Natrona County High School - Mustang Yearbook (Casper, WY)

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---- THE GUSHER -l-- ROBERT S. HICKS Superintendent of Schools Mr. Hicks came to us in 1926 from California, and first assumed the duty as supervising principal of Natrona County High School. The next year he was made superintendent of the Natrona County High School and School District No. 2. Institutions in California have been the source of Mr. Hicks' education. He at- tended Occidental College, at Los Angeles, where he received his A. B. degree and was valedictorian of his class. Seeking higher education, he did two years' grad- uate work, one year each at the University of Southern California and the University of California at Berkeley. These two years of graduate work are toward his Degree of Doctor of Education. Our superintendent is a most connnend- able citizen, one of few to have the dis- tinction of belonging to three National Honor Societies: Phi Delta Kappa, an educational honor societyg l'hi Beta Kappa, a national honor scholarship fraternity: and l'i Gamma Mu, a social science honor 1 society. 1 Mr. Hicks is much in demand by the public as a speaker and writer. His literary articles have been published in worthy magazines and his speeches broadcast over the radio. The Who's Who in American Education, a biographical Dictionary of Eminent Living liducators of the United States carries a biography of Mr. llicks. LESLIE H. DANIS Principal of High School lt is as instructor in Spanish that we first knew Mr. Danis. lle came to us in 1922 from Douglas where he spent a year and a half after leaving the University of Chicago. During bis first four years in Natrona County High School he acted as teacher of Spanish and head of the Foreign Language Department, and teacher of Spanish in the Night School. Through his interest in Spanish the Spanish club, known as lil Circulo Noventa, was organized and has been running for the past eight years. This is the oldest club in school. Mr. Danis was the instigator of journalism his first year here and with a meagre staff and poor equipment edited the Mess- ' ' enger, successor to The VVhirlwind, published by the junior class of the pre- ceding year. Our chapter of Quill and Scroll was obtained through his efforts. Talent for debate was discovered and trained under the program begun by Mr. Danis in 1922. From head of the Foreign Language De- partment, and director ofthe Night School, Mr. Danis was appointed to the principal- ship of Natrona County High School in the fall of 1927. The executive council of the student government organization has hr-fl his guidance since organized by him in 19.27, following the first general organiza- tion the previous year. During the VVorld VVar he served in the U. S. Navy and received commission as lfnsign. Our principal is a graduate of Drake University in Iowa, receiving his Bachelors degree there in 1920. He is completing his Ma.ster's Degree at the University of Southern California. At Drake University he was a member of the l'hi Gamma Lam- ba fraternitv. Mr. Danis is a member of the local Kiwanis Club. He is always , , keenly interested in High School boys and girls and their affairs. Thirteen l---l 1 9 3 0

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--1 THE GUSHER -l OUR BOARD OF EDUCATION H. H. SCH VVARTZ, CHAIRMAN, Lawyer HENRY H, I'AT'l'ERSON,Yn'1i CIIAIRMAN, lfield Engineer, Midwest Refining Company J. H. ARB UCKLE, SECRETARY, Foreman Construction Department, Standard Oil Company ALBERT PARK, 'l'REAs1'RRR, Chief Engineer and Purchasing Agent, New York Oil Co. EARL E. IIANXYAY, General Manager Casper Tribune Herald MRS. ALLIE DICKINSON, County Superintendent of Schools T. F. SPECK RACH ER, Trades Assembly As noted above it can be said that our Board of Education is composed of people who are successfully engaged in major business, industrial, and pro- fessional pursuits. This is as it should be. The schools call for a higher and more intelligent type of community service than is called for in any other branch of municipal xvork. The present board has been wide awake, sane, and progressive, and has not been afraid to spend money intelligently. Each mem- ber thinks for himself and practically every member is a college graduate. In every instance the board has worked for the higher welfare of the schools. They have not only selected experts for the executive work of the schools but have also extended to its executive officers the confidence and intelligent sympathy desired. All people connected with the schools feel assured of the fairness of the board. lt is truly representative of the people in its judgment on all proposals that determine the general policy of the school system. SLOGAN FOR SCHOOL YEAR Equal opportunity for every child in the school system to develop to the fullest measure possible whatever capacities he or she may possess. SUPT. R. S. HICKS. ii--1930-1--- T...

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---- THE GUSHER ---l- TEN YEARS IN THE HISTORY OF NATRONA COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLV The past ten years have witnessed the growth of Natrona County High School from a village institution to a great modern high school gathering its students beyond the limits of the city, the county and even the state itself. In that ten years our school has risen from obscurity to a prominence and fame that has carried its name into states north, south, east and west, as a place of unusual educational opportunity. At the dawn of 1920 we find that our school had recently expanded from the basement of the city library into the then new and proud building that now houses the junior high school. The community wondered if sufficient student body would ever be gathered to fill this new 340,000 structure, and justify the building. A view of conditions in Natrona County High School in 1920 would show us two hundred and three boys Hlld girls enrolled, seventeen teachers, and the principal, a cadet corps of about seventy-five students. There was no auto mechanics department, no woodwork as we have it today, no normal training, no library, not half of the subjects now offered in our four year courses. The streets surrounding the school were unpaved. Many of the buildings about the school had not been put up. In fact, the high school was way out on the edge of town in the midst of mud, sand and wind that made things continually disagreeable. However, through the years, since back in the nineties when a high school was first planned, the people of Casper sought to give their boys and girls just a little bit more and better training than they could get in the average com- munity. The vision of Casper as a center for good schools has persisted, and grown, and materialized, until today no community can boast of better organ- ized, better equipped, and better manned schools, than exist in 1930 in Natrona Cmmty. Expansion has gone on well in advance of the times into every field touched upon by high schools anywhere. The best, the finest, the most up-to- date in the field of high school endeavor is found centered in Natrona County High School. Progress brings new and better things to our institution each year. 1930 will see the completion of a hundred thousand dollar swimming pool, of tennis courts, cinder track, the addition of new and finer equipment in the classrooms, the laboratories, shops, and library. Each succeeding year more and better trained students leave the portals of our school. VVithin the decade the student body has grown from two hun- dred to over a thousand, students who have gone out from Casper and taken their places here and there over the United States among the best in the land in all occupations. Our high school stands as a most magnificent gift of the people to the youth of Casper. L. H. DANIS. --1930-1 Fourteen