Elgin High School’s inducts top alumni into new Hall of Fame

By Jack McCarthy Chronicle Media
Elgin High School principal Jerry Cook, also a member of the Class of 1991, welcomes guest to last week’s unveiling of the EHS Alumni Hall of Fame. (Photo by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

Elgin High School principal Jerry Cook, also a member of the Class of 1991, welcomes guest to last week’s unveiling of the EHS Alumni Hall of Fame. (Photo by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

Elgin High School alumni include scientists and scholars, business execs and artists, musicians and journalists and even a Nobel Prize winner.

But until last week memories of many distinguished former Elgin Maroons were scattered and increasingly forgotten.

Now 39 notable grads — with more to come — are part of a permanent salute as inaugural entries in Elgin High School’s revived Alumni Hall of Fame were unveiled last week

“The individuals on this wall reflect the rich history of our great school and the many fine accomplishments of its graduates,” principal Jerry Cook, EHS Class of 1991, said at last Thursday’s dedication ceremony. “It is my hope that we are providing this same quality education to our students today that will prepare them to follow in your footsteps and one day be recognized on the walls of Elgin High School.”

But there would have been no Hall at the school, founded in 1869, without dedicated efforts of a group of EHS alums.

According to the school, former principal Richard Felicetti began urging the community to find a way to honor accomplishments of graduates. Former principal Dave Smiley (2001-11) continued the efforts.

Hall honoree Hal Getzelman (right) poses with his parents and his Hall of Fame plaque during last week’s induction ceremony at Elgin High School. (Photo by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

Hall honoree Hal Getzelman (right) poses with his parents and his Hall of Fame plaque during last week’s induction ceremony at Elgin High School. (Photo by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

Enter Chandler Swan and fellow members of the Class of 1960.

Now well into their 70s, members of the group (also including Barbara Cook, Ricky Harris, Pat Sanders and Judy Sorton) were determined to preserve the past for future generations of students as well as the community.

The volunteers helped create an EHS archive room for the collection and safekeeping of memorabilia and historic books and papers. And they eventually broadened their efforts to revive a Hall of Fame that had a membership of four with plaques installed by the Class of 2001.

“We’ve been coming out here for five –and-a-half years working on the archives, just organizing and cataloging and that sort of thing,” Swan said. “(But) every time we walked by, I said I know personally there were a lot of famous people that graduated from Elgin High School.

“We saw all these people and said ‘we’ve got to do something about it.’ I put out an email every to my class every month to keep them connected and I said we need some money, we want to build some plaques and we ended up getting up enough money.”

Mounted photos of top athletes and scholars have traditionally lined school hallways, but Elgin High School has never had a significant forum to honor former students who excelled in various professions  after getting their start here.

“It’s the second oldest public school in the state with the first graduating class in 1872,” Swan said. “Those of us who went to this school and went to the old school downtown are extremely proud of having gone to Elgin High School.”

Guests check out the expanded collection of honorees of the revived Elgin High School Alumni Hall of Fame unveiled last week at the school. (Photo by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

Guests check out the expanded collection of honorees of the revived Elgin High School Alumni Hall of Fame unveiled last week at the school. (Photo by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

Perhaps the most impressive group on the wall comes from collective accomplishments from the Class of 1946. Five honorees — the most from any graduating class — come from that group, the first of the post-World War II era.

It includes Ray A. Barnhart, federal highway administrator and Texas politician; James P. Kramer, U.S. Department of Agriculture research entomologist; John P. Kramer, Ph.D. entomologist and university professor, NC State Cornell;  John R. Mink, Ph.D., founding faculty member of the Dental School at the University of Kentucky; and Charles E. Swanson, president of Encyclopedia Britannica.

There’s also a Nobel Prize winner (Paul F. Flory, Class of 1927), corporate executives (James M. Roche, 1923, General Motors CEO and John W. Teets, 1951, Greyhound, Dial and Armour CEO) and performers like Sara Melissa Hart (1960) and John M. Qualen (1920).

Tom Shales (1962) was a noted Washington Post television critic and 1988 Pulitzer Prize winner for Criticism.

