Samuel Monroe Graves  Samuel Monroe Graves (September 11, 1878 – December 20, 1943) was an American educator who was the central figure in a widely reported, late 1930s effort to oust him as Superintendent of the Wellesley (Massachusetts) Public Schools. Monroe Graves (frequently misspelled as "Munroe" in contemporary newspapers) was born in Redfield, New York, the son of William Graves (1821-1900) and Frances Maria Freeman Graves (1839-1909). He attended Colgate University, graduating in 1902. He accepted a missionary teaching position in a remote area of the Philippines, which recently had become a colony of the United States following the Spanish–American War. He soon was appointed Superintendent of the Philippines school district in which he had been teaching. Returning to the United States, he received a master's degree and then a doctorate from Harvard University in 1913. In 1914, he was appointed Superintendent of Schools of the Town of Wellesley, and also began teaching part-time at Wellesley College. Graves served for 22 years. During this time, he also served as president of the Massachusetts Schoolmasters Association, the Massachusetts Superintendents Association, and the Norfolk County Teachers Association. Graves married the former Wilhelmina "Minnie" Landau (January 8, 1886 – October 2, 1978), an accomplished pianist. They had two daughters, Rose Christine (1914-2010) and Margaret Helen (1924-2015), and four sons, Samuel Monroe Jr. (1915-1957), William Gerhart (1917-1965), Freeman Pierce (1920-2008), and Francis "Frank" Malcolm (1927-2001). In early July 1935, the School Committee asked Dr. Graves for his resignation, a request that was made several times. He refused. Following an uncontested February 1936 Town Election, the School Committee informed Dr. Graves they planned to hold a hearing on April 7, with the objective to oust the 22-year superintendent, to be effective on July 31. The narrow legal controversy centered around whether the Committee could remove him as superintendent without cause. The School Committee filed thirteen "secret" charges against Dr. Graves, the nature of which were kept from the public until after the School Committee voted to remove him from office. Most of the charges were vague, though one accused him of a "failure ... to create and maintain the school system as one continuous whole, rather than as three separate units, viz: Elementary schools, junior high school, and senior high school."