Elkhart Memorial High School - Monolith Yearbook (Elkhart, IN)

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Cathy Holt, Steve i and Joan Quinlan

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Students want answers Memorial’s people come to school for answers. They want and work for them in a $12,000,000 structure that has 372,954 square feet of space. They walk through 5,150 feet of corridors, sit in any of 1,890 desks in any of the 68 class- rooms, and, by the end of the year, they have spent close to 1,902,600 total hours at school. And that doesn’t count homework! They put their books in more than 1,800 lockers, and, although there aren’t many doors, students walk through more than 300 doorways. The building is beautiful and well-equipped, but it isn’t an answer in itself. Answers come only from the interaction of the people inside. Memorial's students are looking for answers about themselves and their world, and that is what the year, the school, and this book are all about. Something new in the library, bookshelves were installed where there used to be doorways to accom- pany the new security system. Standing inline, most students preferred eating in the cafeteria to going out to one ofthe many neatby res taurants for unch

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Memorial was full of special people, students and staff alike. Whether it was attending a public school in a wheelchair, or returning to high school after a 26-year absence, these people had the determina- tion to work harder, stay longer, and put forth the extra effort that set them apart from the rest. Eight of Memorial's 1600 special people are recognized on these two pages. Connie Cummins would have run on the girls’ cross country team, but there wasn’t one. However, there was a guys’ team, so she joined it. She was the first girl ever to run on the Memorial cross country team, previously made up of guys. Connie wanted a way to better her dis- tance running times for track in the spring, while doing something she enjoyed. Cross country seemed to be the best way When on the team, Connie received the same treatment as the rest of the guys. The team accepted Connie as one of them and helped her when she needed it. Connie agreed that cross country was a hard, gru- cling sport and even admitted that it was the most challenging thing she had ever done. Connie had an ulterior motive for run- ning on the cross country team. “I'm really hoping that there will someday be a girls’ cross country team here at Memo- rial. Maybe my running on a guys’ team will show girls that it is not all that hard.” Laurie Griffen, born with cerebral palsy and confined to a wheelchair, always attended public schools because “a school for the handicapped was something we never really considered. My parents just felt a public school would be better for me.” Until the sixth grade, Laurie attended classes for the physically handicapped. She enrolled at Brookdale Junior High School in the seventh grade and has taken “regular classes” since then. In her ninth grade year, Laurie received a special appreciation award from the Brookdale students and faculty In August of 1977, Laurie underwent a new type of surgery, “The Cerebellum Stimulator,” and was hospitalized in New York for five weeks. During the surgery, electrodes were planted on the surface of Laurie's brain. The electrodes were connected by wire to receivers in her chest. The purpose of these electrodes was to send electric cur- rents to her brain, breaking up spastic pat- terns and allowing her to be more relaxed The improvement from the surgery was gradual and described as an “accumula- tive process” by Laurie, who added, “The one thing I hope for is to be less depend- ent on others.” George Riebs, in order to make his U.S. History classes more interesting, wanted to find some Elkhart history that his stu- dents could relate to. He soon discovered that the history of Elkhart was no easy thing to acquire, and the only book of the city’s history was one that was written for elementary school children. After gathering bits and pieces of his- tory and many old pictures of the Elkhart area, Mr. Riebs decided to write his own book. Not only did Mr. Riebs compile, once and for all, the city’s history, he also gives many speeches on Elkhart's past. Stew Troyer used his musical abilities to play in the Marion, Indiana, Symphony Orchestra. Stew’s main instrument is the French horn, which he played in the Memorial Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra. While at band camp, Stew was asked to play the French horn in the Mar- ion Philharmonic Orchestra, sitting assist- ant principal chair. The assistant principal chair player had to know how to play each