20
by Rachel S. Cox
A child of Gilded Age New York, John Gilbert Winant of the
Form of 1908 learned to love New Hampshire through
his years at St. Paul’s. It would prove a fateful attachment.
Four years after his graduation, Winant, then a senior
at Princeton, accepted the offer of Rector Samuel Drury
to return to St. Paul’s as a master in history. The School
became the launching pad for a political career that
would alter the Granite State, the nation, and the world
during the 20th century’s gravest ordeals: the Great
Depression and World War II.
The St. Paul’s School cemetery became Winant’s final
resting place in 1968, 21 years after his suicide at his Con-
cord home began a long eclipse of his historical legacy.
Over the last 15 years, the historical Winant has slowly
emerged from the shadows. Now a bipartisan group em-
powered by the New Hampshire state government and
including current SPS Rector Mike Hirschfeld ’85 stands
on the brink of completing its mission to honor Winant
with a permanent memorial near the State House. It will
be, if all goes well, a bronze statue quite different from
those of the distinguished men on pedestals now, Presi-
dent Franklin Pierce and U.S. Senators Daniel Webster
and John P. Hale.
In a 1912 letter to Dr. Drury from Princeton about the
prospect of returning to St. Paul’s, a young Winant eluci-
Nearly seven decades after his suicide,
alumnus John Gilbert Winant’s image
has been resurrected
Emerging f
dated the principle that would guide his adult life: “I
believe a life with an aim, and some definite work to be
done in the attaining of it, is necessary in order to hold
the respect of others as well as self.” Revealing the
sympathy for adolescent males that would make him a
revered master during his years at St. Paul’s, he added,
“Boys through intuition feel this even more quickly than
men comprehend it.”
“He was an incredibly inspiring teacher,” wrote former
Time
editor T.S. Matthews of the Form of 1918 in his 1960
memoir,
Time and Again
. Matthews recalls the eccentri-
cities of bearing and speech that marked Winant through-
out his life, yet somehow never prevented his powerful
connection with others: “He was gaunt, intense, awkward
and shy, with a lock of hair that fell over his right eye; his
clothes were baggy and needed brushing.” His master’s
room at “the Farm” was untidy, with books piled everywhere.
In the classroom, Winant seemed more shy and more
embarrassed than elsewhere and spoke so softly that he
could hardly be heard. “How did he manage to convey
to us the burning conviction that the United States of
America was a wonderful country, the most gloriously
hopeful experiment man had ever made?” Matthews
asks. “I don’t know, but he did; and from his slow
smoldering we took fire.”
In 1917, faced with America’s imminent entry into World
War I and the loss of several masters to military service
(himself included), Winant took the lead at St. Paul’s in
crafting a new system of student self-government and
self-discipline. In addition to establishing an elected and
appointed Student Council, the system relied on super-
visors, inspectors, and student councilors to inspire self-
control, mutual assistance, and strong bonds between boys
and masters. The change was controversial and politically
Above:
Winant (back, second from left) with the 1908 Halcyon
crew.
Right:
Winant (front, second from right) with SPS faculty
who served in World War I.
