West High School - Westerner Yearbook (Denver, CO)

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24 1936 VVESTNVARD HO of the interruptions in the work of the secre- tary and her clerks. There were 1 1 87. How many books, purses, pencils, lunches, caps, gloves, glasses can two thousand people lose a day? Ask the office! How many excuses can be concocted for being excused each day? Ask the office! How many absent and Your father will enjoy coming over here to straighten out this 1n1'sx. tal-dy pupils need ad- mission slips each day? Ask the office! Miss Florence Le- Fever, the secretary, is a girl who has never been known to lose her temper and has never been otherwise than cheerfully cour- teous and helpful. She keeps all records of grades and makes re- ports yards long. Near the telephone is Miss Bertha jones- Iust sit on that chair until I have time fo talk it over with youv really it Should be of psychology in all its applications makes her understanding, firm, and fairg her years of experience in teaching advanced physi- ology render her invaluable to the girls of the school. She is outstanding in building characters in the ,many students who come to her for aid and advice. The beehive of the school is the office. Here every imaginable and unimaginable trouble or request is aired daily Csome of them are hot airj by a big percentage of the pupils. One day a strict account was kept

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The Administration GSGOOD morning! Ever since the new building of West has been in use, this has been the customary greeting to all teachers and to those students coming early tothe office. The words come from Mr. Harry V. Kepner, the principal. He is a young-old man, kind and fatherly, always worrying about his exuberant herd, always cheerful, always right. He is an alumnus of Ohio Wesleyan Uni- versity and has his M.A. degree from Har- vard and a Doctor's degree from Colorado State Teachers College. In addition to his school work here, he is president of the Board of Trustees of the educational col- leges at Greeley and Gunnison, a member of the Secret 400 Chemists, a thirty-third degree Mason, a member of the Lion's Club, a great traveler, and a successful business man. Because of his versatility and his note- worthy achievements he is in the Whois Who of the United States. For the past eighteen years Mr. Kepner's energy has been directed to the improving of West. The school building, the faculty, the subjects in theircurriculum-everything has increased four-fold. The thousands of young lives his influence has stimulated tes- tify now, and will testify forever, to his in- trinsic worth. The major portion of the contacts with the pupils is made by Mr. Clark H. Stone, the assistant principal, and Mrs. Hildegarde Sweet, the dean of girls. 'Tm going to the office means, generally, a conference with one or the other of the above. l Miscreants will never forget the sentences pronounced by the dapper Mr. Stone, who fusses them often with the question, Well, what can I do you for? A thousand-word essay on good citizen- ship will help clear the air. Sit on the bench and ponder on your conduct. Four times around the race track will impress upon you not to run in the halls. Mr. Stone received his A.B. and M.A. de- grees from the University of Denver and has studied at California. Be- fore coming to West, he was principal at Wheatridge High School. His keen sense of hu- mor and quaint stories make him one of the best beloved disciplinarians in the city. Mrs. Hildegarde S. Sweet came from Scott High School, Toledo, Ohio. She was grad- uated from Michigan Uni- versity and received her M.A. from Columbia University in the Teachers College. She is as distinctive in her appear- ance as in her poise and her just decisions. Her knowledge l23l

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ADMINISTRATION 25 answering the telephone. Her troubles are the mail, volumes of it, the home-room lists, the program and choice-of-subjects cards. Hell0! No, Mary is not here today! What? She should he! W0'll check again and let you know. At the counter, reading sundry ex- cuses, some of which are accepted, others are not, early each morning stands Miss Alice Luckey, the at- tendance clerk. Filing of records is her par- ticular hobbyg seven times a day she accu- mulates reports on the whereabouts of the two thousand West- erners. When an A.W.O.L. is discov- ered, the bench is soon occupied for several hours. Luckey rosewood polishers! CLet it here be said, to the encouragement of faculty, that none of the bench polishers would have his picture snapped, and that some of the Annual Board substituted in prolonging this fa- miliar spot in mem- ory.j