Polytechnic High School - Caerulea Yearbook (Long Beach, CA)

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24 CAERULRA ' 28 My Alma Mater has made many achievements since those days; and her invincible spirit of progress may in great measure, I believe, be attributed to the untiring efforts of David Burcham. His faithfulness to a vision of work well done is worthy of your highest tribute. Personally I feel that honor is due him and that it will receive the hearty approval of all who know his name. WILLIAM FENNELL ' 26 William Fennell, through his keen intellect and strong personality one of Poly ' s finest graduates and leaders, has rapidly come into prominence through his achievements at Yale University, where he has recently distinguished himself as orator and debater. I congratulate you on dedicating the 1928 annual to Mr. Burcham. If the people of Long Beach should respect any man, it is Mr. Burcham, who has served the city in its educational system for so long. He has endeared himself in the hearts of all those students who have come closely to know his warmth of friendship and his great patience in dealing with perplexing student problems. FACULTY It would be inadequate indeed to consider the achievements of the alumni without noting the leadership of the hundreds of faculty men and women who with Mr. Burcham through the years have guided the life and thought of Poly. Among those men and women are two whose anniversary greetings are of especial significance to Caerulea and her readers. MISS KATHERINE A. MOSHER Miss Katherine Mosher was a faculty member, teaching languages, when Poly High was in its infancy. To her belongs the distinction of christening Caerulea when it began in small pamphlet form. She also has the honor of being granted a certificate to teach before her graduation from Stanford University, an almost unheard of thing. She still maintains her home in Long Beach and her interest in the affairs of Polytechnic High. She sends the following greeting: I am happy to send greetings to all the alumni and teachers of Poly High whom I have known and loved, especially to Mr. Burcham. In recalling the years I was associated with him, I shall ever remember him as a fine, Christian gentleman, always exerting an uplifting influence upon the students and courteous and kind to teachers and students alike. Can it be possible that this is also the twenty-fifth anniversary of Caerulea. which made its first appearance so long ago in very modest for m? If 1 remember

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ANNIVERSARY GREETINGS 23 my word of appreciation of Mr. Burcham himself. Since my graduation from Poly High, I have attended the three largest universities in California; but in none of these institutions have I known a kindlier, more considerate, Christian gentleman. Men of his spirit are all too rare in the educational field as well as in all others. Now for the event. First, picture old Tournament Park in Pasadena with a wild but tense football crowd in the stands and Long Beach fighting desperately to defeat a great Berkeley High team for the championship of California. Sounds like imagination, but it was honestly — the fourth quarter and the score tied, fourteen all. LeFebvre and Dolley had scored on long, brilliant runs while the Yellow Jackets, champions of Northern California, had smashed our line for two crushing touchdowns. Our boys were making their last bid for victory; the ball was on Berkeley ' s thirty-two yard line, and Dolley called for what looked like a place kick. Tiernan made ready for the try; but when Miller passed the ball, Chet wheeled around and threw it back to Tiernan who, like a flash, passed it a long way over to the left of the field. Cheek, Berkeley half-back, was playing close to the line (Cheek, by the way, captained the Harvard Varsity last year) ; the ball went over him, and Jim Lawson caught it and ran over the goal line — Well — I just had time to see Roy Baker (one of the greatest football players we ever had), who was down from Santa tiara carrying water for the team, throw a full bucket twenty feet in the air, soaking several, when I was hit so hard on the back that it knocked me off the end of the bench. Who did it? I suspected some husky sub; but no, — it was Principal David Burcham. Did he apologize? Not a chance! He didn ' t even watch me pick myself up. He wasn ' t even looking my way ! 1 have had the privilege of returning to Poly many times since that memorable game in 1919, and it is a joy to say that Mr. Burcham has not changed. He is still the finest spirited, most loyal supporter Poly High ever had. RICHARD LOYNES ' 21 The world of sport knows few more prominent men than Dick Loynes with his famous speedboats which, since his successful career at Polytechnic, have brought his numerous prizes in addition to world-wide recognition. His famous Smiling Dan ' ' ' slogan attests his success also as a business man. As I read your recent letter requesting a few words from me for this edition of Caerulea, I found myself turning back again in memory to the days of my own activities at Poly High. Happy days! As I review the panoramic history of my high school period, I can truly say that no other events of my life surpass in vividness the colorful pictures of that time.

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ANNIVERSARY GREETINGS 25 correctly, its first cover was blue with a ship upon it because the name I had given it meant ' The Deep Blue Sea ' . It has grown beyond all our expectations; and true to its classical name, its early numbers themselves have become classics. I am proud of ' Caerulea ' . Long may it live and grow. MISS ELIZABETH H. BAILEY It is futile to attempt to comment on the exceptionally brilliant style of Mis-, Bailey, whose interesting letter speaks for itself. Suffice it to say that her intense interest during the years that she headed the English department at Poly was a major factor in the development of literary organization. She personally advised Caerulea. Acacia, and La Brisa. Although she is no longer teaching, her interest in Poly continues and her influence is still felt. These recollections should be entitled, ' When we were very young ' , as indeed we were. That was when you senior Caeruleans were not yet in your cradles; when your registrar, Mr. Frank G. Reid, was a bachelor with a wavy pompadour; and the high school fatuity of some twenty-live sociably lunched together around the tables in the chemistry lab, brewing cocoa and bacon in the midst of H2S or some other equally violent odor. By the incoming freshies Mr. Bureham was frequently mistaken for ' the man who fixed the clocks ' , for on each Monday morning, accompanied by Ins wiggly ladder, he hurried from room to room to start the clocks (they always stopped on Sunday) and us aright. In those primitive days the principal was also chief of the fire department, in fact, the fire department in full. Never will the old grads forget the day when at the sound of tiie fire alarm, the whole high school rushed down the stairs to find only two scared dago hoky-poky peddlers, Hannibal and Scipio. Some miscreant seniors, probably now in the judiciary or the ministry, had captured their ice cream and told them to ring the gong in the hall; Mr. Bureham would come out and give them their ice cream. They rang; Mr. Bureham did come; but to the hapless dagos it seemed Inferno had broken loose. Twenty-one years ago that was, and happily still Mr. Bureham is the center of the life of Long Beach Polytechnic High School. His office teems, as of old, with students and teachers; and he is never too rushed to listen to a fresh triumph or a dour tale of woe. From the quiet of years how petty the woes seem, but how genuine the help of my kindly, generous, broad-minded chief! A Scotch sense of justice, an Irish sense of humor, an American common sense: all that in one man, David Bureham. Lucky indeed is Long Beach Polytechnic High to hold such a man for twenty-one years. ' '