South High School - WKTV Journal

Paul Collins was one of the speakers at the South High School 100th Anniversary Celebration.

On Sept. 10 approximately two hundred South High School alumni gathered at the old South High School Auditorium to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the completion of the first year of school.

South High School opened on Sept. 7, 1915 and was formally dedicated in January of 1916. For decades it was the “shining star” of the Grand Rapids Public School System.

Special Guests included:

Third Ward Commissioner Senita Lenear, who presented a Proclamation from the City of Grand Rapids on behalf of Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss.

Superintendent of GRPS Teresa Weatherall Neal spoke about the current status of the Grand Rapids Public Schools. Superintendent Neal attended what became South Middle school after the high school closed in 1968.

World Renowned artist Paul Collins spoke about his work and South’s rich history rearing students in an integrated atmosphere that was essentially color-blind. One of his paintings hangs in old Churm Hall depicting the life of President Gerald R. Ford’s years at the school. His work can be seen in an Art Gallery at Marge’s Donut Den.

1969 South High School graduate Michael B. Johnson, offered a stirring rendition of “There Is A Balm In Gilead” and led alumni in the singing of the school Alma Mater, “Hail to South.”

The SHS Spirit Award was presented to five former students for their contributions to keeping the “spirit” of South High alive.

Those honored included:

1958 – Jim Atkinson, President of the South High Varsity Club

And four alumni involved in the “Buy a Bomber” campaign which saw South High students raise over $375,000 in 1943 and buy a B-17 Bomber they named, The Spirit of South High School –

1947 – Arthur Blackport – the instigator of South’s involvement in the campaign.

1944 – David Dutcher – Co-chairman of the “Buy a Bomber” campaign.

1962 – Joe Rogers – Former Veteran who discovered the military report that explained the fate of the bomber.

1962 – Sandra Dieleman Warren, who brought the story to life in the non-fiction book, “We Bought A WWII Bomber; The Untold Story of a Michigan High School, a B-17 Bomber & The Blue Ridge Parkway.”

The program concluded with the legacy of South High School presented by1962 graduate, Sandra Dieleman Warren, who took the alumni on a journey through the History of South High School and highlighted a few of its outstanding graduates who include:

1919 – John Hannah – longest reigning President of Michigan State University (28 years)

1931 – President Gerald R. Ford

1938 – Mike Murphy – Basketball Coach – Won 7 City Championships, 2012 Inductee into the Grand Rapids Hall of Fame & at 96 still beats alumni at golf!

1939 – Jane Baessler Doyle – WWII Women’s Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.

1946 – Clare Fischer – Grammy Award winning composer, arranger, band leader and session musician who worked with the likes of Prince, Celine Dion, The Jackson’s, Dizzy Gillespie & Herbie Hancock, to name a few.

1959 – Jim Cash, screenwriter of movies such as “Top Gun,” “Secret of My Success,” “Turner & Hooch,” “Dick Tracy,” “Legal Eagles” and “Anaconda.”

1962 – Dan Houston, artist who has developed a huge international following among interior decorators and lovers of contemporary art.

1966 – Al Green – Gospel & Pop singer boasting more than 20 million records sold, a multiple Grammy Award Winner, 2014 Kennedy Center Honoree, and Master Performer named to Rolling Stone Magazines “100 Greatest Artists of ALL TIME List.”

South High School closed in 1968 to comply with Federal Desegregation orders. Ironically, from opening day in 1915 to 1968, throughout its staff and students, South High School was well-integrated.

South High School was known for its tremendous school spirit, evident today through its alumni who, even though the school closed forty-eight years ago, still gather monthly for breakfast at the New Beginnings restaurant and the last Tuesday of every month for an afternoon at Marge’s Donut Den in Wyoming; school spirit that also sees the Varsity Club meeting once a year and in 1990 saw the creation of an annual Alumni Scholarship presented to two worthy Grand Rapids Public Schools seniors to attend Grand Rapids Community College.

