Some Interesting Facts of O.D.S.S

excerpt from The Onion, 1931-32

O.H.S. graduates do honour to themselves and shed lustre on their old school.

Former students of the Orangeville High School have brought honour and fame to their old school. We might instance C.R. McKeown, K.C., who became one of Orangeville’s greatest lawyers and a wonderful orator. He represented Dufferin in the Ontario Legislature for a number of years, as a Conservative and an outstanding supported of Hon. G. Howard Ferguson, Premier of the Province for eight years. Mr. McKeown now occupies the responsible position of Chairman of the Ontario Railway and Municipal Board.

One of our former teachers, Mr. Archibald Lampman, has won a high place in the realm of poetry. Mr. Fred G. McBrien, a Mono boy, and a graduate of the School, is at present representing a Toronto constituency in Parliament. His brother, W.G. McBrien, also one of our graduates, is Chairman of the Toronto Transportation Commission. No less than seventeen graduates of the School gave up their lives for King and Country during the Great War.

J.L. Island., B.A., whose death occurred in April 1928, was Crown Attorney of Dufferin from 1914 to 1928. Mr. Ralph Endacott, deputy-sheriff of Dufferin County, is an O.H.S. boy. Mr. W.H. Hunter, present County Clerk, is another graduate. Hundreds of Ontario’s prominent physicians, dentists, lawyers, ministers, druggists, bankers, teachers and professors are graduates of the Orangeville High School.

Mr. Jackson Brett, Northern Ontario mining magnate, who controls the Jackson mines, is another of our graduates. Dr. Oscar Skelton, one of the Government’s foreign secretaries at Ottawa, Dr. Coleman, now doing University work in British Columbia, J.M. Keanrs, K.C., of Guelph, Crown Attorney of Wellington County, and W.D. Henry, K.C., Crown Attorney of the County of Grey, are other names that suggest themselves. Then there is the Reid family, whose members were all educated in the Orangeville High School. Among its members are Dr. Hannah Reid and Dr. Minerva Reid, of Toronto, the late Jos. Reid, widely known as a high school teacher, and the late Dr. John Reid, physician.

Justice Lamont, of the Supreme Court, a brother of Mrs. J.B. Adamson, Orangeville, Robert Bremner, United States journalist and member of Congress, Walter Bremner, clergyman, scholar and traveller, Prof. Jos. Leighton of Cornell University, Mr. Reginald King, Principal of Scarboro Collegiate Institute, Dr. T.A. Carson, Toronto, S.T. Newton, Director of Technical Education for the Province of Manitoba, Prof. Chas. Lee and the late Prof. S.H. Lee of Manitoba Agricultural College, Prof. G.A. Sproule of the same institution, the late Rev. J.H. Turnbull of Toronto, and Rev. J.A. Cransston of Toronto are only a few of the many whose names might justly appear on any honour roll of ex-students of the Orangeville High School.

The late Rev. W.M. Morris of Toronto, a former pastor of St. Andrew’s Church, Orangeville, was a member of the Trustee Board for a number of years. Dr. Marvin Craig, one of our more recent graduates, was the official dentist on the Empress of Britain on its maiden trip around the world.

The list might be prolonged indefinitely if only space would permit. For the present it will suffice to say that in every sphere of learning and activity are graduates of the Orangeville seat of learning who are bearing their part in the battle of life in a manner that does honour to themselves and sheds lustre on their old school.