Known as "Daddy" Mason during his tenure as principal of the Keene Normal School (from which Keene State College evolved), 1911-1939. The following excerpts from Jim Smart's STRIVING: KEENE STATE COLLEGE 1909-1984 (Canaan, NH: Phoenix, 1984, pp. 46-8) give some idea of the character of the man:

"After Morrison, Mason was the man who was most responsible for Keene's reputation as an excellent normal school. He was the one who made his influence felt on nearly every single student during his long tenure of twenty-eight years."

"To the student he immediately became "Daddy" Mason. It was an honored tradition in those years to make one's principal into a legend of lovable eccentricity if he allowed the opportunity; and Mason afforded many opportunities."

"Mason was bright, well-educated, a self-made man for whom the promise of American life had come true. He was confident of himself, of his country,and of the steady march of progress. He was, like Morrison and John Dewey, one of the early group of educators who had a strong classical background, but who then devoted their lives to education and considered themselves professional educators."

"Mason was essentially a doer. He enjoyed the doing of education rather than thinking about it."