North Tonawanda High School

The North Tonawanda High School building on Payne Avenue in the 1930's









Excerpts from the 1935 NORTH STAR Yearbook:


FOREWORD

For three hundred years the American High School has been moulding the lives of the many who have entered its portals. Because the Tercentenary of its founding is being celebrated throughout the country during 1935, the Annual Staff thought this a fitting year to recognize the constructive influence of the high school in the community. Accordingly, in this, the seventh volume of the NORTH STAR, the staff has endeavored to present the high school as the “Master Builder” by showing how it builds for intelligence, health, sportsmanship, responsibility, and leadership. In laying this firm foundation for a well-rounded life, the High School has been following the ideal so well expressed in Edwin Markham’s poem, “Man Making”:

“We are all blind until we see
That in the human plan
Nothing is worth making if
It does not make the man.

Why build these cities glorious
If man unbuilded goes?
In vain we build the world unless
The builder also grows.”

THROUGH THE YEARS

For over fifty years the Master Craftsmen of the North Tonawanda High School Faculty have been building firm foundations on which the apprentices might erect the pillars of their life’s work. The Faculty began operations in 1881; in 1884 there was graduated a class of seven, including Retta Leonard, Emma Langdon, James Scribner, Cornia Rising, Mary Fowler, Frances Taylor, and Carrie Mckeen. It is interesting to know that the latter four became teachers and James Scribner, a successful lumberman.

The registration increased rapidly, and in 1901, Felton School succeeded Goundry School as the site of the building of minds and bodies. In l926 the high school moved into its new building on Payne Avenue, its present location. The following chart shows the growth of the high school by ten year periods.

During its 54 years of service the North Tonawanda High School has had six principals: A. D. Filer, F. J. Beardsley, E. P. Smith, C. L. Moss, D. H. Wells, and George Lowry, the present principal.

When democracy beckoned for aid in 1917 and 1918, North Tonawanda High School gave liberally of her brave Sons, a total of one hundred forty-two offering their services. Of this gallant array, all but two returned, Donald Mundie and Walter Jones having paid the supreme sacrifice.

The High School can build a firm foundation for almost any vocation, and has produced numerous lawyers, physicians, business men, educators, and merchants.

GREETINGS

Prolonged planning precedes successful building. Before the first load of earth is excavated or the first stone laid, complete arrangements must be made, and the blue prints of the structure must show the details of the work. Our Board of Education spends much time and thought on the financing and the general management of the schools. Like the architect, the Superintendent is responsible for the detailed planning and supervision of the educational structure. We greet you High School students, and particularly Seniors. Your educational edifice is only started; it will continue being built through life. It is our hope that the portion for which our public schools are responsible has been substantially constructed and well planned for the superstructure, which life’s experiences will build.

Claude L. Moss




GREETINGS

The principal of this high school is happy to greet the students through the medium of this printed page. The faculty has attempted to carry out the plans of the “architects” for your educational edifice. We are the Master Craftsmen on the job. Time alone will render the true verdict as to how well we have wrought. We recognize the fact that many materials enter the construction of your temple of learning. To put each material in its proper niche has been our task, but it has been a pleasant task. As we leave our work on the edifice of “1935,” there is in us that pride which results from even a slight participation in worth while projects. It is our sincere wish that, with each succeeding year, the educational structure upon which we have worked may become a thing of increasing beauty and utility.

George Lowry



THE FACULTY

George L. Lowry, Principal; Mrs. Agnes L. Orcutt, Secretary; Jessie L. Kearly, Office Assistant; E. Ruth Abell, English; Prince H. Beebe, Physical Director; Carrie Ayers, Algebra; Wallace W. Bitters, Commercial; Anna F. Byers, History and English; Eileen Clary, Librarian; M. Dayle Cragbon, Physics and Chemistry; Nellie M. Crawford, Mathematics; Stanley J. Cyran, Band; Mrs. Louise B. Daggett, French; Hazel A. Dates, History; Mabel S. Fassett, Home Economics; Raymond J. Fick,Woodworking; Ancella Hanley, Latin and English; Lelia M. Haugwout, Latin; Albert Humphreys, Coach and Physical Education; M. Elizabeth Janke, Busrness Training, Typewriting and Bookeeping; Anna M. Leonhardt, German; Mrs. Floy S. Lish, Plane Geometry and Algebra. Genevieve Meagher, Typewriting, Shorthand and Business English; Katherine  Meagher, Typewriting and Shorthand; Elizabeth Mills, English; Charles O’Brien, Civics; Edward A. Parske,  Drawing, Doris Plummer, Biology; Mary C. Rink, English; Edna L. Sackett, English; Hazel B. Sager, Biology and Algebra; Helen Sichler, Economic Geography; Lewis J. Smith, Commercial; Eleanor Steki, Biology; Charles Stoake, History; Mrs. Gertrude E. Taylor, English; Earl H. Tierney, English; John J. Tuskey, Auto Mechanics and Electricity; Harvey L. Watts, Commercial Arithmetic; Arlene Werth, Algebra and Mary Zielinski, Music.

