1948 - The Last Valedictorian

 

Ralph Eagle Getz, 1948 Santa Fe High School Valedictorian

It came up in a lunchtime conversation with an old friend, herself a graduate and former teacher at Santa Fe High School. She mentioned Roy Stephenson, memorable from her high school days because he was smart and funny and because he was the valedictorian of Santa Fe High School’s Class of 1967.

I was surprised by this claim – not that Roy Stephenson (who I knew much later from my years in the law profession) wasn’t smart and funny. By all newspaper and yearbook accounts, Roy was popular, smart and funny. He was also literary, publishing poems in the local paper(see The Santa Fe New Mexican, April 23, 1967), and athletic, a star tennis player for the Demons. For the class talent show, Roy was MC at the event under the pseudonym of Jack S. Phogbound and he was known to come to school in costumes, feigning another personality, for the amusement of his classmates. At the annual Sadie Hawkins dance, he won a prize for the “loudest suspenders.” He seems like a fun guy.

But he was not the valedictorian for Santa Fe High School Class of 1967. It was not because he didn’t have a great GPA (he did – 3.93, the second highest GPA that year) nor because a lack of extra-curricular activities (he had plenty – tennis, drama, debate and more) nor because he wasn’t popular among the faculty (he was). For his achievements, Roy was named a ‘speaker’ for commencement. But Roy Stephenson was not the valedictorian because Santa Fe High School did not name a valedictorian or a salutatorian in 1967.

In fact, there had been no valedictorian or salutatorian at Santa Fe High School since 1948, the year that Ralph Getz won the title and delivered the valedictory address. Interestingly, the salutatorian, Thomas Moore, Jr., missed the top by a GPA score that was a thousandth of a point difference less than that of Getz’. Both Ralph Getz and Tom Moore won scholarships to Harvard University.

In 1949, the newspaper report (Santa Fe New Mexican, June 22, 1949) on the commencement exercises for Santa Fe High School, listed awards galore for students – sports, band, academics – but never mentions either a valedictorian/salutatorian or a ‘speaker.’

In 1950, it became clear that the high school had abandoned the traditional valedictorian/salutatorian model in favor of a Top Ten model. I learned this in an article (Santa Fe New Mexican, June 4, 1950) about Mariano “Nano” Sanchez, a 1950 graduate of Santa High School, headed to Georgetown University planning to study astronomy. The article goes on to say:

Nano was one of the ten top students in the 1950 graduating class, a selection which has replaced valedictorian and salutatorian at the local school. (emphasis is mine)

In 1951, this new Top Ten tradtion morphed into a top five per cent and, over the years, a top ten percent and those students were listed in the newspaper as such.

A survey of newspaper accounts of high school graduations for the years 1951 to 1987, displayed a pattern. The local newspaper, in reporting graduations at all area schools, typically identified the valedictorian and salutatorian from each area school – except Santa Fe High School which always named two “speakers.”

These ‘speakers” at Santa Fe High School were chosen in the beginning by faculty; later, contests and try-outs were held among the top students to be a speaker. But the notion of a top GPA leading automatically to a valedictorian title was simply forgotten at Santa Fe High School. In later years, the high school recognized top students (far more than any Top Ten) by appointing them members of the “Royal Blues,” (fyi, the school colors are blue and gold). The “Royal Blues” honored the school’s top students (without any particular ranking) and regularly featured them in the school annuals and occasional newspaper reports.

In 1962, the newspaper reported on Santa Fe High School graduate Dawn Gerber, who gave one of two commencement addresses at the graduation ceremonies. Here’s the pertinent part of the newspaper article which can be found at the Santa Fe New Mexican “Spotlight on Education” feature, published on June 7, 1962

Both she [Dawn] and Rose Marie Garcia, who gave the second commencement address, were chosen by the faculty from the top five per cent academically of their class after speech try-outs. Santa Fe High did away with the traditional system of valedict-orians and salutatorians long before the present administration which does not remember the specific reason for the change.(emphasis is mine)

(Dawn’s own life story is interesting and tragic. At age 5, she nearly drowned in the Santa Fe River – and was rescued by her brother, Dean, who received an award for his heroism. In high school, she was a volunteer at St. Vincent Hospital, part of a group called ‘candy stripers” for the distinctive uniform they wore. In the program for the commencement exercises, Dawn’s achievements were briefly listed but erroneously identified her role at the hospital as a ‘candy stripper.” Probably not so amusing, as she was headed to Southern Methodist University. She was at SMU only a month when she joined a group on a bus trip for a religious retreat. The bus rolled over and the only student killed was Dawn Gerber.)

