promoters of the Milwaukee Vocational School, which is today one of the largest of the country and one of the best equipped, while its system of instruction is most thorough and comprehensive.

On the 1st of September, 1898, Mr. Cooley was united in marriage to Miss Carrie S. Ide, a daughter of the Rev. George H. Ide, pastor of the Grand Avenue Congregational church of this city. They have two children: Katherine Ide, born January 5, 1905; and Margaret Ide, born September 14, 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Cooley occupy a very enviable position, especially in those social circles where true worth and intelligence are accepted as a passport to good society.