Kelvin High School - Kelvin Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

Page 12 text:

FOREWORD Young men ond young women — a thousand strong or thereabouts claim Kelvin as their school today. Think back for a moment to yesterday. Every year since Kelvin first opened in 1912, the halls have echoed to the chatter and laughter of a host of boys and girls. To assess the impact of this multitude of former students on Winnipeg and Canada poses a task which defies the imagination. Nevertheless we know that many graduates of Kelvin have become outstanding members of pro¬ fessional and business circles, leaders in the public life of our city and nation. And now you take your place in the procession of the years to follow knowledge like a sinking star, beyond the utmost bound of human thought or, less poetically — to get an education. Many writers have defined Education but I like the definition of Nietzsche, the nineteenth century philosopher, best of all. He says Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble-education: dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and need I add that one must be able to dance with the pen? At first glance the connection of dancing with education may seem a remote one — but look at it again ■— dancing ideas •— the very essence of education •— the mind awakened. As you have worked and played during the year, many of you have caught something of the dancing in education ■—■ the joy of self-expression, of new ideas, of new worlds to conquer. Your achievements in studies and other school activities have written large the role of ' 55- ' 56 students in the great Kelvin tradition. COURAGE - TRUTH - RIGHT. R. J. COCHRANE, Principal.

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This year, we have been extremely fortunate in having such a well known and distinguished journalist as James H. Richardson, city editor of the Los Angeles Examiner, write for our yearbook. Mr. Richardson was born in Detroit, moved to Winnipeg when still young, and attended Kelvin in its first year of operation. In addition to being editor of our first yearbook, he made nearly every sports team with the exception of girls ' volleyball. Richardson is unremitting in his fight against corruption. He has solved as many mysteries as mc t detectives, expects perfection from his reporters, and wcrks harder than any of them. —Revised from the dust jacket of his book, “For the Life of Me . Famous Kelvin Grad On a bitterly cold night, more than 45 years ago, a bitterly cold boy pushed open the heavy doors of the Carnegie Library on William Avenue. In a few minutes, after he had returned his armful of books to the librarian, he went into what to him was a wonderland. The wonderland of all those books standing thick and tight on the shelves. This was one of his greatest joys. He could pick and choose and take home with him the books he devoured with an insatiable hunger. The title of a book caught his eye . . . THE JUNGLE. He took it home with him thinking it was a story about Africa. Instead, it was a story of the stockyards and slaughter houses of Chicago. It was a story of poverty, despair, cruelty, and injustice and it lighted a fire within him which set the course of his life. It was the fire of the crusader against a man ' s in¬ humanity to man, against corruption and abuse of power, and against evil and wrong in all guises. The boy decided to become a writer and dreamed of some day writing a book that might do to others what The JUNGLE had done to him. In 1912 he left Kelvin Technical High School to become a cub reporter on the old Winnipeg Telegram. Almost half a century later that Kelvin boy, now past 60, received a letter at his home in Arcadia, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It read: Dear Mr. Richardson: Having been selected editors of this year ' s Kelvin yearbook, we were faced with the problem of finding some former Kelvin student to write an article for the book. After making many inquiries and doing a fair amount of research, we came across your book, FOR THE LIFE OF ME, in the library. We feel, after learning of your days at Kelvin, that you would be our best bet. We would be honoured if you would write us an article. It was signed, Martin Levitt and Sam Corrigan. It set me dreaming. I could see one of these two boys pushing open the doors of the Carnegie Library as that other boy had so long ago. I could see him in that wonderland and could see him picking a book from the shelves as that other boy had picked THE JUNGLE. And it was MY book! The dream of that bitterly cold boy on that bitterly cold night had come true! And Martin and Sam let me tell you something else: Not so long ago I received a telephone call here at my home from that man who wrote THE JUNGLE, Upton Sinclair, renowned around the world. He had read my book and wanted to talk to me about it. When I saw him in his home only a few miles from mine he took my hand and said: This is what books can do. I am very proud to have written THE JUNGLE for you to read and you should be very proud of having written your book for me to read. Three boys going to the Library, more than 45 years apart, and all this happens. (What ' s your book going to be about, Martin, and yours, Sam? And may I live to take your hands and say to you what Upton Sinclair said to me.) Oh, yes, I know you asked in another part of your letter than I should write about the early days in Kelvin. But, there is nothing more boresome or tiresome than an old man reminiscing. The temptation has been hard to overcome, however. The temptation to tell about Kelvin as it was when we were the first students there, in a brand new building. And about how I was the first editor of the first Kelvin publication, the KELVIN KALENDS, in 1912. About how I was quarterback on the first Kelvin foot¬ ball team, in fact the first high school football team in Winnipeg. About how we played St. James when it was a private school, and the Tigers, who had such players as Huffy Huffman and Steamer Maxwell. (Ask your fathers about them, or maybe, your grandfathers.) About how I played on the first Kelvin hockey team which won the provincial championship by twice defeat¬ ing Portage la Prairie. (One of the Kelvin stars was Freddie Frederickson who went on to become one of the greatest players in Canadian history.) About how I was catcher and captain of the Kelvin baseball team which defeated Central Collegiate for the championship. About the first school play given at Kelvin which I wrote and directed. And, about the Kelvin yell. Several years ago I made a trip to Winnipeg, the first since I left in 1913. And the first to greet me was Fred Parrish, a Kelvin classmate who is now president of the Grain Exchange. Mrs. Richardson and I had dinner with Fred and Vera and met their son. Bill, then going to Kelvin. Bill, said Fred, this is the man who wrote the Kelvin yell. I had forgotten it completely. It ' s still our yell, said Bill. Let ' s hear it, I said. And Bill and Fred gave it: K. T. H. S! K. T . H S! Are we in it? Well, I guess . . . and the rest of it. I have seldom been as happy as I was when they gave that yell. Jim, said Fred, you see, you ' ve joined the im¬ mortals. Now, with all the years behind me, I know the great importance of the years between the ages of 15 and 20. The whole course of one ' s life is set in those few de¬ cisive years. The lost souls are lost then. The fortunate then are always fortunate. I was one of the fortunate. For that I am ever thankful for having been the bitterly cold boy who went to the Library that winter night — for having been a Kelvin boy, too. The honour is not yours or Kelvin ' s, boys. The honour is mine for having been asked to write this. Life has been good enough to bring me some honours but none better than this. Nor more treasured. 4