A survey of past Santa Fe High school annuals (the yearbooks are titled ‘Para Manana’ and they are freely available at Issuu and at the ‘throwback’ page of the Demon Tatler, the school’s newspaper website), reveals that the words valedictorian or salutatorian never appear in the years 1949 and 1987, though the ‘Royal Blues’ were always listed and pictured and, occasionally, a top GPA, would be noted.

In 1966, for example, the top GPA at Santa Fe High School was held by Gilbert Montoya. Gilbert was headed to Stanford after graduation (or maybe NMSU and he was also an alternate appointee to West Point). He wound up as an architect, practicing in Georgia, Tennessee and South Caroline. I knew Gilbert from my Casa Solana neighborhood where my brother Gene and I often played pickup basketball at a nice lady’s house on Caminito Alegre (ironically, precisely across the street from where I now live; in fact, when we grew hot and dusty from playing ball, we would often go to the house across the street – now my house – to cool off under the carport.)

The usual players (besides me and Gene) were brothers Steve and Louis Padilla and brothers Gilbert and David Montoya. We called Gilbert ‘Bugs’ because he was short-tempered and ‘bugged out’ when frustrated. Years later, I met him at a party (by this time, he was a big time architect and I was a mere district judge). “Hey, Bugs!” I greeted him. He did not like it and told me so. So if you ever meet Gilbert Montoya, for God’s sake, don’t call him “Bugs.”

The point is that Gilbert, though apparently fulfilling all the traditional requirements for valedictorian was not even named as one of two commencement speakers at his own graduation. See the Santa Fe New Mexican article in the May 26, 1966 issue, the article entitled “Top Students to Address Commencement Exercises in Northern New Mexico.”

The article states that

Santa Fe High School has for the past several years chosen two seniors from the top five per cent of the class to deliver commencement addresses. (emphasis mine). This year, Linda McLarry and Sheila Riddle will be the speakers at ceremonies beginning at 8 pm May 26 in Sweeney Gym.

As you can see, Gilbert Montoya – Mr. Top GPA and putative valedictorian -- is not mentioned at all.

Now comes Roy Stephenson.

In 1967, the newspaper reported on upcoming graduation exercises, listing and depicting the top students from every local school – Santa Fe High, St. Mike’s, Loretto, Pojoaque, Santa Fe Prep and even the New Mexico School for the Deaf. Every school identified a valedictorian and salutatorian – except Santa Fe High School. Santa Fe High School, instead, named Marsha Long (who had the top GPA) and Roy Stephenson as “class speakers,” while the remainder of the school’s top ten per cent, academically, wore red tassels (instead of the usual gold) on their mortarboards at graduation.

And so it went on for years, the tradition of ‘speakers’ at Santa Fe High School rather than valedictorians or salutatorians, never provoking comment or question.

Here’s an interesting note from the Santa Fe New Mexican in its May 20, 1984 issue. For context, the note was appended to a feature article, entitled ‘The Best and the Brightest,’ a story about the valedictorians and salutatorians from St. Michael’s High School and Santa Fe Preparatory School and their struggles to achieve their high ranks. While the feature article says nothing about Santa Fe High School, the note does:

NO VALEDICTORIANS AT SFHS

By tradition, Santa Fe High School does not name a valedictorian or salutatorian. Instead four student are chosen as speakers for graduation ceremonies. This year, the two speakers from the High School’s main campus are Kimberly Medrano and Amy Schwendi-mann. Patricia Chacon has been selected from the Alternative High Campus. And Celine Martinez will represent Vo-Tech.

To qualify for selection, speakers must have a C average or better.Speakers compete for selection based on a trial speech, their grades and participation in school and community projects. The high school probably doesn’t name a valedictorian or salutatorian because there are so many students with A’s – eight from the main campus alone this year, says Assistant Principal John Sena.(emphasis is mine)

In 1985, 1986 and 1987, Santa Fe High School continued the tradition of ‘speakers,’ while the other schools continued their tradition of valedictorians and salutatorians.

