May Friend Bennett

Portrait of May Friend Bennett. Bennett College Collection.

May Friend Bennett: Founder and Educator (1863-1924)

“Catch her spirit if you can. She radiates sunshine wherever she goes.”

Bennett College’s founder, May Friend Bennett was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to Francis Bennett (1837–1929) and Victoria Friend (1838–1866) on June 15, 1863.

Miss Bennett’s early life was marked by the loss of her mother at the age of three and an austere and sometimes lonely Puritan upbringing in her maternal grandmother’s household. Still, she found joy in her close relationship with her father and their shared appreciation of theater and music and her love of books and nature, discovered in many happy hours of reading by the seashore. Her innate integrity, courage of conviction, and reserve, along with a great spirit for adventure and exploration, would all serve her well over her unconventional lifetime and career.

After graduating from high school at the age of sixteen, Miss Bennett left home to attend college at Framingham Normal School. Framingham held the distinction of being the “first public institution for the education of teachers in the United States” and “one of the first public colleges open to women and minorities during the 19th century.” It was “established [in 1839] under the direction of the great education reformist, Horace Mann.

Students at Framingham Normal School, Massachusetts, c. 1890. Bennett College Collection.

Miss Bennett’s training at Framingham Normal School directly influenced the teaching philosophy and methods she employed throughout her career. She was an early adopter and proponent of progressive education reforms, inspired to a “life of service” by the school’s then principal, Ellen Hyde. Years after graduating, she would adoptFramingham School’s motto, ‘Live to the Truth’ as the same motto for her own Bennett College.

Accounts of Miss Bennett’s early teaching experience at a country school in Amesbury, MA, followed by a larger suburban school in Plainfield, NJ, and later as principal of the Grammar Department at Framingham’s Practice School, describe her resourcefulness and determination to give her students the best educational opportunities, even under challenging circumstances.

The Bennett School For Girls, Irvington-on-Hudson, Westchester, New York, 1905-1906. Bennett College Collection.

“Miss Bennett’s School” became her life work. She poured all of her energy and interests into the project, embracing the arts, science, travel, religion, and sports as all part of a well-rounded education for her students at a time when women’s futures were largely limited to homemaking, child care, and few professional occupations. See: The Founding of Bennett.

From 1890 to 1924, she saw her school evolve from a front parlor classroom in Irvington to a six-year women’s high school and college with close to 200 students on a fully equipped campus in Millbrook, NY. In the earliest years of the school, “Miss Bennett was the school,” – holding the offices of registrar, head of permissions, and principal, etc. The school’s steward, chief engineer, and housekeeper all reported to her directly. She led the institution through a smallpox outbreak, a world war, and a drought, not to mention any number of her students’ challenges to the school’s regulations.

By all accounts, Miss Bennett was a beloved teacher and colleague. She was warm and kind, firm and fair, and dedicated to her students inside the classroom and out. While increasing deafness and other health struggles plagued her throughout her career, she always found time to connect with her students, meeting with them one-on-one and taking them on frequent trips and picnics.

May Friend Bennett (1863-1924), Nine Partners Cemetery, Millbrook, Dutchess, New York. Findagrave.com.

While Miss Bennett never married, she had many close friends and family, including members of the Bennett faculty, staff, and the school’s alumnae, with whom she maintained regular correspondence long after they graduated. She continued to travel overseas, made frequent trips to the American West, and found time to see plays and concerts in New York City outside of her school year responsibilities.

When she died at the age of 60 on March 19, 1924, her obituary in the Millbrook Round Table noted she was survived by her father and her younger brother John C. Bennett (1864–1941). It went on to say “To those who knew Miss Bennett, words cannot express her kindness, gentleness, and loving personality. The village people have always found Miss Bennett courteous and thoughtful of us, and express our sympathy to her bereaved relatives, and her associates, the faculty and students of the school.”

May Friend Bennett is buried at Nine Partners Cemetery in Millbrook. Her home Exmoore House on the Bennett campus in Millbrook, still stands.

View additional records and images of Miss Bennett.