Freeport High School - Voyageur Yearbook (Freeport, NY)

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A Challenge To The Class of 1951 MiKE your stumbling blocks your stepping stones.” I hese are the words of Dr. John H. Mott, international leader of youth and one of the world's greatest Christian leaders of the 20th century. Stumbling blocks are a hindrance to some and a challenge to others. The weak are overpowered by the difficulties strewn along the pathways of life while the strong master difficulties by making them stepping stones to a richer and fuller life. History is replete with men and women who have made their stumbling blocks their stepping stones. I shall mention only three whose lives are well known to members of the class of 1951. Demosthenes, the Greek orator, lalmred under difficulties which would have discouraged the average youth — a harsh and unmusical voice, weak lungs, awkward movements — he made his name a synonym for eloquence by the severest discipline. The story is told that he practiced reciting as he climbed steep hills, and that he defied the roar of the waves upon the seashore to drown out the sound of his voice. He is often referred to as the greatest orator of all time. Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, sickly as a boy and not expected to live to adulthood, refused to l»e conquered by his physical handicap. Under the severest of discipline and through regular physical exercise, he developed his body to a point where he became a model for his physical stamina and endurance. His military record and his hunting expeditions into the jungles of Africa are well known to every school boy. His gift for leadership and his ability to master his own fate caused Elihu Root to describe him as “an almost perfect executive.” Helen Keller, blind and deaf from babyhood, with the sympathetic and understanding help of her teacher, Miss Anne Sullivan, mastered her dreadful handicap and today is known all over the World as a great writer and scholar. She reads and writes with ease in three languages, English, French, and German. The spirit of the great leaders of history who made their stumbling blocks their stepping stones was caught up by William Ernest Henley in his poem “Invictus”— ‘7 matters not how strait the gate How charged with punishment the scroll I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul” Few graduating classes from Freeport High School have been obliged to face so many stumbling blocks in the world facing them after graduation. War looms on the horizon. Our economic future is uncertain. Our freedoms as American citizens are challenged both from within and from without. To some from this Class, the stumbling blocks of an uncertain future will bring resignation, compromise, and eventual despair. To the great majority, however, these same stumbling blocks will serve to steel the will and to quicken the mind. These members of the Class of 1951 will face the future unafraid. They will oppose the forces in the World which would destroy the freedoms which Americans have so richly enjoyed for more than 150 years. They will blaze new trails which in due season will bring to this troubled World the peace for which all men of faith pray. Class of 1951, this is your challenge. Make your stumbling blocks your stepping stones.” Good luck, good fortune and God's speed. Martin M. Mansperger Principal Jr.-Sr. High School Page ten

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TO THE CLASS (IF 1951 rJ HE theme of your Yearbook—“Lt e Is A Stage —is one that has always fascinated poets, artists, and dramatists. So Freeport High School, too. is a stage and all of you are players. For six years the Class of 1951 has provided drama, comedy, educational features, and spot “fill ins” on the stage of Freeport High School, and has established a tradition of successful production in which stars, supporting casts, under-studies, production specialists, and maintenance men all have played important parts. Scholastically you have helped Freeport High School continue to have one of the highest regents records in the entire state of New York — 94.6 . Athletically you have helped win the coveted County Football Championship with a perfect season. And, as this article is being written, we are headed for another excellent season in basketball. Socially you have taken an active interest in all the functions of our school and have held up this tradition well. Every phase of school life is an act upon a microcosmic stage of life, where experience and training is given for the stage of the world. To attain any degree of perfection in a production, all concerned must have trained intelligence to analyze problems, extensive knowledge in num-merous fields for their solution, good judgment for selection of parts, years of practice in attaining specialized skills, a deep sense of justice and fair play, and a conviction that the whole depends upon the perfection of each detail. These are some of the lessons that the apprentice in the world of the theatre must master, and these are the habits and virtues that we have tried to develop in F.H.S. students. Hoping that we have done our part well, we send you forth to the larger stage of life with the assurance that you will do your part successfully in whatever roles you may be cast. So to those in the Class of 1951 who. on the world's stage will play leading roles, to those who will stand ready in the wings to help, to those who will provide the music in the pit and the artist that designed the scenery, to those who will make up the audience which observes and appraises, to those who will criticize and determine the players' fate, our sincere wishes that you each may play your part well and faithfully. We have spent many hours together in Freeport High School. We've enjoyed your good humor, benefited from your energy and vitality, admired your high spirits and driving ambition. Wre hope that to those five characteristics we have added experience, factual foundations, and improved insight; that we have helped you establish per-serverance and intelligence so that they may be used for further progress: and that we have given you faith in the future, and faith in your individual worth and value to that future. Keep continually before you the high challenge to make your education and your training be of service to your community and your fellow man. May your joys, your friendly associations, your aspirations and ideals continue to guide you to a useful and happy life. Best wishes for success to each member of the Class of 1951, in every endeavor. John W. Dodd Superintendent of Schools Page nine

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ADMINISTRATION AND FOR thirty years Miss Ruth E. Cochran has been on the F.H.S. faculty, first as a math teacher, and now as Vice-Principal and Dean of Girls. The conscientious work she does as faculty advisor to the Freeport Chapter of the Junior Honor Society is appreciated, too, by all students. Perhaps Miss Cochran's most outstanding virtues, however, are the patience, sympathy, and understanding with which she treats problems brought to her attention by students themselves and by other teachers. While Mr. Wesley Southard, Vice-Principal and Director of Athletics, has the respect and admiration of every student in F.H.S.. he is especially appreciated by the twelve and thirteen year olds. Mr. Southard has become the guiding light to seventh graders by helping to solve problems they encounter during their first months of adjustment from elementary school. His cheers and enthusiastic attendance at athletic events, too, are appreciated by teams, cheerleaders, and sthdent body alike. When students enter senior high school. Mr. Tremper. by considering their interests and abilities and often by talks with parents, helps the students select proper courses. As our senior guidance counselor he aids upper classmen in preparing for college and in job placements after graduation. He also arranges various scholarship and aptitude exams, doing everything he can toward seeing a candidate accepted at the college of his choice. This outstanding guidance director takes time out to coach Freeport High's baseball team, too. Since coming to Freeport in 1938, Mr. Hesse has been quite active in student affairs. For five years he served as faculty advisor GUIDANCE to the “Voyageur,” at the same time teaching social studies and driver education. For six years he was faculty advisor to the G.O. and had charge of the Noon Hour Program. Now, as the new Junior High School Guidance Counselor, he not only schedules all junior high school students, but also is ready to help them at any time with their personal problems. MISS RUTH F. COCHRAN Page eleven