As summer approached an end a century ago in mid-August 1925, schools were reopening across Berkeley. The city’s public schools saw 11,564 enrollments, up more than 200 from the previous year. Elementary schools showed a slight decline, while high school enrollment increased by 134 to 2,185 full-time students.

Local divinity schools were also all reopening, including the Pacific School of Religion (which was then already nearly 60 years old), the Berkeley Baptist Divinity School and the Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry. Students arrived Aug. 15, 1925, on UC Berkeley’s campus and lined up at Harmon Gymnasium and California Hall to complete their registration process.

One new UC student, the Berkeley Daily Gazette reported, was “Berkeley’s boy prodigy, Matthew Marsh, age 14, of 18

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