In 1988, however, Santa Fe High School named its first valedictorian and salutatorian in nearly forty years. In the ‘Places and Faces’ column in the Santa Fe New Mexican for May 29, 1988, Mayor of Santa Fe Sam Pick announced the recipients of the Mayor’s “Muchas Gracias” certificates, young people who displayed “outstanding personal, academic and extracurricular achievements.”

Among those listed were “Valedictorian Manuel Rodriguez and Salutatorians Paul Armijo and Daniel Gehred of Santa Fe High School.” Each of these students earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average and each had earned awards in scholarly competitions. In 1988 – and every year thereafter – Santa Fe High School named a valedictorian and salutatorian (and, as you can see, sometimes two salutatorians).

In my research, I was never able to ascertain exactly why Santa Fe High School switched from valedictorian/salutatorian to Top Ten and later, top five per cent, top ten percent and “Royal Blues.” It became the common practice for forty years and, I suspect, most people simply forgot that, for a time, there were no valedictorians at Santa Fe High School.

But I can make a guess as to why Santa Fe High School returned to the valedictorian/salutatorian(s) model in 1988. The brand new Capital High School held it’s first graduation in 1988 – and a valedictorian and salutatorian were named. I think that prompted Santa Fe High School to switch back to the old tradition.

As to Roy Stephenson, I am certain that Roy was all he was cracked up to be – smart, funny and popular in High School. But Roy Stephenson was not the valedictorian for the Santa Fe High School Class of 1967. No one was.

As I write, it is the year 2025 and Santa Fe High School has been naming valedictorians and salutatorians steadily since 1988 – that’s about 37 years. Long enough, I suppose, for people to forget that for a period of 40 years, Santa Fe High School did not have a valedictorian or salutatorian.

1943

1943 - Wartime America, Small Town Santa Fe

1943 - America at War and winning. In the Pacific, in Europe, in northern Africa, the allies were turning the tide of the war.

At home, Americans faced rationing of cheese, meat, canned food, shoes and gasoline. And coffee, sugar and butter. But Americans didn’t just give up the luxuries, they gave as well, holding drives to collect scrap metal, rubber and cooking fat. And they invested millions of dollars in war bonds. Women took the place of men in the factories and America knuckled down to the job at hand.

Santa Feans did their part, too. Daily, the newspaper encouraged citizens to save cooking fat, paper, scrap metal and rubber for the war effort. And they did.

The paper even carried a chart of enemy planes, just in case a Japanese zero was considering strafing the Santa Fe Plaza. The paper reported who was drafted, who was killed or injured in the war, who got medals and who came home.

The War was personal in Santa Fe. When Corregidor fell in May 1942, thousands of Americans, hundreds of them New Mexicans serving in the 200^th Coast Artillery, were taken prisoner. Those few who survived the infamous Bataan death march were held in camps deep in the Philippines. New Mexico Governor John Dempsey immediately began plans to get an information flow to New Mexicans with sons and brothers held prisoner as well as efforts to get the prisoners as much aid as the Japanese would allow.

One prisoner, Sgt. Walter Charles Kiesov, managed to get a postcard to his mother, Mrs. Charles Kiesov, reporting that he was well. Sgt. Kiesov was first reported killed at Bataan but then his name appeared on the prisoner list. Other Santa Fe boys, thought to be lost, turned up at prison camps in the Phillipines, including Pvt. Francis Bert Powell, son of M/M C.F. Powell of Garfield Street, Sgt. Francis Van Buskirk, son of M/M J.A. Laudenslager, Corp. Rubel Gonzales, son of Mrs. Frank Gonzales, Candelario Street, Corp. Joe T. Lucero, son of Mrs. Willie Lucero, East Alameda and Corp. Ray Tucker, son of Mrs. William T. Tucker, Ninita Street. Many more such notices were received throughout 1943.

And the local paper also highlighted our war heroes, two. Sgt. Manuel Duran received a purple heart for injuries he got while saving his crew members and his bomber, attacked returning from a bombing mission. A fierce fire broke out and Sgt. Duran assisted the wounded, jettisoned ammo which was about to blow up and put out the flames. He is the son of Mrs. Matt Duran, widow of the late Matt Duran who ran the Torreon Shoe Shop on College Street.

