Snowflake High School Educator Silas L. Fish
Snowflake High School Educator Silas L. Fish
Namesake for Fish Hall
As Snowflake High continued to grow in enrollment, more space was needed. During the depression, the school applied for different aid projects and obtained two grants. One came from the Work Progress Administration to quarry the rock, and another from the Public Works Administration to build an additional building at the high school. The building was completed in 1938. It was subsequently renamed Fish Hall or Fish Building in 1946, after longtime high school principal, Silas L Fish, retired. Who was Silas L Fish?
Silas Fish was born on January 17, 1880, to Joseph Fish and Adelaide Margaret Smith, less than two years after Snowflake was founded. The young family had only arrived the year previous to their new community before Silas was born. Joseph Fish became a well-known historian, politician, and judge in Arizona.
Save for a short period of time in Woodruff and Pinedale, Silas Fish spent his youth in Snowflake. He attended elementary school in Snowflake and graduated with his 8th grade diploma in 1898 at the age of 18. During this time in Snowflake, it was difficult to hire and retain qualified teachers. It took more time than normal for Fish to obtain his primary education.
The same year of Silas’s graduation, Snowflake Stake Academy hired Joseph Peterson to oversee the school. Peterson inspired Fish to continue with his education. In 1899, another educator, Allen Frost, held a specialty class for those looking to get their teaching certificate. Fish was further interested to take the course because the young woman he liked, Maggie Miller, was going to be in the class too. Fish took the class and began his teaching career. Fish first taught in Alpine, Arizona for one school year. Fish, however, wanted to get his high school diploma and a college degree.
In the fall of 1900, Fish went to Provo, Utah to enroll to obtain his high school diploma and college degree. While there, he was called on a mission for his church. He spent the next 4 years in Samoa as a Mormon missionary. Upon his return from his mission, Fish noted that he had turned 25 years old and did not have a high school diploma. He was resolved to not give up.
Fish wanted to continue his education but he also wanted to get married to Maggie Miller. With Maggie’s willingness to support Fish while in school, they got married and he enrolled at the Northern Arizona Normal School (now known as Northern Arizona University). They moved to Flagstaff and Fish was finally able to continue his education. While there, he was the oldest student and would get odd jobs to make ends meet. Maggie was soon pregnant but unfortunately died in child birth. Fish was stunned at her death. To occupy his grief, he pursued his education with more zeal. He attended year-round, going to winter and summer school, and graduated with his high school diploma in August 1908. He quickly accepted a job as the 5th and 6th grade teacher in Snowflake for the 1908-09 school year.
From 1909 to 1914, Fish was the principal of the elementary school in Snowflake and taught the 7th and 8th grade classes. In November 1909, he was called as the Bishop of the Snowflake Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During the summer of 1910, he enrolled for a summer course at the University of Utah to help with his principal responsibilities. While there, he ran into a pupil he had in Alpine a decade earlier who was also taking the course. Pearl Noble was 17 and Silas, 19 when he had been her teacher in Alpine. When he met Pearl during that summer course in Utah, Pearl was teaching at the Saint John’s Arizona Stake Academy. Now, a widower and ten years later, the two were reacquainted and a courtship and marriage happened that summer before the two returned to Arizona.
In 1914, he became an instructor at the Snowflake Stake Academy. In 1916, Fish wanted to get his college degree. He was released from his calling as Bishop and went to Brigham Young University to obtain his degree. He graduated with his bachelor’s degree on June 1, 1917.
He taught a year at the Snowflake Elementary School for the 1918-19 school year. He then became the principal of the Snowflake Stake Academy in 1919. Fish was offered this position previously, but he insisted on getting his master’s degree before accepting it. Although he still didn’t have his master’s degree, this time when the position was offered, Fish accepted it. When the school transitioned from a private religious school into a public high school in 1924, he was retained as the principal. Fish was the principal for the high school for 27 years. He continued his education by attending the University of California Berkley during summer semesters while continuing his duties as principal each school year. He spent 7 of the next 11 summers attending school in California before obtaining his master’s degree. He graduated from Cal Berkley in December 1931.
During the depression, wages were cut at the high school. Fish was instrumental in getting the aid to build the additional building at the high school. The new edifice was completed in 1938. Fish’s second wife, Pearl, passed away with cancer that same year, leaving Fish a widower twice over. Fish retired in 1946 and moved to Phoenix. After Fish left the high school, the building was renamed Fish Hall or Fish Building and has kept that name.
Fish touched the lives of many students that were educated at Snowflake High School. He left more than just the name of a building; he left a legacy of lifelong learning.
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