Early Life
Gertrude Gittle Crockett was born on June 28, 1904 in Stonington, a small seaport town on Deer Isle, Maine. Her parents Philip and Celia (Segal) Crockett were Jewish immigrants and native Yiddish speakers from the Vilna Governorate, the same part of the Russian Empire from which the family of Harry A. B. Shapiro immigrated. Philip provided the family income through the operation of a small clothing store in Stonington. The business was a “Dealer in Dry Goods, Men’s and Boy’s Clothing, Hats, Caps, Lady’s Cloaks, Suits and Furs, Boots, Shoes and Rubbers.” Gertrude spent significant time around the business and cited early exposure to it as one factor in developing a “business head.” Gertrude attended school locally and graduated from Stonington High School in 1922.
In the early 1920s the Crockett family moved to the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts to facilitate an Orthodox Jewish education for Gertrude’s brothers Charles and Maurice. While living in Roxbury, Gertrude attended Boston University for the 1922-23 school year, likely in the College of Practical Arts and Letters, where she learned bookkeeping skills. Later she would work at the R. H. White Department Store.
Gertrude was planning to attend the Simmons College School of Retailing, but in the spring of 1932 she met Harry Shapiro. He was a Certified Public Accountant who lived and worked in Manchester, New Hampshire and had family ties to the Boston area. After a three month romance, they decided to get married. They had originally planned on marrying in August, but settled on a June date as Gertrude’s mother was moving back to Maine. They were married on June 16th at the Temple Kehillath Israel in Brookline, Massachusetts. In 1934 they had a son, Edward, and in 1939 a daughter Ann.
In addition to his accounting practice, in 1932 Harry A. B. Shapiro also co-founded the New Hampshire Accounting and Secretarial School which opened shortly after Harry and Gertrude were married. Initially, Gertrude’s activities focused on making a home for Edward and Ann. She did not have a formal position at the school, though she was familiarized with its operation through assisting her husband.