And Lt. Edwin Lamme also won a purple heart for serious injuries to his hand when his Flying Fortress was hit by an anti-aircraft shell over France. Ed, the son of M/M Kenneth Lamme who ran a photography studio in Santa Fe, was most famous as the youngest ever to graduate from St. Mikes High School, called St. Michael's College in those days.

Major Miguel A. Otero wrote home to tell of a chance meeting with another Santa Fean – Sgt John Stevenson in North Africa. Both were in the Air corps and ran across each other at the same post exchange. Otero was a lawyer in town, the son of Governor Miguel Otero and married to the famous flyer, Katherine Stinson Otero. Stevenson was the advertising manager for the New Mexican until he was drafted.

Silas Garcia went off to the Navy in style, courtesy of a party thrown by the Misses Mary Jane Montano and Eloisa Baca . Guests included Charlie Thayer, Joe Padilla, Joe Frank Ortiz, Don Rodriguez, Mike Abeyta, Bennie Gonzales, Pete Alarid, Eddy Apodaca, Walter Stark, Tilly Baca, Alice Lucero, Margaret Martinez, Viola Tapia and Ferbie Longacre. Games, dancing and refreshments for all.

Capt Finlay MacGillivray of Santa Fe demonstrated he was proud of his Scots ancestry when his named his bomber the “Hoot Mon.” In 1943, McGillivray was serving in New Guinea piloting A-20 attack bombers. In fact, he received the Air Medal and a letter of commendation for his service there. Mac was a Santa Fe High School graduate and a football star at UNM before the war and he wrote often to his mother, Della MacGillivray, at 130 W. Houghton Street.

Wondering about the women in the war effort? Then consider Lena Alarid, the first Santa Fe girl to enlist in the WAVES – that's Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services. She was a nurse stationed in Washington D.C. and held the rank of lieutenant. She was the daughter of Fred Alarid, 206 Chapelle. Eight other Santa Fe girls were in WAVES in 1943: Eloisa Eckert, Paulina Gonzales, Hulda Hobbs, Dollie Ruth Johnson, Jane E. Means, Ernestine Quintana, Irma Wildering Smith and Mary Francis Sullivan.

And six Santa Fe girls were on the front page of the monthly newsletter for the Tulare Air Base in California as the prettiest aircraft mechanics around or “gal wrench-wrestlers,” as the newsletter put it. They were Ernestine and Teresa Alarid, Santana Gonzales, Anita Bustos, Amy Norton and Agnes Lucero. According to the newsletter, the six were trained at the Santa Fe municipal airport where these “belles of the balpeen hammer” learned their craft.

1943 – Wartime America, Small Town Santa Fe. 

1966 - The Danish Bride

Have I told the tale of the Danish Bride? It all happened in 1966.

Dorte Meyer, a young student from Copenhagen, was traveling through the United States when she wandered through Santa Fe. At the downtown Plaza Bar, she met 28 year old Santa Fean Anton Miller and it was love at first sight.

When Miller proposed marriage, Dorte was agreeable but she wanted to observe old Danish wedding customs. The first of which, it turned out, involved the bride's shoes. The custom in Denmark required the young couple to collect pennies in a champagne bottle – from friends, family, even strangers – and use that money to buy the bride's wedding shoes. Apparently, it was bad luck to obtain the shoes any other way.

So Anton and Dorte acquired a large champagne bottle and posted it on the counter at the Plaza Bar, with a little note explaining its purpose. Soon enough, the jug began to fill with pennies.

Plans were made for the wedding, the license, flowers, justice of the peace and about a month later, the wedding day came. Gene Petchesky, owner of the downtown Guarantee store was contacted and asked if he would sell the bride her wedding shoes in the Danish Custom. Gene, a smart businessman, said yes even though he had no idea what the Danish custom might be.

Anton Miller arrived to pick up his bride on a bicycle, placed her on the cross bar and pedaled over to the Plaza Bar. There, they retrieved a full champagne bottle of pennies and pedaled over to the Guarantee Store. There, the bride tried on every pair of white shoes in stock, finally settling on the first pair she had tried on. That, I believe, is an American custom.

