Frank Stephen Root, retired superintendent of the Fayetteville Public School District, died Oct. 28, 1958, at Fayetteville.
He was born at Webster City, Iowa, on June 28, 1868, to Martin Luther and Barbara Elizabeth (Adams) Root. He was living in Fayetteville by 1895 and married Blanche Mooring in 1898 at Fayetteville.
During his tenure as superintendent from 1904 to 1942, Root oversaw construction of the first Fayetteville High School on School Street and the growth of the district from four school buildings — Henderson School, the first Jefferson School, the first Leverett School and the first Washington School — to double that size.
Part of the growth occurred when the state began forcing small, often one-or two-room school districts to consolidate with larger districts. Root worked successfully with four of these small districts to bring their students into the Fayetteville District.
He also oversaw acquisition and reconstruction of a basketball auditorium at the high school and collaborated with the city and Parent Teacher Association to establish Harmon Playfield.
The establishment of Fayetteville’s Parent Teacher Association itself, the first in Arkansas, was among his many projects.
He was active in the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, the Community Chest drive, the Library Board, the Washington County Fair Association, the Lions Club and the Knights of Pythias.
To honor him, the School Board named the high school auditorium building after him in 1942 upon his retirement. And in 1955, when a new elementary school was built on the northeast side of town, it was named F.S. Root Elementary.
He died of heart disease in 1958 and was buried at Fairview Memorial Cemetery.
Read More
- “Forty Years in Fayetteville School Work Record of City Superintendent F.S. Root,” Northwest Arkansas Times, Sept. 1, 1943, p19.
- Root Auditorium, FayettevilleHistory.com.