Pier states that Dr. Drury’s work as Rector had three main areas of emphasis: first, the building of character and the improvement of discipline; second, the stimulation of scholarship and of intellectual interests; and third, the enlargement and betterment of the material and physical resources of the School.

Drury sometimes described the Chapel as the true power plant of St. Paul’s. He felt that there he had the best opportunity to mold the character of his boys. Dr. Drury was a gifted preacher who sought to lead each boy into a truly reverent life of faith. At the same time, he liberalized the observance of Sunday, giving the boys freedom for play and recreation on Sunday afternoons that they had never before enjoyed. While giving the boys more freedom, he also tried in every way to promote in each boy a sense of individual responsibility. As a result, discipline at the school was vastly improved during his administration.

Dr. Drury was also very concerned with the improvement of scholarship within the School, and he insisted that high scholarship was a mark of high character. In his last annual report to the Trustees he wrote: “The best way to help boys produce character is to make them work harder than they ever dreamed they could work.” He found means of drawing a greater number of scholarship boys to the school – boys of high promise, whose parents could not afford to pay the full tuition fee. He showed keen perception in his selection of masters; he picked men who had the gift of humanizing their teaching and making it interesting. He urged and carried through changes in the curriculum which made it less rigid and which enabled students of distinction to advance more rapidly than had been possible before. He also encouraged the manual arts, painting, music, and public speaking.

He was also concerned with the physical resources and the living conditions at the school. He recognized the importance of increasing the salaries of masters and furnishing them with comfortable and dignified quarters, and also seeing to the comfort and well-being of the boys. He took measures to preserve the natural beauties of the environment of the school and to improve the appearance of its grounds.

As Pier states: “It may be said that in every way St. Paul’s School prospered under Dr. Drury’s administration…He saw goals to aim at and he worked persistently to attain them. By his foresight and individual utterances he awakened interest and inspired confidence in parents and alumni; by his sympathy he won the affection of the boys. Under his administration the school grew in size from 330 boys to 445 boys; and the school of 445 boys is a better school than was that of 330. That fact epitomizes his achievement for St. Paul’s.”