Los Angeles County
Biographies
IRENE
MACLEAN FRY
The
former head of the art department at Alhambra High School, Irene MacLean Fry
taught in the Alhambra school system for thirty-five years, and through her
travels developed a deep interest in the Orient and in Oriental art.
Irene
MacLean Fry, of Scotch ancestry, was born on May 25, 1896, in Alhambra in the
house which her father built for her mother at 24 North Olive; for many years
this house has been owned by the Burke family.
Mrs. Fry is the daughter of Archie Ferguson MacLean, who was born in
Canada in 1864, and passed on in 1903, and Dorothy Louise (Jeter) MacLean, 1868
– 1945, of Missouri. As a farmer and
rancher Mr. MacLean worked the Temple Hills; due to a severe drought which made
farming virtually impossible, Mr. MacLean left farming and became a motorman
and an instructor for Pacific Electric—he was a motorman on the run from Los
Angeles to the San Gabriel Mission. He
lost his life in 1903 in an accident caused when he was coupling two cars
together and the apprentice motorman failed to shut off one electrical header,
causing the hand coupler to slip, catching Mr. MacLean between the hips
crushing him. He lived but a few
hours. The motorman was so upset by Mr.
MacLean’s death that he began working on an idea for an automatic coupling; the
basic principle upon which he developed his invention is still in use. Mrs. Fry’s mother lived in the house on Olive
in Alhambra until just a few years before her death. One sister, Mrs. E. L. (Archie Jeter MacLean)
Owen, lives in San Gabriel. An uncle,
Alex MacLean, built Diamond Castle at the corner of Atlantic and Grand in the
early 1900’s; it was a landmark in Alhambra until the middle 1930’s, when it
was demolished. Both sides of Mrs. Fry’s
family were pioneers. Her father’s
father put through the railroad from Ontario, Canada, to Indiana. When he died his sons completed the railroad
to Emporia, Kansas. Mrs. Fry’s
grandmother’s people also worked on the railroad project, building
bridges. Her mother’s father left
Kentucky at the close of the Civil War, leaving his plantation to the slaves,
and settled in Kansas.
Receiving
her elementary education at Garfield and Marengo schools in Alhambra, Mrs. Fry
is a graduate of Alhambra High School.
She attended Los Angeles State Normal School for two years; the name was
then changed to the University of California at Los Angeles and Mrs. Fry
continued her studies for another two years until 1921, graduating with five
teaching credentials, including a general and a fine arts credential. She took an active part in the field of
drama, designing costumes and sets for plays as well as acting. From 1936 to 1938 she earned her Bachelor of
Arts degree at the University of Southern California.
Her
very first teaching was done in a room of the old adobe called Ramona’s
home. In the summer little Mexican
children were given instruction before entering school, and Mrs. Fry taught
English and art. During recess the
children played “El pero y gato,”
a game like tag, around the old grapevine.
While Mrs. Fry was art supervisor at Vernon and Santa Fe Elementary
schools in Los Angeles County in 1919, her superintendent was A. C. Wheat who
became Alhambra’s first superintendent.
Mrs. Fry also taught at the Maude Thomas School for Girls in Los Angeles
for three years, and then became head of the art department at Union High
School in Anaheim from 1921 until 1924.
With this experience she came to Alhambra High School and taught art and
stage crafts, remaining at that school until her retirement in 1959, except for
a one year leave of absence in 1930-1931 for a tour around the world on the
“Floating University” where she took classes in literature and history, and a
semester’s leave in 1958. Mrs. Fry
became head of the art department at Alhambra High School in the late thirties;
she taught many students who have become important in the world of art. Many of her students subsequently worked for
Walt Disney; one of her former students is John Milton Morris, a cartoonist for
the Alhambra Post Advocate. Mrs. Fry
sponsored the Oriental or Yuai Club at Alhambra High
School for Japanese girls who were trying to learn American ways, and also
organized a progressive art club for students just out of high school.
After
her retirement Mrs. Fry sponsored a Japanese girl, Miss Hisako Yasui of Matsuyama, who had been Mrs. Fry’s interpreter in
Japan, and who studied at Glendale College from 1959 to 1961 while living with
Mrs. Fry. Miss Yasui
is now in the passport department of the Office of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo.
On
June 27, 1942, the former Miss Irene MacLean was married to Gary Forrest Fry in
Las Vegas, Nevada. He was associated
with Lockheed Aircraft as lead man on final assembly of bombers and P-38’s, and
later worked for Alhambra city shops for ten years. Mr. Fry passed away on August 10, 1957.
Mrs.
Fry is a life member of the Alhambra Soroptimist Club, a past president of that
organization in 1938-1939, and was its first chairman of international
relations. She was also a member of the
Southern California Art Teachers’ Association in which she has held office, as
well as a member of the Pacific Arts Association and formerly on its board of
directors. Mrs. Fry is a past member of the
Alhambra Business and Professional Women’s Club and the American Association of
University Women, Pasadena Chapter.
Presently
living in La Crescenta, Mrs. Fry is an active worker
in the Republican Party and a member of the La Crescenta
Republican Club. She is also a member of
the Los Angeles Flora Study Club.
Mrs.
Fry is a seasoned world traveler who has taken a special interest in the
Orient. Having visited the Far East on
her world tour in 1930-1931, she returned in 1933 for a more concentrated tour
of Japan and China; in 1958 she studied art for several months in Japan.
Irene
MacLean Fry has exhibited her watercolor paintings in Alhambra, Pasadena, and
Glendale. Interested in all phases of
painting, Mrs. Fry made a particular study of sumi-e
o, the Japanese brush technique, as well as their sand painting and textile
painting. Her first art teacher, and one
who gave her much encouragement, was Jacob Koch, Alhambra’s first artist.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Historical Volume & Reference
Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple
City, by Robert P. Studer, Pages 465-467,
Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California.
1962.
© 2013 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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BIOGRAPHIES