WE THANK YOU

The NORTH STAR Staff and the Class of 1935 wish to thank the many Twin City and Buffalo business men who have so graciously patronized our book. Much appreciation is also due to the faculty members who have always been ready and willing to help in the production of this annual. To the student circulation staff belongs especial credit for the competent sales methods which have resulted in a complete “selling out” of the issue.

The Editor

SUPERSTITION

Do I believe in omens
    And superstitious signs?
Well, yes: some things, impress, I think
    The very best of minds.

For instance, if a rooster crows
    Just out before the door,
It's surely an unfailing sign
    That he has crowed before.

If across your path there rambles
    A big old black, black cat,
Its a sign she’s headed somewhere,
    Or perhaps she smells a rat.

If beneath your bedroom window,
    Tiny howls when you are sick,
lt's a sign the pup is lonely.
    And he’s saying ,“Get well quick.”

If your left ear bums and itches
    Just beneath your well corned thatch
It’s a sign as sure as shootin’
    That you need to up and scratch.

If you find a good-luck penny
    Lying underneath your bed,
It's a sign that someone’s lost it
    And you’re just one cent ahead.

If you joy in idle boasting
    And then slyly knock on wood,
It’s a sign your mental process
    Shows less brilliance than it should.

If you pin your hopes in omens,
    Think spilled salt means family spats,
Its a sign, sir, that your belfry
    Is inhabited by rats.

Billy Wire










Report from the Superintendent of Schools
The City School District of the City of North Tonawanda, New York
1960-1961

A Message From the Superintendent

This report is the first in what is planned to be a series of annual reports. Since it is the first, we have not given great emphasis to any one part of the program but have presented a general over-all picture of your school system. We are proud of the progress that has been made in the North Tonawanda Public Schools during the past decade, not only in physical facilities but in the educational program as well.

Our enrollment figures indicate that for the past several years we have increased by about 300 pupils per year. Our enrollment projections indicate that we will continue to grow at the same pace for the next five years. The citizens of North Tonawanda recognized this enrollment problem and faced their responsibilities by approving two new schools within the past year. Both schools, the new high school on Meadow Drive and the elementary school on Ohio Avenue, are in various stages of construction and should be ready for occupancy September 1962.

We have included pictures of our schools with the dates of construction. You will notice the great amount of building that has taken place since 1948 in an attempt to cope with rapidly rising enrollments.

Our educational program has also undergone many changes in the past decade. Significant changes have occurred in the area of pupil personnel services such as increased usage of standardized tests, improvement of guidance services and the addition of a full-time psychologist to the staff as well as important changes in the instructional program such as the addition of a stronger “honors” program in the secondary schools.

There is evidence that the public schools of the last generation have done a good job. Today’s successful artists, scientists, professional men and women have received most of their formal training in such institutions. The success of America in these fields is a powerful argument for the methods and the curriculum of public education.

Your Board of Education and the professional staff of the North Tonawanda Public School system is constantly seeking to improve the educational program. We believe that our schools of today and tomorrow must be better than those of the past. Today’s world calls for a challenging curriculum. In our schools we are constantly striving to present a program geared to the best potential of our students.

If the student is to be challenged to his capacity, many factors must pertain. Teachers must be skilled, textbooks must be challenging, student needs and capacities must be correctly determined, and the learner must actively desire educational growth. In this last area, particularly, wise parents will help immeasurably in the promotion of the character qualities and attitudes which provide the proper climate for scholarship.

Credit: Courtesy of Gary Behrns