Joseph Frederick Waring

Is your surname Waring?

Connect to 3,844 Waring profiles on Geni

Joseph Frederick Waring's Geni Profile

Share your family tree and photos with the people you know and love

  • Build your family tree online
  • Share photos and videos
  • Smart Matching™ technology
  • Free!

Joseph Frederick Waring

Birthdate:
Birthplace: Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, United States
Death: April 08, 1972 (69)
Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, United States
Place of Burial: 330 Bonaventure Road, Thunderbolt, Chatham County, Georgia, 31404, United States
Immediate Family:

Son of Pinckney Alston Waring and Lillie Horton Waring
Husband of Julianna Waring
Brother of Charles Ellis Waring and Pinckney Alston Waring

Managed by: Aaron Furtado Baldwin, UE9006698
Last Updated:

About Joseph Frederick Waring

Joseph Frederick Waring

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/40768387/joseph_frederick_waring

For more than 30 years, Mr. Waring was a demanding and inspiring teacher of both English and history. His humor was whimsical and erudite - often baffling for younger students. He was a stickler for accuracy and pushed critical thinking. Headmaster John W. Hallowell cited him for his "enthusiasm, his own love of what is good, his standards of taste and excellence." On campus J. Fred Waring was known for his "literary drawl," his pipes and his tweeds, and his extraordinary insight and desire to help students in need.

During World War II he served for a couple years with the American Field Service as an ambulance driver in North Africa and Syria and later taught for a year at the American University in Beirut. In 1953 he married WRA librarian, Julianna Fitch, who shared his love for books, art, history, and historic architecture.

In his later years Waring worked to organize materials related to the school's history and wrote two volumes: James W. Ellsworth and the Refounding of WRA (1961), and The Growing Years: WRA under Wood, Boothby, and Hayden (1972). He and Julianna retired to Savannah in 1967 where they lived in his ancestral home and were active in civic life. He was serving as president of the Georgia Historical Society at the time of his death in 1972. The Waring Prize was established that same year in his honor.

A few years ago I had a chance to visit Waring's grave at the historic Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah. His headstone reads, "His love of the past was equaled by his concern for the present and his faith in the future." Julianna Fitch Waring passed away in 1986.

In the summer of 1953 Judy Fitch married Reserve faculty master J. Fred Waring. In the early 1960s the couple spent considerable time visiting other independent schools and gathering information that was used in the planning of the library in Wilson Hall. Then in 1963 Judy presided over the move of the 14,600-volume library from its former location in the chapel to Wilson Hall, an event that inspired a similar student-assisted move to the John D. Ong Library in May 2000. By the time of her retirement in 1967, Judy managed a library with over 21,600 volumes.

In June 1967 the couple retired to Fred's hometown of Savannah, Georgia, where both were active in the Historic Savannah Foundation and the Georgia Historical Society. Julianna Fitch Waring passed away in 1986. A nephew, Jonathan W. Fitch, is a 1970 graduate of Reserve.

Remembering J. Fred Waring

The first recipient of the Waring Prize, WRA's highest alumni award, was selected 35 years ago when Richard H. Bliss '38, a teacher and headmaster, was honored by the school. Since the Waring Prize committee usually meets in the spring and makes its announcement in June, alumni and friends might like to know more about the award's namesake.

NOTE: Western Reserve Academy established the Waring Prize in 1972 to honor faculty master J. Frederick Waring, the prize is awarded to "an alumnus or alumna of Western Reserve Academy who, by his or her way of life and achievements, whether at the beginning, middle or near the end of his or her career, represents the human and individual values the Academy strives to foster, as well as the many graduates known or unknown who have similarly made their contribution to society."

J. Frederick Waring was born in Savannah in 1902, the third of three sons of a real estate broker. He attended "a couple of appalling little private schools" before being sent north to attend Governor Dummer Academy in Massachusetts. He followed other family members to Yale, majored in English, graduated in 1923, then attended Cambridge for advanced study. He remained in England to teach for a year at a "public" school, then returned home in 1926 to teach at the Salisbury School. Later, Waring earned a master's in history at the University of Wisconsin, then taught at a girls school in New Hope, Penn., until 1935 when he joined the WRA faculty.

view all

Joseph Frederick Waring's Timeline

1902
September 12, 1902
Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, United States
1972
April 8, 1972
Age 69
Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, United States
????
Bonaventure Cemetery, 330 Bonaventure Road, Thunderbolt, Chatham County, Georgia, 31404, United States