Big Sandy High School - Pioneer Yearbook (Big Sandy, MT)

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Learning . . . One Step At A Time 4

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DEDICATION The Annual Staff of 1977 takes great pleasure in dedicating this edition of the PIONEER to Mr. John O’Malley. Mr. O’Malley has been a principal and teacher to many of us. He has been very helpful in coordinating sales and pic- ture-taking efforts for the annual staff, not to mention his many other services to the community. On behalf of the stu- dents, faculty, and community, we extend our appreciation. His father the youngest of twelve children in an Irish family had moved out to the States from the old country, worked around Big Sandy, served in World War I, and was working in an auto plant when to John and Beatrice O’Malley, John O’Malley was bom in Detroit, Michigan, February 2, 1926. After Mr. O’Malley Sr., passed away in February 1930 as a result of a factory machine accident, John moved out here with his brother Steve and their widowed mother who later married Jack Kane, a Bear Paw Mountains rancher. The boys lived with their mother and stepfather on the ranch and attended Dog Creek School. John next attended Big Sandy High School, graduating in 1944. September of that same year found him in the U.S. Infantry headed for active service with the 108th Regimental Combat Team in the southwest Pacific (including the Philippines) and with the Occupational Forces’ 6th Division in South Korea. He holds the Asiatic Service Ribbon, Pacific Service Ribbon, World War II Victory Ribbon, Korean Occupation Ribbon, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Com- bat Infantry Badge. Following military service, which incidentally totaled to two years, two months, two weeks, and two days, Mr. O’Malley worked from December 1946 as a locomotive fireman for the Great Northern Railway on the run between Blackfoot and Glasgow and (shoveling coal) on the north branch line from Saco through Whitewater and Turner. Unfortunately, malaria, which he had brought back from Asia, started in May 1947 to strike him at 11 a.m. every other day and eventually put him onto a military 50°]o disability pension. His next major step was in September 1949 when he enrolled at Northern Montana College. This sojourn in Havre brought John two benefits: a two-year diploma in elementary education (1951) and, perhaps more importantly at that stage, romance! It was in Havre that he met Miss Jessie McKay whose parents had come to America from the Scottish Island of Lewis. Jessie became Mrs. John O'Malley on September 17, 1950. Next came teaching at Ethridge, Montana, for nine years from the fall of 1951. During this time, Mr. O’Malley commenced to further his higher education through summer schools at the University of Montana. He later worked with the Kevin school system for five years. While at Kevin, he was also the local police judge. (John remembers well his first case when the local postmistress, coming before him on a speeding ticket started to cry!) By 1962, Mr. O’Malley had a B.A. in secondary education, political science, economics, and sociology, and a Mas- ter's degree in education administration. These attainments qualified him both to teach and to administrate at all pub- lic school levels. So, it was in 1966, when daughter Peggy was 14, daughter Patty was 13, and son Mike was 8, that the O'Malleys moved here. Mr. O'Malley has been our grade school principal for the past eleven years. While here in Big Sandy, he has held all the offices in V.F.W., including Post Commander; he has served as an ambulance driver, worked with boy scouts, taught hunter safety, belonged to Holy Name Society of which he is a past president, and has been an important and productive member of our community. As a reflection of their parents’ encouragement and example, the children have moved successfully through the various levels of education - Peggy and Patty both hold B. A. degrees from Carroll College, and Mike is an outstanding student at Northwest Community College in Powell, Wyoming. John O'Malley has seen 350 students safely through the steps of their elementary school experience here at Big Sandy, and of our schools he says: Based on my observations of the past eleven years and the fact that all three of my children have passed through here, it is one of the finest school systems in the State of Montana. Having such a dedicated, devoted teaching staff and cooperation from the parents make it so. 3

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Learning takes place every day - step-by-step, a little bit at a time. Our annual, Learning . . . One Step At A Time, is developed with this idea in mind. 5