Erasmus Hall High School - Arch Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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letter from the editors Fellow Students, Throughout our four years here at Erasmus, we of the Arch Staff, and our f . ILYIA W fellow graduates, have been unknowingly contributing to the contents of this book. Within the covers of this Arch are our accumulated impressions of the Old Gray School: our classmates, our teachers, and a record of our growth, both intellectual and emotional. We have attempted to carry on the theme of Tradition started in last year's Arch. We have covered many of the highlights, but there is a great deal left to be said. For it is impossible to include all of the intangibles that go into the making of. a tradition, particularly a Tradition such as ours. We leave the further development of this theme to succeeding classes. With these thoughts in mind, we give you your Arch, which we fondly dedicate to one who has stirred our ideas into actuality, and has given us the incentive to delve into the wealth of Erasmus I-Iall's history. She herself is the embodiment of our illustrious beginnings . . . for her great, great, great, grand- father was one of the original founders of Erasmus Hall Academy . . . and her family's coat-of-arms decorates our library walls along with those of Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, John lay and others. She has kept the indomitable spirit alive, and without her generous assistance this issue of the Arch would be non-existent. To you then, Miss Ella Suydam, we dedicate our Arch, with more thanks than we could possibly put into words. We would also like to express our gratitude here for the unending guidance given us so graciously by our grade advisors, Miss Cameron and Mrs. Ginsberg. While we had only to worry about ourselves, they courageously assumed the worries of all twelve hundred of us. Nor can we ever forget our mentor, Mr. Samuel Gallant, who guided us through deadlines, layouts, photography sessions, conferences, and staff meetings. Need we say more? We have tried to translate our thoughts about our school into words and pictures. We believe that they are honest words and pictures. Very truly yours, The Editors

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l 2 ll . 4 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CLASS OF JUNE 1955 Another Spring has come so swiftly, and with it another great class prepares to leave Erasmus Hall to enter actively upon the business of earning a living or to continue on a higher level this all important business of education. With you go the best wishes of the faculty for your success and happiness. Our task as teachers has been to help you develop in body, mind, and character. We have tried to assist you to think clearly, to distinguish right from wrong, the true from the false, the fine from the tawdry. We know that if our way of life is to survive these dreadful times we must have intelligent, alert, informed citizens who will put public welfare ahead of personal gain. We believe also that the only real education is self-education, that you individually must do the hard and oftentime tedious work of learning, with your teachers as guides and helpers merely. In the same spirit we feel that the true test of character is self-discipline, the exercise of self-direction and control in all varieties of situations. After two world wars fought to make the world safe for democracy and to abolish fear from our lives, we live, ironically, in a world fearful of totalitarian tyranny and of the terrifying catastrophes made possible by the H-bomb. lVlan's magnificent progress in science has been used to develop dreadful instruments of destruction and annihilation. Unless we are deterred by reason and a deep religious awareness of the brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of the God whom we all recognize in one manner or another, we may easily exterminate ourselves and leave our planet uninhabited except for the lower forms of animal life. It sounds fantastic but it is truly possible, unless men the world over come to their senses. From the imminent dangers in this world you had no part in making, your generation will have the task of extricating mankind. May your generation see the happy outcome of the baffling problems now confronting us so that men the world over may live together in peace and amity. That is our hope and prayer for you as you leave us this june. Heartiest congratulations on your success and best wishes for the fullest success and happiness in the many years ahead. Sincerely yours, Iohn F. McNeill Principal 5 in . , Q i G .al l 1 1 3 'I