Both Edwin B. Brooks ’32 and Rodham W. Kenner ’32 were seniors and at the top of their class in the fall of 1931 when the pie-in-the-face incident occurred at Cutler Hall (now Ellsworth Hall). Both were from Akron and each had a father who was an executive at a rubber company. Brooks and Kenner remained good friends the rest of their lives.
The pie-throwing incident, witnessed by faculty master Chandler Jones and Headmaster Joel B. Hayden, resulted in the suspension of both boys for a few days. Ed Brooks’ father, who was not given to much levity, wrote the following verse about the incident which Ed said he found astonishing that his father would add this comical note to his misdeed.
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| Chandler Jones, Faculty Master |
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| Joel B. Hayden, Headmaster |
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| Faculty & Staff Handbook, 1932-1933 |
CUTLER HALL DINNER ENTERTAINMENT
Fall, 1931
Said Simple Kenner bet a tenner
I can throw a pie.
Said Simple Eddie when you’re ready
Throw it first at I.
So Simple Kenner bet his tenner
And threw his pie on high.
Simple Eddie wasn’t ready
And caught it in the eye.
Said Master Jones now shiver my bones
That surely gets my nanny
Said honest Joel upon my soul
I think we’d better can he.
Now students all within this hall
Pay heed unto my chatter.
A piece of pie must never fly
So keep it on your platter.
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| Edwin B. Brooks |
Both Ed Brooks and Rid Kenner graduated with the class of 1932. Brooks went on to Dartmouth College, and to serve as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, 1936-1940, and as a Lieutenant in the U. S. Navy Reserve, 1943-1946. He was later CEO of Columbian Carbon, and CEO of Cities Service, after which he retired to Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard. He and his wife Ruth were on their way to Paris in July, 1996, when TWA Flight 800 out of New York exploded and was lost over the waters of Long Island Sound. A memorial service attended by WRA Headmaster Skip Flanagan was held at the Edgartown Whaling Church later that month. Ed Brooks was 81. The trip was to celebrate Ruth’s 80th birthday in Paris.
Rod Kenner spent a year in Germany, 1932-1933 before enrolling at Yale
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| Rodham W. Kenner |
University, where he earned a B.A. and went on to Washington University in St. Louis to earn a law degree. While studying in Germany, he became the only WRA alumnus to witness in person Adolf Hitler at a giant rally in the fall of 1932. Kenner was a Lieutenant in the U. S. Army Air Force during World War II and served with the CIA in this country and abroad from 1946 until 1973. Kenner did not offer much detail about his work for the CIA but we know he was stationed in Dusseldorf, Germany in the mid-1950’s. He died in December, 1995 at age 81. When asked what was his “most vivid memory of WRA”, he replied, “Threw pie in Brooks’ face on bet. Won bet. Did time”. So the incident at Cutler Hall was not forgotten.
