1925 Biography - John R. Conniff

John Robinson Conniff is bringing to bear all of loyalty and resourcefulness in the administration that devolves upon him as chairman of the division of certification and teacher- training of the Louisiana State Department of Education, and prior to entering upon this important official duty in the capital city, Baton Rouge, he had made a record of splendid service in the public school system of New Orleans.

Mr. Conniff was born in the city of New Orleans,. on the 20th of January, 1874, and is a son of John H. and Orleana (Robinson) Conniff, both likewise natives of the fair old Crescent City, New Orleans, where the former was born in 1851, and the latter in 1832, both having passed their entire lives in their native city. John H. Conniff was president of the Crescent News & Hotel Company and had other large and important business interests. In the earlier part of his active career he had charge of Bidwell's St. Charles Theatre, the Academy of Music and the Grand Opera House, leading places of entertainment in New Orleans. He was a democrat in political adherency, was a Knight Templar Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He was one of the organizers and charter members of the New Orleans Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and was affiliated also with the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of Honor. He was one of the best known and unequivocally popular citizens of New Orleans at the time of his death, 1909, and there his widow passed away in the year 1916. They are survived by five children, of whom John R., of this review, is the eldest; George Leonard is associated with the insurance agency of Augustus Free-land in New Orleans; Henrietta Elizabeth is the wife of Edward S. Lanphier, superintendent of the Southern lighthouse district of the United States, and they reside at New Orleans; Robert Burke holds a position with the Thiberge Printing Company of New Orleans; and Hazel Eva is the wife of Samuel S. Grosjean, D. D. S., who is engaged in the practice of his profession in New Orleans.

The public schools of his native city afforded John Robinson Conniff his early education, anti after his graduation from the high school of Tulane University, in 1890, he was matriculated in Tulane University, in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1894 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He thereafter devoted one year to the study of law by attending the law departments of Tulane University and the University of Virginia. At Tulane he became affiliated with the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. From 1895 to 1900 Mr. Conniff was a teacher of Latin and English in the Boys' High School of New Orleans, and he was then advanced to the position of assistant superintendent of the public schools of that city. His service in this capacity continued until 1910, and during the last two years he was acting superintendent. Mr. Conniff resigned this position in 1910 and has since continued his effective service as chairman of the division of certification and teacher-training in the Louisiana State Department of Education, with official headquarters at Baton Rouge. In period of consecutive service with the State Department of Education he now outranks all other executives except the state superintendent of education. His offices are maintained on the sixth floor of the New Reymond Building, on Third Street.

Mr. Conniff has always been a strong advocate of physical training, in his college days he organized and was president of the first Tulane Baseball League, and in his early manhood, in 1898, he was president of the Southern Athletic Club of New Orleans, then the leading athletic club of that city. In 1905 he was one of the leading spirits in the creation of the Public School Athletic League of New Orleans, for the benefit of the public school children, and has been its secretary since its organization. He has ever displayed a keen interest in the stage, and has participated in theatrical performances in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and assisted in the organization and maintenance of the Little Theatre Guild of the latter city.

The principles of the democratic party receive the unqualified support of Mr. Conniff. He is a member of the National Education Association and the Louisiana State Teachers' Association, and he finds a medium of attractive recreation and social intercourse through his affiliation with the Baton Rouge Golf and Country Club. Since establishing his residence in the capital city Mr. Conniff has purchased the attractive home place which he and his family occupy on Jefferson highway, at Drehr Place.

November 29, 1905, recorded the marriage of Mr. Conniff and Miss Bertha Drott, who likewise was born and reared in New Orleans, and who there attended the H. Sophie Newcomb College. At the time of this writing, in 1924, she is pursuing at the Louisiana State University a course of study leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. John Robinson, Jr., the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Conniff, was born in the year 1906 and is now attending the Sewanee Military Academy, Sewanee, Tennessee.

Patrick Conniff, grandfather of him to whom this record is dedicated, passed his entire life in New Orleans, where he owned and operated a general painting establishment. The original American representatives of the Conniff family came from County Roscommon, Ireland, and settled in Kentucky, shortly after the close of the Revolutionary war.

The maternal ancestry of Mr. Conniff traces back to staunch English origin, and the first American representatives of this Robinson family settled in Delaware in the Colonial period of our national history. James Robinson, maternal grandfather of John R. Conniff, was born at Seaford, Delaware, and was a young man when he established his residence in New Orleans, where he became prominently identified with traffic affairs on the Mississippi River as captain of steamboats plying between New Orleans and Texas ports. His wife, whose maiden name was Ann Bolan, was born in Kentucky and passed the closing years of her life in New Orleans. Her twin brother, the late John Bolan, was the founder and executive head of the celebrated Bolan Detective Agency in the city of New York.

In the year 1923 John R. Conniff received from the Louisiana State University the degree of Master of Arts. He has made a specially close study of English dramatic literature, and has covered the full gamut of dramatic discourse from the period of the initial dramatic troupes to the closing of the theaters in 1642. It was on the basis of his admirable thesis covering this period that he received his degree of Master of Arts, as noted in the opening sentence of this paragraph. During the year 1910 he was president of the New Orleans Educational Association, and he served one year also as vice-president of the Louisiana State Teachers' Association. He is an enthusiast in educational work, and is the loyal apostle of liberal and progressive policies in the development of the general system of education in his native state.

Note: The referenced source includes an autographed portrait of the subject.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 53-54.