Superintendent of schools at Portsmouth and Middletown, Rhode Island, Roland Henry Chatterton, though still relatively young, has risen to a position of importance among the educators of this State. He was born on August 12, 1901, in Providence, Rhode Island, a son of William Henry and Katherine Etta (Thompson) Chatterton. His father was a mechanical engineer by occupation.
Roland Henry Chatterton attended Providence public schools and, having early determined upon an educational career, later enrolled at Rhode Island State College, where he took the Bachelor of Science degree; Boston University, from which he was graduated with the Master of Arts degree, and Yale University Graduate School of Education. He began the work of his profession as an elementary school teacher at Scituate, Rhode Island, where he remained from 1920 to 1921. After some years of further study, he next became a teacher in the high school at Meriden, Connecticut, in 1925, and in the following year, supervising principal of elementary and junior high schools at Jamestown, Rhode Island. In 1927 he was appointed to his present position as superintendent of schools at Portsmouth and Middletown, Rhode Island. This office he has filled with the greatest success, initiating many progressive reforms of great value to the schools of these towns.
Among the various educational organizations, Mr. Chatterton is a member of the National Education Association, department of superintendents; the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction, of which he has been a vice-president since 1928, and the New England Association of Public School Officials. He is also a member of the Henry Barnard Club, while fraternally he is affiliated with Mount Vernon Lodge, No. 4, of the Free and Accepted Masons, at Providence; the Beta Phi Fraternity at Rhode Island State College, Kingston, Rhode Island; and Aquidneck Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, at Middletown, Rhode Island. Mr. Chatterton is unmarried. He maintains his residence at Middletown and worships in the faith of the Episcopal Church.