Class of 1937 -------------
Lee (Tanner) Collins, class of 1941, provided access to the annual.
See the class of 1936 for a photograph of the kindergarten and first grade classes taken in the fall of 1924.
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Photograph provided by LeRoy Rockwell, class of 1959.
1937 senior class.
1937 class play.
( Photograph provided by Lewis Lull, class of 1940, scanned by Craig Lull, class of 1970. )
Some details about the play are available on page 1 of the December 10, 1936 issue of Godwin News, below. True to form, Gladys Saur directed the play, and in earlier years she and/or Charles Saur might well have had a part.
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Material provided by Mildred Annis, class of 1940.
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Material provided by Mildred Annis, class of 1940.
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Material provided by Mildred Annis, class of 1940.
Jack Charon is one of many Charon's to graduate from Godwin, all active in school activies of various kinds. A younger brother, Bob graduated in 1951, and was active in all manner of sports. Shown on page 2, under "REPORTERS," is Richard Charon. Another brother, Harold graduated in 1940.
Like many other Godwin students, including Clifford Jones, class of 1928, and Carrol Munshaw, class of 1929, Jack Munshaw later returned to Godwin as a teacher. Charles Saur, who spearheaded the phenomenal growth of Godwin for something like 25 years, made it a point to invite what he considered promising students to return to Godwin to teach. Apparently all of the Charon's were quite athletic, so it's perhaps no surprise that Jack Charon became a physical education teacher.
Graduating in 1936, when Jack Charon started school Godwin was still a one room school house. The school on Division Avenue was brand new. And he would then graduate from a largely new high school building.
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Material provided by Mildred Annis, class of 1940.
In about 1935 Frank Rackett sold his 10 acre farm to Godwin HS, a farm he purchased in about 1908. The farm was previously owned by Charity Payne according to a 1907 Kent County Atlas. At the time, Buchanan did not extend south of about Alger - the road coming down the hill by the old Grand River Valley RR track ( later NY Central ), and extending to 44th Street was added later. ( In 2004, there are short segmetns of Buchanan Avenue every so often out to at least 68th Street, needlessly complicating navigation. ) Buchanan Avenue is at the west end of the farm, where the tennis courts are in 2004. Prior to about 1935 asparagus was grown in the area where the tennis courts are now. Sandy soil made conditions ideal, and in fact asparagus was grown in many areas along what is now 36th Street, going west from Division Ave.
Two pieces of land were not included in the sale. One was a piece belonging to the Michigan Electric Railway system, defunct as of 1928, and subsequently used as a power line right of way by Consumer's Power - now also under a new name. That was the land just west of the Rackett pool, and was probably acquired from Frank Rackett in about 1912. The other piece of land was on the northwest corner of Division Avenue and 36th Street. Frank Rackett stipulated that his house and the piece of land it stood on, be available to him as long as he lived. While he moved to St. Louis, MO, to live with a niece, some time in 1948, at the age of 84, the house, or at least that part the vandals did not destroy, still stood until about June of 1959, when Frank Rackett died at the age of 95.
Page 4 of the January 29, 1937, issue of Godwin News shows what the plan for the land was. The same kind of federal government funds that built the library in 1937, and added a section to the high school building, were no doubt used in part to fund the project, perhaps with help from tax revenue from the new GM stamping plant on the southwest corner of 36th Street and Buchanan Avenue. ( Notice that 36th Street was still called Allen Road, for the Allen farm near Eastern Ave and 36th Street, and Buchanan Avenue was Buchanan Road. )
While the wading pool shown was apparently never built, the new athletic facilities would have been familiar to anyone graduating from Godwin up until at least 1970. The football field was apparently one of the first lighted fields in western Michigan. ( Where did Godwin play football before 1937? ) Formerly a game largely played by the rich and idle, tennis was more and more being played by the middle class as city and school courts were becoming more common in the 1930s. Godwin would no doubt have been in the forefront of athletic programs with tennis in 1937.
In 1959, probably the same day he died, Frank Rackett's house was demolished, and an administrative building put in its place. And in 1957 an athletic building was constructed just west of Frank Rackett's property. Otherwise, the athletic area as it existing in 1937 would be familiar to any Godwin student for the next 35 years or so, at which time a new high school building was built north of Rackett pool.
In 2004 the old Rackett pool is gone, and the bath has has been modified for some other purpose. See section "B" for photographs of the area. A football field and other facilities reside just east of the Grand Rapids and Indiana RR tracks, and north of 36th Street. What the old football field is now used for is unclear. Perhaps just track. Students in year 2004 have a wealth of athletic facilities available, and to the extent lawyers don't force the school to close facilities because of an inability to pay insurance premiums, the students should be quite fit and trim. Whether this outweighs, so to speak, the availability of pop and snack vending machines in the schools in 2004 is not clear.
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Material provided by Mildred Annis, class of 1940.
Left click on any image for a larger version.
Material provided by Mildred Annis, class of 1940.
Left click on any image for a larger version.
Material provided by Mildred Annis, class of 1940.
Left click on any image for a larger version.
Material provided by Mildred Annis, class of 1940.
The May 31, 1937, issue of Godwin News was devoted to the graduating senior class. A long tradition, this was particularly valuable during the depression years of 1932 to 1936 when there were no class annuals.
Most of the years between 1932 and 1936 are still needed for scanning and inclusion on this web site. How much longer the tradition continued is not clear, but if a Godwin News for the class of 1943 exists, that is also of interest. For war time reasons, an annual for the class of 1943 was not produced.
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Material provided by Lillian Annis, class of 1941
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Material provided by LeRoy Rockwell, class of 1959.
The lecturne shown above in year 2007 photographs was a gift of class of 1937 to Godwin school. Whether such gifts were a common practice at the time is not clear.
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Class of 1937 in 1980 - almost no names available. Back row, second from left, is Dene Allen. Fifth from the left is Ronald Doxtator.
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The item above is from the Grand Rapids Press, September 30, 1980.
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The Class of 1937 43rd reunion class book - left click above.
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Photograph provided by Ronald E. Doxtator, class of 1937. Taken October 24, 2009.
Ronald E. Doxtator, class of 1937, born October 21, 1919, during his 90th birthday party.
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Ronald E. Doxtator. |
