All-Classes Brunch and Hall of Fame Ceremony 2014
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NEWTON HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION All-Classes Brunch and Hall of Fame Ceremony 2014 SATURDAY , JUNE 7, 2014, 10:00 A .M. NEWTON HIGH SCHOOL NEWTON , IOWA Newton Alumni Association All-Classes Brunch Program and Hall of Fame Biographies June 7, 2014 WELCOME Alumni Association President Mark Hallam 1979 50-Year Reunion Class: Dennis Portello 1964 25-Year Reunion Class: Megan Trower-Ward 1989 GET TO KNOW NEWTON Mayor Michael Hansen 1973 RECOGNITION OF RETIRED TEACHERS Mark Hallam ALUMNI ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING Mark Hallam 2013 ATTENDANCE AWARD Newton Community Educational Foundation 2014 WINDOW WALK AWARDS Mark Hallam CLASS OF 2014 Introduction of the Class of 2014: Mark Hallam Class President: Sydney Bergman 2014 NEWTON HIGH SCHOOL UPDATE Principal Bill Peters 1983 INAUGURAL NEWTON HIGH SCHOOL HALL OF FAME Bill Peters HALL OF FAME 2014 Emerson Hough Lucy E. Hall Col. Avery Jack Ladd Thomas R. Smith Laird Bush Lamb William Green N. Neal Deaton Robert Sparks M.D. Charles Murray Ph.D. Thomas R. Altemeier M.D. Minda Gralnek Karen King Brig. General David Cotton Frank Gilson Sara H. Haines Thomas J. Weeks Harold A. Lynn ROLL CALL OF CLASSES Dan Kelley 1989 LOYALTY SONG All Loyal Alumni Hall of Fame 2014 ARTS EMERSON HOUGH Emerson Hough was one of three members of the first graduating class of Newton High School in 1875, and his was the first signature on the constitution of the Newton High School Alumni Association organized in 1881. Emerson’s father was the president of the first Board of Education of the Newton school district. Emerson was a member of the Literary Society at Newton High School. After one year as a teacher in Baxter, he enrolled at the State University of Iowa and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. He studied law under the guidance of Newton lawyer H.S. Winslow and was admitted to the bar in 1882. Following one year as a lawyer in White Oaks, New Mexico, Emerson returned to Iowa to become business manager of the Des Moines Times . The magazine Forest and Stream hired him as their Western representative in the late 1880’s. Emerson became an internationally-known author. His books included “Covered Wagon,” an image of which was engraved on each NHS class ring for many years, and 34 other western novels and stories. Four novels were made into films. His first published piece was “Far from the Maddening Crowd” in the August 1882 edition of Forest and Stream. His first novel, “The Girl at the Halfway House,” came out in 1890. Additional novels included “The Mississippi Bubble” (1902), “54-40 or Fight” (1909), “The Sagebrushes” (1919), “The Covered Wagon” (1922), and “North of 36” (1923). In addition, Hough published over 150 magazine articles. Those written during and after his exploration of Yellowstone Park attracted the greatest attention and led to successful activism prohibiting the poaching of wild game in national parks. On January 19, 1927, Emerson Hough Elementary School, located across the street from Emerson’s boyhood home, was dedicated. During a visit to Newton in his later years, Emerson wrote a message in the American Literature notebook of Newton student Richard McLaughlin: “This little book of yours gives a very fine and intimate look into the faces and the hearts of the best of our contemporary American authors…. I need not tell you how proud I am to sign my own name among these others, and to carry my cordial and good wishes to a student in my own school, in my own old town, and in my own old state. You and I must so live that, if we can not be a credit to our birthplace, at least we shall not be a discredit.” Emerson Hough was born June 28, 1857 in Newton. In 1897, he married Charlotte Amelia Cheesebro. Emerson died April 30, 1928, one week after attending the premiere of the movie version of “Covered Wagon.” Hall of Fame 2014 EDUCATION LUCY HALL Lucy E. Hall graduated from Newton High School in 1897 at the age of eighteen in a class of twelve girls and six boys. She attended Drake University, earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, and did post- graduate work at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin. Ms. Hall began her teaching career in rural Jasper County where she taught one year before joining the Newton High School staff in 1900. In 1911 she was elected the first principal of NHS – a position she held until 1918 when she was elected Jasper County Superintendent of Schools, serving in that role until 1939. Circa 1959 Lucy wrote a book entitled, “A History of the Schools of Jasper