Students take the name for granted- it is proclaimed on walls, in murals, and every morning on W. O.R.D., But who was Frank Ashley Day, and why was a school named after him?

Frank Ashley Day was born in Newton, circa 1850. He was educated in the Newton schools and entered his family’s finance business, R. L. Day and Co. He became quite wealthy, and funded many civic projects, many of which were connected to education or to youth.

In 1909 Day paid for, and supported, the Industrial School for Boys, which later became part of what is now Newton North High School. He also bought the land that is now the Newton North High School athletic fields and held it until the City could buy it. He and his wife, Mary, donated Ellison Hall, an addition to the nurses’ home at Newton Wellesley Hospital.

The thing he did which affects Day students most directly is that he gave a generous contribution to the construction of the original Day Junior High School (now the education center at 100 Walnut Street). Says 88-year (lifelong) Newton resident and former Alderman Eugene Cronin; "It was named after him because he paid for a good deal of its construction.” When architectural firm Korslund, leNormand and Quann of Needham put up the current structure in 1972, no need was seen to change the name.

Frank A. Day died in 1914 on vacation in Saint Augustine, Florida. And, as written in the book TERCENTENIAL HISTORY OF NEWTON, "...perhaps the loss of no one on Newton was felt so greatly as that of Frank Ashley Day...a loyal citizen, personally holding part of the Claflin Estate (The NNHS athletic fields) until the City could assume that responsibility...his death in 1914 seemed an irreparable loss.”