The Baltimore County principal who told faculty to teach their best lessons on the first day

At the start of every school year, Frederick “Fred” Cogswell told a roomful of Baltimore County teachers the same thing: Teach your best lesson the first day.

Pat McCusker was a young math teacher at Owings Mills High School when he first heard the principal’s speech in the early 1990s. He remembers a colleague questioning the advice: If I do my best lesson right away, won’t it all be downhill from there?

But that wasn’t the point. Did students, still bleary-eyed and dreaming of summer vacation, really need to spend all day going over a syllabus and playing icebreaker games? Was that the first impression teachers should give?

“Fred’s idea was: You get in there and you teach,” McCusker said. “You have to get in there and set the tone for the year, so you can make the most of the year.”

Teachers took note. Then, as they progressed in their careers, they passed the advice on to others. After McCusker became a principal, he included the lesson in every one of his start-of-year slideshows.

It’s just one example of how, three decades after Cogswell worked for Baltimore County Public Schools, his impact remains, former colleagues said. Cogswell died April 25 of heart failure. He was 83.

He was born in Washington, D.C., to Dorothy and Frederick Cogswell, and grew up with two siblings, Sandra and Donald, in the suburbs. He graduated from Bladensburg High School in Prince George’s County and then from Towson State Teachers College in 1964.

Baltimore County became home. He married Barbara Sanalitro and welcomed two daughters, Julie and Kim, in 1968 and 1969. The family lived in Reisterstown and Hampstead before the couple divorced.

He started his 32-year career with the school district as a social studies teacher, rising to department chair, assistant principal and principal. He earned a master’s degree in educational leadership and administration from Loyola University Maryland in 1970.

His career included stops at Old Court and Deer Park junior high schools and Franklin High School, where he met his wife of 43 years, Evelyn. He was principal at Owings Mills, Kenwood and Lansdowne high schools.

Michael “Mike” Linkins met Cogswell as a first-year social studies teacher at Old Court Junior High in 1972. Cogswell’s reputation as a diligent, relationship-building educator preceded him, and Linkins “gravitated to him and his expertise.”

“He wanted the kids to get the most out of education,” Linkins said. “I know that he wanted kids to challenge themselves with the most rigorous coursework.”

Cogswell also held himself to high standards. He was a teacher at his core, even when holding higher positions, Linkins said. When he observed classes or evaluated teachers’ lesson plans, he’d take vigorous notes and explain in detail what worked and what didn’t.

“He had a very good understanding of what an effective lesson not only looked like, but the power of an effective lesson,” Linkins said.

Their professional relationship turned personal after Linkins and his wife babysat Cogswell’s daughters one day. Linkins figured it would be an evening of games and TV, but Cogswell had a lesson plan in mind. They worked on reading with Julie and naming colors with Kim. The sisters say their father always supported them and their success.

After all, Cogswell was a serious educator — sometimes too serious for even himself. He was bothered when he heard one year that students at Kenwood High thought him absolutely humorless.

So during a fall pep rally, the principal who normally dressed in a crisp white shirt and tie wore a gaudy bluebird mascot uniform and ran around the auditorium handing out high-fives. The students didn’t know it was Cogswell until he took the head off the costume. They went wild.

“He needed to find a way to connect with the students, and so he found a way,” Linkins said.

Cogswell retired from Baltimore County schools in 1996 but never really stopped working. He moved to Bellevue, Washington, where he was again a high school principal and, later, supervisor of a program for students learning English. When he returned to Maryland in 2012, he worked for the College Board and was a master’s-level professor at Towson University.

In Washington, he met Sergio DeSantiago while observing a history class. Cogswell asked the then-high school junior about his career aspirations. He wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. Touched, Cogswell made it his mission to get him there, helping DeSantiago secure an internship at a nearby elementary school attended by children of immigrants like himself.

Cogswell also helped him with the daunting task of getting into college. He bought him a laptop, set up meetings with guidance counselors and started a scholarship fund. He celebrated when DeSantiago was accepted to Central Washington University and then took him to orientation.

“If it wasn’t because of him, I don’t think I would have gotten this far,” said DeSantiago, now a kindergarten teacher in Washington.

Beyond education, the biggest parts of Cogswell’s life were family, travel and faith. He loved camping with loved ones, especially at national parks, and adventured through four continents with his wife.

His grandson, Justin Holden, described him as a commanding presence who didn’t need to raise his voice to capture a crowd, especially when leading the family in prayer. He was a man of deep faith who volunteered as a deacon and caregiver.

“Pappy” or “Pappy Fred” always had something valuable to add to a conversation, Holden said. In recent years, they started a small family book club. Even when they disagreed on a book review, Holden respected his grandfather’s arguments.

“Every conversation with him had the potential to leave me with a bit of knowledge or wisdom that I didn’t have before,” Holden said. “Fred was too intelligent to ever dismiss what he was saying.”

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