Emanuel Benjamin Oliver was born on May 29, 1876, in Monserrat. He moved to St. Croix around 1897 to teach at Reverend Paul’s School, a private school. On St. Croix he served for many years as a teacher, and later as a principal at the St. Croix Dane School, and the Frederiksted School. In 1919 he got married to Maud, and they moved to St. Thomas. He worked as a public-school teacher on St. Thomas. In 1927 he was appointed principal of the Abraham Lincoln School (later called J. Antonio Jarvis School). He initiated a night school, teacher training program. He taught at the night school. When Mr. Oliver retired from public service in 1942, he started the Goodwill School, a private school for grades 1-9. He taught at and ran the private school until his death. He died on January 31, 1948. He was honored in February 1948 by the Municipal Council of St. Thomas and St. John in recognition of his dedicated services. In 1975 an elementary school in Tutu, St. Thomas was named in his honor. The E. Benjamin Oliver School ranked top among best designed schools in the nation at that time. The school has been closed since 2017. (Sources: “Profiles of Outstanding Virgin Islanders”, Project Introspection, 1972 and “Brief Historical Notes on Schools of the Virgin Islands”, Project Introspection, 1982)
Teach VI History has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: CARES Act Emergency Relief Grants for Humanities, through the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands (CFVI).
