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MICHAEL CANNINGHenry W. Brewster Technical and Career Center
You can take the boy out of the farm - even a scholarly boy who becomes a professional educator and retires to Florida - but you can't take the farm out of the boy.
Such was the case with Henry Webb Brewster, a Wisconsinite who became principal of University of Minnesota's School of Agriculture.
Brewster was born on his family's farm near New Lisbon, Wis., in 1853. By his late teens, he was teaching grade school to help pay for his college education, which he received at the State Normal School in Whitewater, Wis. He graduated from the elementary course in 1875, and returned to teaching grade school in Wisconsin and Minnesota for 10 years.
In 1885, Brewster enrolled at the University of Minnesota and graduated from the classical program in 1887. He taught high school in Little Falls, Minn., for a year before being named assistant principal at the university's newly formed State School of Agriculture. Five years later, he became principal.
During that tenure he also served as a professor of mathematics and stayed up to date with the agricultural industry. He and his wife, Florence, lived in the university dorms, keeping close ties to his students. Mrs. Brewster was a popular matron to the students and served as the agriculture school's librarian.
The Brewsters' various contributions to university life eventually took a toll on their health. They retired in 1900 and moved to Tampa. When Henry Brewster died in 1923, Florence donated their property at 2222 N Tampa St. for the establishment of a vocational school.
The Henry Brewster Vocational School opened in 1925 with the help of federal funds provided by the Smith-Hughes Act. After a major rehabilitation in 1989, it became known as the Henry W. Brewster Technical and Career Center.
Source: University of Minnesota, Brewster Technical and Career Center, Hillsborough County School District