Samuel Thurber Jr. (March 5, 1879 - June 13, 1943) was an American educator, editor, and English teacher who spent nearly four decades in the educational
system of Newton, Massachusetts.Queer Places:
Harvard University (Ivy League), 2 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA 02138
59 North St, Newton, MA 02460, USA
Newton Cemetery, 791 Walnut St, Newton, MA 02459, United States
Samuel Thurber Jr. (March 5, 1879 - June 13, 1943) was an American educator, editor, and English teacher who spent nearly four decades in the educational
system of Newton, Massachusetts.
He was born on March 5, 1879, in Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, to Samuel Thurber Sr., who served as principal of Worcester High School, and Angeline Blackington Sturgis Thurber. Growing up in a family dedicated to academics alongside his older sister Helen, he attended and graduated from the Roxbury Latin School before enrolling at Harvard University. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in 1901, followed by a Master of Arts degree in 1902.
Thurber's connection to LGBTQ history stems from his undergraduate years at Harvard, where he formed a close relationship with fellow classmate Erich Cramer Stern. While attending Harvard, Thurber became the central focus of Stern's deep romantic yearnings. Stern's personal journals from their freshman year record his longing to find in Thurber "the friend I have dreamt of for years." Stern gushed over moments of intimacy with Thurber, such as taking a bicycle trip to Roxbury to meet Thurber's family, receiving an invitation to spend Thanksgiving at the Thurber home, and sharing three meals a day together. Although Stern held profound feelings for him, he was unable to confess what was in his heart, and the two never entered into a romantic relationship, with Stern later entering a relationship with another student across the hall.
Following his graduate studies at Harvard, Thurber began his career in education in 1902 as a practice teacher of English in Newton, receiving a permanent appointment seven months later. On June 1, 1905, he married Bertha Arline Marsh, and the couple later had a daughter, Rachel. In 1909, Thurber was appointed head of the English department at the newly completed Newton Technical High School. Upon its consolidation with the Classical High School, he became the director of English for the Newton High School system, a role he maintained until his retirement in 1941. In addition to his high school teaching, Thurber served as an instructor at Harvard College for three years, taught summer sessions at Dartmouth College, held leadership roles including president of both the Harvard Teachers Association and the New England Association of Teachers of English, and edited numerous English textbooks and classic literary editions for secondary school use. He resided at 59 North Street in Newtonville until his death at age sixty-four on June 13, 1943, in Newton, Massachusetts, and was buried in Newton Cemetery.
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