"What impresses most about the boys who went to the (Boys’) Latin School in my time, as I look back on them, is their spirit of personal independence and individuality. They had characters of their own. There was no striving for a school pattern of personality, no effort to sink to a level of conformity, and above all no hero worship with its surrender of personality to the will and tastes of others…Each youngster was himself…The Boys’ Latin School has had a long history. It is now crossing the centennial mark, a span of life which is most unusual for a preparatory school in this country of rapid changes and few traditions. It owes its longevity not to buildings or athletic prowess or to sentiment, but undoubtedly to the soundness of its methods, the intelligence of its purposes and the sincerity and integrity of those who have been connected with it, whether as masters or scholars. There will always be a need for these things in the future as in the past. The life of the school will be prolonged while it continues to supply them. May we all hope that will be for a very long time indeed. For another hundred years at least.”
John Sharpe Dickinson, Class of 1909, Class of 1944 Commencement Day Address