American educator and historian John Henry Haaren was born on August 13, 1855, in New York City, and passed away on September 23, 1916, in Brooklyn, New York. His mother was Irish and English, and his father was German. Before beginning his career as a teacher in New York, he studied under Prof. N. M. Butler at Columbia University from 1889 to 1891. He started classes to teach English to foreigners and increased the number and effectiveness of kindergartens when he was appointed Associate Superintendent of Schools in New York in 1907. He oversaw the Brooklyn Institute's pedagogy department as its president. In his honor, Manhattan's 10th Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets was given the name Haaren High School. On the grounds of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the building that was once DeWitt Clinton High School and was designed by Charles B. J. Snyder is now called Haaren Hall.