South High School closed in 1968 and opened that same fall as South Middle School until 1979. In 1982 it reopened as the Grand Rapids Job Corps Center, which was renamed in 2004 to the Gerald R. Ford Job Corps Center.

Today, the Mission Statement which opened the school in 1915, continues: “…to be a school which trains it’s pupils as far as a school may, to perform justly, skillfully and magnanimously all the offices of both public and private, of peace and war, as far as the national endowment of each pupil will permit.

South High School – 1915 to 1968 – The Spirit Lives On!

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

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While Grand Rapids’s South High School has been closed for almost 50 years, the school’s spirit remains strong as its Varsity Club still meets regularly along with other alumni get-togethers.

No one can deny that the spirit of South High School is just as strong now as it was when the school was open and one person who can attest to that is author and 1962 graduate Sandra Warren.

“It was quite an amazing school,” Warren said. This might be an understatement since within its graduating classes were former president Gerald R. Ford (1931) and singer Al Green (1966). And the students did some amazing things such as raise $375,000 through the sale of war bonds and stamps to purchase a B-17 Bomber – aptly titled “The Spirit of South High” – for the World War II effort, the subject of Warren’s latest book.

“The students did all of this work to raise this money for the B-17 and there was a dedication on April 6, 1944 and from there it flew off with no one ever really knowing what happened to it,” said Warren, who will give a presentation on her book “We Bought a WWII Bomber: The Untold Story of a Michigan High School, a B-17 Bomber & the Blue Ridge Parkway” on Monday, March 7, at Grand Rapids Public Main Library, 111 Library St. NE.

“There were these wonderful stories that it had won all these battles in defending our freedom,” Warren said. One South High alum took it upon himself to find out what happened to “The Spirit of South High” and with the aid of another – Ford – he discovered its history was not that glamourous. The bomber was used for training in the United States and was dismantled in Columbus, Ohio, according to a military report.

“Many of the alums were disheartened to learn the end of the story was it was used for training,” Warren said, adding that during one of her presentations about South High she stated “I wonder how many pilots it had trained. It could have had far more of an impact on the war as a trainer than if it had gone off into the war.”

A classmate, who also was a veteran, heard that comment and decided to see if he could find a list of those who had trained with South High’s B-17 Bomber. What he discovered was the bomber had a much more colorful past than originally reported.

“The Spirit of South High” never fought in the war, nor was it dismantled as reported, instead it had crashed during a training exercise in the area that today is considered one of the most photographed places in Virginia – Mabry’s Mill. What made it even more interesting is that no one from Virginia’s Patrick County Historical Society or historians for the Blue Ridge Parkway, the road where Mabry’s Mill is located, knew anything of the crash.

“I had one historical member say to me that he had been involved with the group for decades and couldn’t figure out why he did’t know about the crash,” said Warren, who has copies of the reports made by those involved in the crash. “I went on a local radio station in Patrick County asking people if they remember the crash to contact me and we started getting calls.”

At the time of the crash, Oct. 1, 1944, the land was a pig farm. The original accounts talk about how the neighbors helped the pilots all of whom got out of the plane safely. The six-member crew were being retrained to lead their own combat units, Warren said, adding that all of the crew members had amazing records with one being involved with the atomic bombing of Japan.

“The military took what it could savage from the plane after the crash,” Warren said. “The farmer had to sign a paper stating it was OK for the military to leave the smaller pieces of metal on the land.”

Warren visited the crash site last May and discovered that much of those small pieces are still there. The area has been marked as an archeological dig site and Warren said she hopes to have a national marker placed there.

“It really is a magically story,” Warren said. “It is quite amazing what these students did and in the end, just how much of an impact the bomber did have on the war effort.”

Sandra Warren’s presentation on her book “We Bought a World War II Bomber: The Untold Story of a Michigan High School, a B-17 Bomber & the Blue Ridge Parkway,” is at noon March 7 at the Grand Rapids Public Library. For more information on the presentation or other library activities, visit www.grpl.org or call 616-988-5400.