A visitor takes an image of an old Elgin High School yearbook, part of an extensive collection of historic material and memorabilia in the EHS Archives room. (Photo by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

A visitor takes an image of an old Elgin High School yearbook, part of an extensive collection of historic material and memorabilia in the EHS Archives room. (Photo by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

Alumni Hall membership goes as far back as the Class of 1883 and Max Adler, vice president of Sears, a concert violinist and benefactor of Chicago’s Adler Planetarium. The youngest inductee is 1978 grad Nina Burleigh, a journalist and best-selling author.

Plaques are mounted on prominent school hallway wall with ample space for more.

“It is our goal to continually add to the wall and hold an induction ceremony at regular intervals to recognize new inductees,” Cook said.

 

 

EHS Alumni Hall of Fame inaugural class

1883 — Max Adler, benefactor of Adler Planetarium, vice president Sears & Roebuck, concert violinist

1901 — Jennie Christine “Jane” Peterson, internationally renowned painter and artist

1907 — Helen Miller Malloch, founder of the National Federation of Press Women

1908 — Edna D. Geister, National Recreation Director of the YWCA

1917 — Mildred A. Engelbrecht, bacteriologist, University of Alabama

1918  — Gail M. Dack Ph.D., MD, University of Chicago bacteriologist, international authority on food-borne diseases

1920 — John M. Qualen, character actor in more than 100 films, television actor

1921— Frank O’Beirne, U.S. Navy vice admiral, director of operations for Joints Chiefs of Staff

1922 — Trygve Rovelstad, renowned sculptor and medal designer

1923 — James M. Roche, CEO of General Motors Corp.

Hall of Famer Max Adler, business executive, patron and namesake for Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, was a member of the Elgin High School Class of 1883. (Photo by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

Hall of Famer Max Adler, business executive, patron and namesake for Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, was a member of the Elgin High School Class of 1883. (Photo by Jack McCarthy / Chronicle Media)

1927 — Paul F. Flory, polymer chemist and 1974 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry

1934 — John R. Tobin, dean emeritus of Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine

1935 — Alfred Y. Kirkland, Sr., JD — U.S. federal judge

1945 — Charles “Chick” Peterson, world class watercolor artist

1946 — Ray A. Barnhart, federal highway administrator and Texas politician

1946 — James P. Kramer, U.S. Department of Agriculture research Entomologist

1946 — John P. Kramer, Ph.D., entomologist and university professor, NC State Cornell

1946 — John R. Mink, Ph.D., founding faculty member of the Dental School at the University of Kentucky

1946 — Charles E. Swanson, president of Encyclopedia Britannica.

1948 — Marshall I. Goldman, Ph.D., Wellesley and Harvard University economics professor, author and researcher

1949 — Dietrich “Jack” C. Bauer, microbiology scientist, Indiana University

1949 — John “Jack” S. Shales and Marlene “Kane” Shales, philanthropists and civic leaders

1951 — Douglas B. Nash, NASA geologist, California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Division of Space Sciences, Pasadena, Calif.

1951 — John W. Teets, CEO Greyhound, Dial and Armour

1953 — Wesley K. Foell, Ph.D., environmental scientist/ scholar, University of Wisconsin

1955 — Samuel A. Werner, Ph.D., professor emeritus, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri

1960 — Sara Melissa Hart, Miss Elgin 1962, Second City Alumni and leading character in traveling production of “Cabaret”, Tony Award-nominated actress

1962 —Tom W. Shales, television critic for Washington Post and 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism

1963 — Brian Oldfield, Olympic shot putter and world record holder

1965 — Richard M. Hoover, Tony Award-winning production designer

1969 — Richard “Rick” W. Sund, NBA executive

1969 — Daniel M. Brewbaker, renewed composer

 

1971 — Deborah A. Lathen, JD, bureau chief at the FCC

1972 — Harold “Hal” Getzelman, NASA’s Casule Communicator chief engineer

1973 — Jay Geldmacher, Executive vice president of Emerson Electric

1974 — Joseph Incandela, PhD, American particle physicist

1976 — George A. Lesieutre, Ph.D., professor of aerospace engineering, Pennsylvania State University

1978 — Nina Burleigh, journalist and best-selling author

 

 

 

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