Class of 1943 -------------
Robert A. McDonald, class of 1943, provided access to the senior year book, which served as an annual.
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Access to the class photograph for scanning was provided by Robert A. McDonald, class of 1943
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The photographs above, provided by Bernard Smith, class of 1943, are perhaps the small trading photos that Godwin students would get each year as part of the annual photographs. Some of are the class of 1943, but in years earlier than their senior year. Some of the photos are of students from other classes. Bernard Smith is in photo number 7.
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Bob McDonald, circa 1935.
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Some miscellaneous images of life around Godwin, from Bernard Smith's scrap book. Some were probably taken in 1943. The top, left image shows the long fashionable saddle shoes. The you girl to the right, by the library, is a reminder that the Division Avenue building was a greade school by 1943. The photo in the top row, third from the left, is of 36th Street, which might have been called Allen Road in 1943 yet. In 1943 there was a massive overhaul of the street names in Kent county. The sidewalk appears to be new, and the road is still dirt. Quite likely, 36th Street extended all the way to Eastern Avenue, and probably all the way to Kalamazoo Avenue. Top right, apparently P. Heyboer, it looks like tryout time for Ed Norton, on "The Honeymooners."
Bottom row, right, is William Rhoades, who later came back to Godwin as a teacher.
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Material supplied by Robert McDonald, class of 1943.
See the reunion photo below for a more recent photograph of the baseball
champs.
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Material supplied by Robert McDonald, class of 1943.
In the 1940s the McDonald family owned a large number
of houses along Clements Street (formerly Godwin Street). Perhaps a record
number, locally at least.
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The images above show five of the McDonald houses on the south side of what is now Clements Street. A sixth was closer to Division Avenue, and as of year 2006 is gone. On the west side of Division Avenue, across from Clements Street, was about where the Godwin family house, built before 1855, was located. Perhaps for this reason, Clements was called Godwin before 1943, and was changed because of another Godwin street in Grand Rapids.
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Access to the 1943 commencement program for scanning was provided by Robert A. McDonald, class of 1943
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Material supplied by Lillian Annis, class of 1941
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Access to the 1943 40th reunion program for scanning was provided
by Bernie Smith, class of 1943.
Page 2 is blank.
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Sadly, the photographs above are not labeled, so for now it's just a guess that they are of the attendees of the 40th class of 1943 reunion. The idea is to have men only and women only photos, perhaps so people in the photos show up better. The person above the woman in the mostly men photo is Bob McDonand, who has provided a great deal of Godwin information for the web site.
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Access to the 1943 50th reunion program for scanning was provided by Robert A. McDonald, class of 1943
Sadly, few to none of the last names for female alumni above are their
class names, so it's close to impossibe to know who they were when they
attended Godwin.
It's interesting to see that there were 33 classmates at the 50th reunion of
the class of 1943. The class size was 68, and not all were around in 1993, so
the reunion attendance was well over half of the living alumni. Year 2008 trends
suggest that this will not be the case for more recent classes.
Access to the reunion photographs for scanning was provided by Robert A. McDonald, class of 1943
