Person Page - 3970

Herbert Lee Sackett

During the past twenty-two years, Herbert Lee Sackett has served as principal of Olean High School, at Olean, New York. He has devoted his entire career to education and is a leading figure in secondary education in this State.
     Mr. Sackett was born at Smiths Mills, New York, on May 6, 1877, son of Washington Irving and Maria (Nevins) Sackett. His father was a farmer. He was educated in the high school at Forestville, New York, completed the classical course at the State Normal School, Fredonia, New York, in 1899, and in 1904 was graduated from Brown University with the degrees of Bachelor of Philosophy and Master of Arts. He has also carried on graduate work in the summer schools of Harvard University, the University of Chicago and Columbia University, where he is now an enrolled candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
     Beginning his professional career as instructor in the Department of Philosophy at Brown University, Mr. Sackett served there for one year and was then, successively, Master of Science at Pingry Preparatory School, New Jersey, for two years, and principal of the high school at Dunkirk, New York, also for two years. At the end of this time he removed to Montana to become principal of the Fergus County High School at Lewistown. During seven years spent in that State, he carried on much educational work of a general nature, in addition to his duties as a high school principal. Among other such responsibilities, heserved as a member of a committee appointed by the State Commissioner of Education to prepare a State syllabus or course of study for the schools of Montana, and as a member of the Charter Revision Committee for the University of Montana, to which he was appointed by the Governor of the State and on which he served with Thomas J. Walsh, then a member of the Legislature of Montana and later United States Senator. In the summer months, Mr. Sackett occupied himself with making extensive studies and photographic records of various sections of the Northwest and their Indian tribes. In this connection he photographed the Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, Zion Park and Bryce and Grand Canyons. He studied and photographed the Blackfeet Indians of Montana and ranged farther south to record the life of the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni tribes of Arizona. He also made a photographic and geologic study of the Montana Bad Lands for the Smithsonian Institute and did press and commercial photography for the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad. One summer was spent with a "round-up camp" in Montana.
     After seven years in the West, Mr. Sackett returned to New York and assumed his present post as principal of Olean High School. He has been administrative head of this institution for more than two decades, a period during which he has taken an active part in the development of secondary education throughout the State. Mr. Sackett has served as president of the State High School Principals' Association. For ten years he was a member of the State Central Athletic Committee and for two years was chairman of the State Central Committee. For two years he has also been a member of the so-called "Joint Committee," representing the high schools of the State on a committee which also includes representatives of the State Department of Education, the Associated School Boards, the Council of Superintendents, Associations of the City of New York, and the Departments of Health and Physical Education of New York City.
     Mr. Sackett is affiliated with the honor scholastic society, Phi Beta Kappa; the Kappa Sigma fraternity, in which he was president of his college chapter; and the Free and Accepted Masons. He is also a member and ex-president of the Kiwanis Club of Olean and president of the Little Theatre Guild of Olean, Inc. He is a member of the Sessions of the Presbyterian Church.
     On July 5, 1912, at Lewistown, Montana, Mr. Sackett married Wilhelmine Rueckert, daughter of William Henry and Katherine Elizabeth (Hermann) Rueckert. They have two sons: Herbert William, born July 13, 1913; and John Theron, born September 23, 1920.