It has been written about him that, "He typed notes of their conversations; he learned how to make them forget there was an adult around; never asked them questions and never showed surprise no matter what they did or said.
[3] Essayist Gabriel Gudding credits those books with "[lighting] a fuse" under the teaching of creative writing, influencing a generation of scholars.
[4] He also served for a time (starting in 1920) as head of the Lincoln School Teachers College at Columbia University.
[5] Mearns is credited with the well-known rhyme, composed in 1899 as a song for a play he had written, called The Psyco-ed.
On 22 December 1904 he married Mabel Gledhill Fagley at St Mark's Church, Phildalphia.