Libertus Van Bokkelen

Libertus Van Bokkelen (July 22, 1815 – November 1, 1889) was a reverend in the Protestant Episcopal Church and the first Superintendent of the Maryland State Department of Education.

Early life He was born on July 22, 1815 in New York City. He was the second oldest in a family of thirteen children. His paternal grandfather emigrated to the United States from Holland in 1796, having ben exiled from the French government for his support for the House of Orange-Nassau.

From nine years old, he received his education at various boarding schools, including the Union Academy in Long Island and the Flushing Institute in Flushing, Queens, where he was taught by Reverend William Augustus Muhlenberg. which became one of the best private schools in the South, with distinguished alumni such as John Wilkes Booth, four Civil War generals, and Bishop John Henry Ducachet Wingfield. It was the first theological military academy in the country. Van Bokkelen baptized John Wilkes Booth at the school.

Van Bokkelen was known by some students at the school as "Mr. Pan" for his flute playing ability, although John Wilkes Booth, who also played the flute, only referred to him as "Van." He was a strict disciplinarian, publishing a list of 99 rules that included prohibitions on drinking, smoking, firearms, playing cards, and swearing.

He was the School Commissioner for the First District of Baltimore County Public Schools from 1859 to 1965 In speaking after the Civil War, he stated, "Thank god I have lived to see slavery abolished, and America the home of the free!" and accepted a position at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Major General Lew Wallace proclaimed that no services would be held at St. Timothy's Church again except by a "successor of undoubted loyalty." The school was dedicated in 1973.

He received honorary degrees of Doctor of Laws from Lafayette College and Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania.

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