When it came time to pay, the bride called for the champagne bottle, pulled a hammer out of her purse and smashed the bottle, spraying pennies everywhere. All this to the astonishment of Gene Petcheskey and his staff. But once the custom was explained, Petcheskey took it in good humor and set his staff to count the pennies – $15.91 – which he accepted as payment.

Then the couple pedaled to the Justice of the Peace for the ceremony but there was a short delay as the best man was sent back home for the forgotten marriage license. He also made a short detour for flowers which the groom had also forgotten. The best man didn't say where he got the flowers, but he did say that it was lucky he lived next door to a cemetery.

After the ceremony, the happy couple repaired to the Plaza Bar for the reception where the bride was treated to an ice cream sherbet and the wedding party toasted with traditional Swedish gloegg, a hot spiced drink. Apparently pretty potent as well, because the groom – barely wed 4 hours – was later arrested on Lincoln Avenue for public drunkenness and drunk driving on a bicycle. The complaint was lodged by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Miller of Garcia Street, who weren't able to convince their intoxicated son to come home.

Oh, carrying a bride on a bicycle is also a Danish custom but not in this case. Between them, Anton Miller and Dorte Meyer owned six cars and one airplane but none of them worked. And they owned two bicycles, but one of them had been stolen earlier in the week. So, as it happened, the one bicycle was all the transportation they had.

1954 - Old and New

For all the emphasis on history and tradition, the City is always ready to try something new.

Take the Plaza in 1954, for example. That year the Kiwanis Club asked the City to build a bandstand, reviewing stand and a public comfort station on the plaza. It would cost about $12,000 and the Kiwanis offered to pitch in on the funds. As well, the Club asked for a better display space for the ship's bell from the USS New Mexico with some informative bronze plaques. At the time, the ship's bell was installed on the northwest quadrant of the Plaza, mounted on a concrete platform perfect for sitting and people watching. While the City Councilors were interested in the ideas, nothing ultimately came of them.

The City had already begun to beautify the Plaza by installing an iron fence and gates around the Soldier's Monument. That was Henry Dendahl's idea. He got the fence from the old Manderfield estate and the gates from the Staab house, plus donations of labor and materials from Plaza merchants. Dendahl planned an annual painting of the fence with a free lunch at the Canton Cafe for all the volunteers.

The big news on the Plaza was the work on the ancient Palace of the Governors. Workmen put up scaffolding right on Palace Avenue and, to howls of protest from Santa Feans, began removing the ends of the vigas which protruded from the portal. Turns out the vigas had rotted at the ends and were leaking rain water under the roof. New dummy viga ends would be installed so the Palace would look the same. Around the corner on the Lincoln Avenue side, the old adobe bricks over the gate – the one with the blue door – to the patio were giving way so they were replaced – with pumice block. Fake vigas and pumice block . . . I don't think I'll ever look at the Palace of the Governors the same way again.

1954 is the year that the First National Bank – originally located on the east side of the Plaza, picked up and moved to the west side of the Plaza, taking over the space that used to be – well, pretty much everything – the New Mexican printing plant, a movie theater, a Buick dealership and, coming full circle, the original site of the First National Bank when it first opened in 1871 – right on the corner of Lincoln and Palace where it stands today. That was quite an undertaking but the Plaza was only roped off for one day – the day the money and safe deposit boxes were moved. Levine's moved into the Bank's old space – a beautiful example of Greek Revival archictecture first built in 1912. In 1957, under the guidance of John Gaw Meem, Levines remodeled the building to conform to the prevailing Santa Fe style, trading gothic colums for classic wooden posts.

Around the corner from the Plaza, in Cathedral Park, the Archbishop's old house was torn down, condemned as a firetrap. It was an elegant old territorial structure with a full portal and balcony running the length of the house facing Cathedral Park. At one time, it served as the City's first St. Vincent Hospital, beginning in 1865, and later as an old folks home.

In 1954, La Fonda removed thefountain and pool in the patio, replacing it with flagstone to accommodate the Indian dances it featured every summer. Santa Feans were sad to see that fountain go. Across the street, the Camera Shop installed a drinking fountain, but it just wasn't the same.

