Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Remembering teachers past

As Chadron celebrates its 125th anniversary next summer, there’ll be an abundance of school reunions. It'll be an opportunity to rekindle many memories -- including those of teachers at Chadron High, Chadron Assumption and Chadron Prep. If you have photos or information about teachers of the mid-20th century....or earlier....E-Mail us. Thanks.
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GLENN MASTERS was on the staff at Chadron High School as the Vocational Agriculture instructor in the 1954-1959 period. He then returned to the university in Lincoln on a fellowship to obtain an advanced degree in agricultural economics.

That stirred memories of his childhood as a Garden County farm boy in the 1930s and the suffering that his parents endured through years of severe drought and economic depression. So he was motivated to find a job where he could better use his new skills toward improving the economic and general welfare of rural populations.

His search led him to a career with the Bureau of Reclamation.

“The bureau specialized in capturing runoff from the mountains each year to provide water for irrigation, municipal and industrial needs, and hydro-electric power generation with the releases from storage powering the turbines,” says Masters, who found himself in Grand Island for a couple of years, then the Pacific northwest, and finally Denver.

That’s where his responsibilities put him in touch with all the bureau planning activities for 17 western states.

“I feel very fortunate to have had nearly forty years in public service, including my time in Chadron.”

Glenn and his wife, Dorothy, live in Littleton, Colorado.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Four score and two years ago...

Browsing through the 1928 Milestone yearbook from Chadron High School has been been a delight!

The hair styles and dapper attire of these pre-Depression-era students at CHS were definitely from another era. But reading the "farewell messages" offered by the graduates of that year seemed remarkably contemporary. We remember similar quotations inscribed in yearbooks from the 1950s and '60s. It seems that some things just don't change.

Love is too simple a game for brainy men to indulge in,” wrote Harold Thompson.

Ann McDaniels, whose extracurricular activities included a role in the Class Play of 1928, offered “Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.”

But our favorite – and one often likely repeated in yearbooks over the years – was from football player Roscoe Godden. “The reason I don’t study is that my questions baffle the teachers."

Baffled and otherwise, teachers at CHS had to not only ride heard on their students, they also had to toe the line for superintendent James Skinkle, a graduate of the University of Chicago and long-time CHS superintendent. We suspect Mr. Skinkle was long gone from this earth before most of us roamed the streets of Chadron, but many of you may recall his widow, Ethel, a longtime housemother at Crites Hall at Chadron State College.

Mr. Skinkle and all the faculty were beholden to the folks shown here: the elected members of the school board. Click on the image at right from the 1928 Milestone, and you'll get a closer look at them.

Perhaps some of you recall these community leaders. We recognize only attorney F.A. Crites (top left) and businessman F.A. Hood (bottom right). And it's not surprising that David A. Hood – whom we remember as a 1952 grad of Chadron High School – looked exactly like his father, Fred, who ran an insurance company from his home at 3rd and Main Street for many years.

Please e-mail us or leave a Comment below if you can offer additional information about these or other school board members from 1928.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Remembering teachers past

As Chadron celebrates its 125th anniversary next summer, there’ll be an abundance of school reunions. It'll be an opportunity to rekindle many memories -- including those of teachers at Chadron High, Chadron Assumption and Chadron Prep.
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Elmer Dudden taught Vocational Agriculture for three years at Chadron High School (1959-1962) and then returned to school at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

While there, he received an M.S. in Public Administration with a minor in history. In 1965, he began teaching at Lookout Mountain School in Golden, Colorado, a correctional school for delinquent teenage youth. He worked in the Vocational Department there for 27 years. During that time, he married, became a father, and used his free time to build four or five houses.

Retired since 1992, he and his wife, Elaine, continue to live in Golden with a grandchild, Kimberly. They live on a five-acre ranch with four horses. They bought the horses so that two granddaughters could participate in Westernaires, a precision riding group that performs at the national Western Stock Show and regional events.

He is active in both Lions and Optimists service clubs and has served on the local Water District Board for over 20 years. He says he’s also been active in conservative politics. Mr. Dudden says his health is still very good, and he feels blessed for many things – including his experience at Chadron High School. He says he’d enjoy a phone call or visit from any FFA students who were in his classes.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Remembering teachers past



Robert “Bob” Folsom taught music at Chadron High School from 1956 through 1958.

Born in Minnesota, his family moved to Chadron, and he was a 1943 graduate of Chadron High School. During World War II, he served in the Army, but we know nothing about his tour of duty. He returned to Chadron and earned a degree from Chadron State in 1949 – later picking up a Master’s in Music Education from the University of Nebraska.

Besides Chadron, he taught in Ravenna, Nebraska; Trinidad and Brighton, Colorado; and Lewellen, Nebraska. His longest tenure was in Benkelman, Nebraska, where he headed the music program for many years. Folsom married “Modie” (Pack) Wood in 1965 and they happily shared a home until 1999, when health required that he be moved to a nursing home in North Platte.

An avid model railroad enthusiast and amateur radio control pilot, Folsom was also a member of the Benkelman Methodist Church, the Lions Club and American Legion.

According to the Benkelman Post, Bob Folsom died in July of 2000 and was survived by his wife, four daughters and a son, as well as two brothers, a sister, and 15 grandchildren.