I C Norcom High School - Greyhound Yearbook (Portsmouth, VA)

Page 8 text:

DEDICA TED TO MRS. AUDREY ORTON AND MRS. SHIRLEY COFFEY 4

Page 7 text:

pottmww public vasts umyr. VOlITIL- VIBGIHIA

Page 9 text:

Norcom High Choir Director Selected Outstanding --75 ' GREYHOUNDS IN THE NE 1 What Has Integration Done To Norcum High? PORTSMOUTH - Melvin N Lewis, director of the l.C. Norcom High School Concert Choir, has been notified by Jones Bogle, director of the Outstanding Secondary Educators of America, that he has been selected as an outstanding educator for 1975. Only a small number of secondary educators from schools across the United States are chosen for this award each year. The outstanding Americans program is designed to honor the achievements and abilities of the nation’s finest citizens,” Bogle stated. To qualify, nominees must meet a set criteria by significantly contributing to their communities and professions, and must demonstrate their outstanding abilities through various civic activities MELVIN LEWIS is a Richmond native, having graduated from Armstrong High School as senior class president. He received a scholarship to study music at Indiana University; is a graduate of Virginia State College with advanced studies at Northwestern University. He taught in North Carolina and Virginia schools before joining the Norcom High School faculty in 1954. The Norcom choral director has been an intermediate, theory teacher at the Virginia Music Camp at Massanetta Springs, is a past president of the Music Conference. Virginia Teachers Association, has been on the board of the Virginia Music Educators Association, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Bellamy Award THROUGH THE years he has built reputable singing groups which have been acclaimed nationally. Since 19f 8 the Norcom Concert Choir has participated in the annual Bellamy Award Presentations and given special concerts at Bellamy Award Schools in the states of Minnesota, South Dakota, Vermont, Nex Mexico and Alabama THE CONCERT CHOIR will leave for Huntsville, Alabama. Friday when it will participate in the 34th annual Bellamy Award ceremonies the week of Octobers. Tuesday night the M. N. LEWIS group will present a special concert in the New Von Braun Civic Center Lewis will conduct his group, joined by students from the five Huntsville Senior High Schools, the University of Alabama at Huntsville and A. M University. He will also conduct the Huntsville Youth Symphony Orchestra. Dwight Steele of Tidewater Community College is guest pianist. ON FRIDAY, Oct. 10, the Norcom Concert Choir will sing at the Bellamy Award Presentation in the Von Braun auditorium. Others attending from Portsmouth are Lindell Wallace, assistant principal at Norcom High School, Dr. John Jackson, Mrs. Frances Johnson, Mrs. Louise Brown, and Dr. Margarette S. Miller, executive director of the national school program ROGER GOODE. Norcom senior who has been a member of the choir at the Vermont and New Mexico presentations, will represent his school, Portsmouth and the State of Virginia with students from l( other Bellamy Award states. The Commonwealth of Virginia received the second annual Bellamy Award in 1943 and Norcom is serving as the Acting Virginia School Goode is a member of the National Honor Society and is known to Portsmouth audiences for leading roles in the stage presenations of Purlie,” The Mouse that Roared” and Dracula.” By BERNICE PERRY PORTSMOUTH — l.C. Norcom, the predominately black high school in Portsmouth that was threatened with extinction during the late sixties, has begun to blossom again. During the period of desegregation, the city decided to transform one of the three high schools into a vocational-technical school. Norcom, the only high school in the black community, was chosen. Now it is not all-black and not a regular high school ; it is a vocational-technical school. Norcom has been a technical school for four years. Since then, enrollment has climbed from 475 to students to over 800 BEFORE THE school was changed to technical- vocational the students thought that it would be degrading to have the school change its format. The students boycotted the school because they were not sure of what was going to happen to it,” A T Edwards, principal of the school, said. “During that time the students thought that a vocational school would be for students who were not doing well academically, Edwards explained. WITH NORCOM, that is not the case. The school offers more opportunities for students who want to learn a skill while they are still in high school. It is a career comprehensive school, according to Edwards. “This means that when the students leave here they can do either of three things; go to work, go into an apprenticeship or go to any liberal arts college in the country,” Edwards stated PORTRAIT PRESENTED AT NORCOM -Michael Lyons, president of the Student Cooperative Association at Norcom High School in Portsmouth, presents a portrait to the principal, A.T. Edwards. The portrait of Mr. Edwards is a gift from the Smith Welton ' s Photogra- phy Studio.