County, Iowa – covering the Period of Growth in Education To the Early Twenties.” It is considered by many local researchers as an important resource. The following are among changes occurring during Ms. Hall’s years as NHS Principal: the staff increased from seven to 22 teachers, including the addition of the first physical training director for girls, the first yearbook was published, and a debate program initiated. The yearbook of 1915 was dedicated to Lucy E. Hall. It reads, in part: “To Miss Lucy E. Hall, principal of Newton High School whose womanly and unselfish character has inspired in the minds of the students the highest ideal …. from the timid freshman just entering high school whom she encourages and directs - to the mighty senior who by her counsel is conducted along the path leading at last to graduation… she assists each with the same kindness and goodwill, this volume is affectionately dedicated.” Lucy Elizabeth Hall, the daughter of Lambert and Sarah (Harrah) Hall died in 1968 at age 89. She is buried in Newton Union Cemetery. Hall of Fame 2014 GOVERNMENT /M ILITARY COL . AVERY JACK LADD Colonel Avery “Jack” Ladd was born August 14, 1906 and graduated from Newton High School in 1923. He attended Iowa State College in 1924 and 1925 and studied mechanical engineering. Jack began his career at Midwest Aviation in Des Moines in 1928. By 1930, he had earned federal aircraft and engine licenses, and a transport commercial pilot’s license. Jack was the second pilot hired for The Des Moines Register . He was also a pilot for Iowa Axle, and was employed as flight instructor. In 1939, Jack joined the Royal Canadian Air Force as an instructor and pilot. Following Pearl Harbor in 1941, he returned to the U.S. and was commissioned a captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps. His first assignment was at Sebring, Florida, as an instructor and Squad Commander for B-17 combat crews. In 1943 Jack reported to Salina, Kansas, for training with the first B-29 group to go overseas. During World War II, Jack flew 25 missions “over the hump,” as flights to India over the Himalayan Mountains India became known, and eventually landed in 50 different nations and islands and major airports in 45 states. Jack returned to the United States in late 1944 and was stationed in Roswell, New Mexico, as Director of Training through the end of World War II. His C54 unit, of which he was Squad Commander, was created shortly after the founding of the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC). The unit supported strategic bomb testing in the Pacific. Colonel Ladd retired in October 1961 with a total of 24, 272 flying hours – a record number for the United States Air Force. As a pilot, he flew 23 types of Canadian planes, 25 United States Air Force aircraft, and 32 different commercial airliners. He was inducted into the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame in July 1998. Jack died June 1, 2006, at the age of 99. He was preceded in death by his wife of 61 years, Dora “Dee” Helen Ladd. Hall of Fame 2014 BUSINESS /S CIENCE THOMAS SMITH Thomas Ross Smith was born in Newton, Iowa, on March 25, 1909. He graduated from Newton High School in 1926. In 1927, he was the second Newton Boy Scout to receive the Eagle Scout award. In 1932 he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the first in his class of electrical engineers. He returned to Newton and, because of the depression, worked odd jobs until the following summer when there was an opening at the Maytag Company machine shop. In 1934, F. L. Maytag offered him a job in the experimental department. In 1938, F.L. Maytag II made Tom the head of the experimental department, and Tom changed the name to the Research and Development Division. During this time he designed the Model E washer, which went into production in late 1939, and was produced by Maytag for almost 45 years. Tom was Director of R & D until his retirement in 1974, having been made Vice-President of R & D in 1953 and elected to the Board of Directors in 1967. Tom held over 250 US patents and many foreign patents and was involved in the design of many successful Maytag appliances. He was named Iowa Inventor of the Year in 1979. Tom founded two Newton companies, both of which are still in business: Thombert in 1946, with his brother, the late Robert L. (NHS Class of 1934); and Pyramid, with his son, Tom, Jr. in 1967. He also founded a miniature book publishing company, Tamazunchale Press, with his wife, Charlotte (Messenger) NHS Class of 1936. He wrote two books for the press, Yesterdays , about growing up in Newton, and The Model E, about his designing the iconic washing machine. Tom died in 2001.