Highline High School - Pirates Log Yearbook (Burien, WA)

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lt is fitting that this year's annual should commemorate the spectacular beginning of the most fruitful migration in the history of our country. The story of the Forty- Niners is more thrilling than any fiction. The story of the western empire that has been built around the adventurous trail breakers forms one of the most important chapters in our nation's development. The adventures in the mining camps of California were merely the beginnings of the greater adventure that led to the successors of Forty-Niners to break trails throughout the entire Pacific region and to back-track into the virgin opportunities of the Rocky Mountain states. It has been a century of progress. We have developed our material resources and have contributed our share to the improvement of power equipment, land, water and air transportation, atomic research, and all other lines of endeavor to improve our health, comfort and economic condition. We have also initiated new policies that have been nationally adopted in the political and social fields. The close of the century marks an appropriate time for taking stock of our changed conditions. Have we sufficiently developed the heritage left to us by the Forty-Niners? ls our progress top-heavy on the secular side? Has our moral and spiritual life kept pace with our intellectual and material advancement? Do ideals play any maior part in our daily endeavors? With our sturdy individualism appar- ently giving way to a more highly socialized way of life, are we thereby endan- gering our birthright of freedom? In a word, are we passing on to posterity a type of heritage as well-rounded as the heritage we received from the sturdy pioneers who began their westward trek following the lure of gold, but who remained to organize the entire West into states, and who gave ideals and character to the civilization they established here? --A Message from Leonard F. Johnson, Principal CARL JENSEN, vice-principal HAROLD RUDE, vice-principal

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Leonard F. Johnson's seemingly boundless reserve of energy and en- thusiasm are a source of never-ending wonder to the students of Highline. This man can be found in the midst of any student activity, trying his best to increase student co-operation and school spirit. Since Mr. Johnson has been serving as principal, Highline has put aside the nomenclature of the Little Red School on the Hilltop. Today it ranks among the largest and finest of the rural schools of Washington. The crackerbox has grown into a gym- nasium that is the pride of all, the new music rooms have fulfilled the dreams of the instructors, and the Puget Sound Junior High will soon relieve the congestion found in the halls. In all of these changes Mr. Johnson has played a vital role. As we watch the winds sweep out over the red-roofed grandstand of Memo- rial Field, we recall the indefatigable spirit of determination that drives a man who epitomizes the most ambi- tious of the Forty-Niners. l LEONARD F. JOHNSON, principal As the school year of 'I949 came to a close, Highline students bade farewell to both of their vice-principals. For twelve years Mr. Jensen's friendly smile and quiet voice have been familiar to every senior high student. His active leadership in both local and state recreational programs merits his new duties as Highline District Recreational Director. During his eighteen years at Highline, Mr. Rude has been everything from pen- manship teacher to iunior high vice-principal, the position he is now relinquishing for a new office in the Puget Sound Junior High School. His unusual ability to know personally and remember nearly every one of the Pirate Babes and his omni- present sense of humor are two of his many qualities that will be remembered.

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The summer winds sing on the prairies Of the men in the primitive years Who chased a wild phantom to westward And clung to our fleeting frontiers, The bleak winter winds chant their sagas- Strong, restless, and bold pioneers. They compassed the breadth of our prairies, Unmindful of frost or of gale, The tortuous maze of our mountains Ascended in search of their grail. But their long long trek is now over, They have reached the end of the trail. Seduced by the lure of their findings, We have entered the vistas they spanned, And the men who risked all for the title Have left us possessed of the land. Our science has rendered it fruitful By magic of brain and of hand. We have littered their trails with our cities, We have ribbed their mountains with steel, Effaced with our homes their rude camp-sites, Their graves our rich plantings conceal. We have followed their trek with our air-lines, Their phantoms are visions come real. We stand in the morn of an era, Before us is set a new goal, To make the land better for living, Man's dealing with man to control. They conquered the wide open spaces We ride the vast range of the soul. The winds chant low on the high-road Or moan to the unmarked bier, As the twilight creeps over the prairie With the hilltops shining clear- A dirge for the stalwart Crocketts be 3 vii 1' Msawat X 54. Riffs.. M Sw And a call for the new pioneer. from Old Trails and Other Verses a collection of poems by Highline's bard, Cyrus L. Gilbert