Shortly after spring break, Ken LaRocque sent over a copy of the school history of Fountain Valley school in Colorado Springs. Fountain Valley is where Avon's first provost, Francis Froelicher, went when he left Avon. Several members of the first faculty, which resigned en masse, followed him there. That history has a very different account of the reason for Froelicher's departure from Avon. It claims the Froelicher and TPR parted ways when TPR, convinced that discipline was lacking under Froelicker, instructed him to build pillory stocks, the punishment apparatus by which a person was immobilized in a wooden device that secured his hands and head, on campus. Froelicher, so the story goes, refused of course, and was then shocked to find that TPR had instructed a carpenter to build the stocks anyway. The history - I think the title is They Wrote Their Own Histories, but I have loaned it to Tim - goes on to report that TPR then summarily dismissed Froelicher during a vacation, not even allowing him to return to campus to gather his things (on this last point it quotes a Froelicher daughter).
This is certainly a juicy story, and it fits in with the image of a TPR who would have rose bushes planted upside-down or chloroform a recalcitrant cat. I have not, though, come across any other references to pillory stocks on the Avon campus, and the idea runs contrary to a number of stories that underscore TPR's rather generous nature where students were concerned. Of course, if I were writing the history of Fountain Valley, I would much prefer this story to one that suggests the school's first headmaster - Froelicher was first at Fountain Valley, too - had left his previous job because of his binge drinking.
Sorry for the length of time between posts; it is a hectic time at school (the only times that are not hectic are the vacations), and I have done nothing for this project since the resumption of classes. However, I am making plans to interview alumni as they come through for the various events taking place in the next several weeks, so I hope to be gathering valuable insight - and entertaining stories - about every era in the school's history.