Still on San Francisco Street, Evan Wilson opened a new cafeteria and soda fountain, called El Refresco, on the northeast corner of Burro Alley. It was right across the alley from Wilson's old popcorn stand in the Lensic Theater Building. That's where he got the nickname, Popcorn Wilson. Oddly, the new place served only ice cream and malts – no popcorn.

And 1954 is the year the St. Francis Cathedral rectory was remodeled. Old timers remember the old peaked roof and huge concrete steps leading up to the high front door. The remodeling removed the roof, created a new lower street side entrance and made the building more Santa Fe style. It was used, in 1954, as office space for the Archbishop and pastor and included a vault where parish valuables were kept.

Up Washington Avenue, a row of 7 large elm trees in front of the Scottish Rite Temple was removed leaving the street pretty bare. Those trees had been planted in 1912 but elm disease was killing them and they'd been breaking up the sidewalks for years. The Temple reported plans to replant using blue spruces. Around this same time, Washington Street was closed off for several days in the summer of 1954 so the phone company could lay underground cables.

The biggest building project in 1954 was the city's first municipal swimming pool. Most of the city's civic organizations, chiefly the Optimists, organized a drive for the pool, raising enough money to buy a large piece of the Penitentiary land – part of the old dairy farm -- which they promptly donated to the City which planned to build the pool facility with a cigarette tax revenues. While the formal name of the pool facility was the Santa Fe Municipal Swimming pool, Santa Fe kids invariably called it the “munici-pool.” These days the pool bears a new name in honor of legendary coach Salvador Perez.

Another piece of Santa Fe history disappeared in 1954. The Gross Kelly Company – a Santa Fe institution since 1879 – was sold to a Texas company. Dan Kelly, Jr., in his first year as president and chairman of the board – just like his father and grandfather were – confirmed the sale. The business continued the distribution of New Mexico products as before with most of the Gross Kelly staff still in place, but the name --- Gross Kelly & Company – was retired.

In 1954, the second oldest Spanish fort in the nation was discovered in Santa Fe. Or better said, re-discovered. Old timers in the city still remembered the fortification known as La Garita – Spanish for bastion or jail – located on a small rise north of Santa Fe, more or less midway between Fort Marcy Hill and the Scottish Rite Temple.

Historians say that it once was used by the Spaniards to hold political prisoners, a few of which were executed by firing squad against a nearby wall. But it had fallen into disuse by the time the Yankees arrived and, over time, began to deteriorate. By 1900, it had lost its roof. Kids played on it, treasure hunters dug around in it and, in the early 50's, it was actually used as a dump site. There exists an old faded photo, taken in 1912, which still shows one wall standing, perhaps the very wall used for executions.

But in 1954, Bruce Ellis, an archaeologist who lived just 50 feet from the site on Washington Avenue, became interested in the site and, with funding from the NM Historical Society, began to poke explore the ruins.

By the end of the summer, Ellis and his crew had uncovered the foundations, revealing the ancient floor plan. It was roughly in the shape of a diamond with 2 bastion towers at the long ends, with a center hall and rooms and jail cells on either side, all enclosed within 3 foot thick adobe walls. La Garita, Ellis said was probably built shortly after completion of the Palace of the Governors and that was built sometime before 1680.

That's typical Santa Fe, history right in your own back yard.

U.S.S. Santa Fe

1942 – The Lucky Lady

The US Navy's newest Light Cruiser launched in June 1942, named after our little City, The USS Santa Fe. The honor of christening came to Caroline Chavez, the daughter of District Judge David Chavez and, therefore, the niece of US Senator Dennis Chavez. She was 14 at the time and a big hit at the launching, with a pretty pink dress and carrying a bouquet of red roses.

For the launching, the traditional champagne bottle contained no champagne at all but water taken directly from the Santa Fe River, right off Alameda street, and blessed by the Archbishop.

The USS Santa Fe served with distinction during the war. She was called the Lucky Lady, for fighting in several battles and always escaping unharmed. 13 Battle Stars, she earned, the USS Santa Fe. She's gone now, scrapped at the end of the war. But the ship's bell, all 900 lbs of brass, is on permanent display at City Hall. I always like to give it a little tap as I leave the building, just to hear it ring.