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| <tab>J. T. Smith obtained a B.A. degree from Queen’s University in 1932, then two years later he became principal of Alexandria High School, succeeding Donald MacKay, who had retired. (//Glengarry News// 6 May 1932 & 20 July 1934) At this time the entire teaching staff of the school, including the principal, numbered five. (20 years earlier, it had been ) In the two years before J. T. Smith became principal, the principal’s salary had been cut sharply because of the Depression. (//Standard Freeholder// 9 May 1934) J.T. Smith was principal during the difficult years of the Depression. Always anxious to expand the secondary education system in GC, he pressed tirelessly to obtain for GC a proper share of the funding being made available by the growing national wealth in the years after WWII, and by the greater willingness of governments in these years to spend money on education. In the years after the war, the school bus system was established to bring students from the countryside to Alexandria. This marked the end of the old system by which country students boarded in town during the week and returned to their families on the weekend. He pressed for the building of a new high school in Alexandria, which was opened in 1954. At this time, the school had a teaching staff of about 20 and the old name of Alexandria High School (“AHS”) was replaced with Glengarry District High School. J. T. Smith retired in June 1960. (//GN// 14 April & 23 June 1960). He was succeeded as principal by C.C. Fraser. | <tab>J. T. Smith obtained a B.A. degree from Queen’s University in 1932, then two years later he became principal of Alexandria High School, succeeding Donald MacKay, who had retired. (//Glengarry News// 6 May 1932 & 20 July 1934) At this time the entire teaching staff of the school, including the principal, numbered five. (20 years earlier, it had been ) In the two years before J. T. Smith became principal, the principal’s salary had been cut sharply because of the Depression. (//Standard Freeholder// 9 May 1934) J.T. Smith was principal during the difficult years of the Depression. Always anxious to expand the secondary education system in GC, he pressed tirelessly to obtain for GC a proper share of the funding being made available by the growing national wealth in the years after WWII, and by the greater willingness of governments in these years to spend money on education. In the years after the war, the school bus system was established to bring students from the countryside to Alexandria. This marked the end of the old system by which country students boarded in town during the week and returned to their families on the weekend. He pressed for the building of a new high school in Alexandria, which was opened in 1954. At this time, the school had a teaching staff of about 20 and the old name of Alexandria High School (“AHS”) was replaced with Glengarry District High School. J. T. Smith retired in June 1960. (//GN// 14 April & 23 June 1960). He was succeeded as principal by C.C. Fraser. |
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| <tab>J. T. Smith’s hobbies were curling, flowers and gardening. He outlived his wife by nearly three years. He died at Cornwall General Hospital. Burial, after cremation, was in the Protestant cemetery, Alexandria. By family an Anglican, he attended the United Church in Alexandria, as did his wife. He was a Mason, and near the end of his life he was given a 60-year jewel by the Masonic order for his 60 years’ of service. There was also an earlier principal of the high school called James Smith. See also the entries for Ethel Ostrom and Angus R. Macdonell, teachers in J.T. Smith’s high school. | <tab>J. T. Smith’s hobbies were curling, flowers and gardening. He outlived his wife by nearly three years. He died at Cornwall General Hospital. Burial, after cremation, was in the Protestant cemetery, Alexandria. By family an Anglican, he attended the United Church in Alexandria, as did his wife. He was a Mason, and near the end of his life he was given a 60-year jewel by the Masonic order for his 60 years’ of service. There was also an earlier principal of the high school called James Smith. See also the entries for [[ostrom_ethel_louella|Ethel Ostrom]] and [[macdonell_angus_r|Angus R. Macdonell]], teachers in J.T. Smith’s high school. |
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| <tab>As high school principal, J.T. Smith faced the problem of being a unilingual anglophone in an area with a large French-Canadian population. Some of the tensions of this situation are expressed in his wife’s 1945 novel, //All This Difference//. But in truth, whatever private apprehensions the Smiths had, matters outwardly went well enough. Dorothy Dumbrille did remember, however, one difficult incident when a French-Canadian teacher, Miss Simard, and a local physician, Dr Primeau, combined to raise complaints about J.T. Smith and other teachers. There seem to be no recorded difficulties with regard to J.T. Smith being a Protestant school principal in a town where there was a large Roman Catholic majority and no Roman Catholic secondary school. In GC as a whole, there was also a Roman Catholic majority, though not in so marked a degree . | <tab>As high school principal, J.T. Smith faced the problem of being a unilingual anglophone in an area with a large French-Canadian population. Some of the tensions of this situation are expressed in his wife’s 1945 novel, //All This Difference//. But in truth, whatever private apprehensions the Smiths had, matters outwardly went well enough. Dorothy Dumbrille did remember, however, one difficult incident when a French-Canadian teacher, Miss Simard, and a local physician, Dr Primeau, combined to raise complaints about J.T. Smith and other teachers. There seem to be no recorded difficulties with regard to J.T. Smith being a Protestant school principal in a town where there was a large Roman Catholic majority and no Roman Catholic secondary school. In GC as a whole, there was also a Roman Catholic majority, though not in so marked a degree . |
