Mather A. Abbott

Nova Scotian by birth, Mather Abbott’s life career was the conducting of famous boys’ schools in this country. During eighteen years at Groton, where President Roosevelt was his pupil, and for fifteen years head master at Lawrenceville, he won very early an important place as educator. Dr. Abbott had his avocations; he had been captain of the ’Varsity crew at Oxford, and while serving a three-year interval between his work with preparatory schools, as teacher of Latin at Yale, he was actually induced to act as coach for the crew of that University. Abbott was a man of strong convictions. During the Prohibition episode he declared himself to be as “dry as the withered leaf,” but proceeded to describe the Eighteenth Amendment as “the most damnable law ever passed.” Other men might at times be annoyed by some of his mannerisms—his outspoken impetuousness, for instance, his irritation at restraint or delay. But the boys understood him; they were firm in their loyalty.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1935 Century Association Yearbook