Frank Pierrepont Graves (July 23, 1869 – September 13, 1956) was Commissioner of the New York State Education Department from 1921 to 1940. Prior to assuming the commissionership, Graves was a noted historian of education, college administrator, and author.
Early life and education
The New York State Department of Education building, Albany
Graves taught Greek at Columbia for two years and at Tufts College for five. He later became president of the State University of Wyoming for two years, and president of the University of Washington for five years. Both institutions quadrupled their enrollment during his tenure.[4]
Graves became Commissioner of the New York State Education Department in 1921, and held that post under six governors, for nearly two decades.[5] Under his tenure, the state took major steps in rural school consolidation, an important, if often very controversial, endeavor. Graves is the longest-serving commissioner in the history of the department to date. During his tenure, Graves was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1927.[6] After his retirement, he passed the bar exam in 1943. By the end of his career, Graves held 43 academic degrees.[1][7] In 1937, Graves ruled that Rose Freistater was ineligible to be issued a teaching license for being overweight.[8]
His wife Helen died in 1943, and he remarried to Jessie Chase Malcolm.[7]
Graves died in Albany on September 13, 1956.[1][7]
TOBIN, JAMES BERGIN. "FRANK PIERREPONT GRAVES, AMERICAN SCHOOLMAN, 1869-1956: A STUDY OF THE SOCIAL IDEAS FOR EDUCATION CONTAINED IN THE PUBLISHED ADDRESSES AND PAPERS OF THE COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION, STATE OF NEW YORK, 1921-1940" (PhD dissertation, New York University; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1967. 6806187).
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