Richmond High School - Shield Yearbook (Richmond, CA)

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We Dedicate Our Shield to Three Teachers To the old, half-baked question, “are teachers persons?” Richmond Union High School has three dashing, affirmative answers: Mrs. Carroll Parrill, Mrs. Margaret Thompson and Mrs, Alice Clark. This year, on MRS, CARROLL PARRILL As Browning said, everybody has two soul-sides, and Mrs. Parrill is no exception. We know pretty wellthe one she “faces the world with.” This is her teacher-side, which has always been superbly professional. That is, Mrs. Parrill knows inside-out everything there is to know about U.S, History and Civics, her subjects for forty-two years. Furthermore, she knows how to teach them without fuss and feathers, and still make them attractive and interesting. In her cheerful, orderly classrooms, students develop an extraordinary sense of security and loyalty. They know exactly what is expected of them, they know always that they have received a square deal, and they soon learn that hard, steady work is the price of excellence. Mrs. Parrill, in short, is a teacher whose knowledge, methods and management of the young seem as natural and effortless as the workings of Nature itself. On her non-professional side we have reason to believe that Mrs. Parrill finds life to be as juicy andsweet as any proud and happy home- maker. Of handsomely appointed dwellings she has had several, all of them enhanced with the precious antiques she has ceaselessly hunted since girlhood, In recent years she has takento making exquisite woolen rugs. Her cooking is fit for a king, her wardrobe for a queen, her books for a scholar, and her jolly quips andsunny smile for a choir of angels. Her devoted husband, George, is a deeply contented man and no doubt will be even more so, now that his wife will no longer daily sally forth to educate the young. Mrs, Parrill’s background is pure California. Borninthe small town of Lockford, she lived with her family on their Ripon ranch and later with her aunts in nearby Stockton where she graduated from high school. In 1924 she came straight to R,U.H.S, from the University of California. During her long stint of teaching she has served on innumerable student and faculty committees, and most notably as Chairman of the History Department and Sponsor of a very popular Debating Club. One of the members of this club, Bobby Burns, is now President of the University of the Pacific. Dr. Burns has said many times, publicly and privately, that it was Mrs. Parrill, and nobody else, who gave him the lift, the self-confidence, the will-to-succeed, which have taken him to the top of his field. This testimony needs no comment except to say that rarely does any teacher anywhere ever earn wholehearted praise and gratitude like this. ; MRS. MARGARET THOMPSON coer dearest friends take joy in describing Mrs. Thompson as “the isorganized organized” person they know. They claim leaves friends standing on str : einai moving the lens cap, etc. This should shake the f irst- pave aiae a aculty who have first Suggests that Mrs. her spectacular rise Assistant she figured where (and sometimes preternaturally crow se i eee oe ae. for imagination, as when she had Latin to 1959 Mrs, Thompson into curriculum-making her greatest triumphs master programs for R.U.H S.’s double shi -U.H.S, shift years, Saved us all from three shifts.) a ee Ne 00C3S HE inci Meld, [y Ite, cha Mts, ( Dino, 4 lay Eis bar Hal 1 uty) found fy ED preser

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Who Have Dedicated Their Lives to RUHS the occasion of their retirement, we propose to celebrate their tower- ing individuality. We, the Class 1966, dedicate to each of them our Shield. In so doing, we give our Shield the imprint of their strength, virtue, charm, and genuine humanity. MRS, ALICE CLARK Mrs. Clark is just about the nicest, jolliest, kindest person you want to know. Ask anybody who knows‘her. Or talk to her yourself, Watch her madly-blue eyes twinkle. Mrs. Clark teaches Physical Education and it is hard to believe that she has been at it for thirty-three years or that now she is going to stop. People like her, who radiate so much youthful enthusiasm, vigor and plain loving kindness, should stay around forever. We know quite well that this raving is silly and that her presence at home is much more important than making life pleasant for us here at school. But we hate to let her go, It is not merely Mrs. Clark’s warm, fun-loving disposition that makes her so attractive. She is so versatile, so many-sided, She plays, of course, a great game of baseball, isan accomplished, graceful athlete, completely unmuscle-bound, and a charming teacher. But, she also makes beautiful clothes (especially formals), does expert gardening, is a dazzling hostess, plays marvelous bridge, can play the piano, takes in stray dogs, cats, birds, etc., has won dozens of prizes in ballroom dancing, knows practically all the nightspots in San Francisco as well as all the new dances, has appeared in performances for all kinds of special dance groups, is outstanding in folk-dancing, studies French and Spanish in night classes, studied German in Austria, made a long and fabulour trip around the world, supports at least two Greek families with CARE packages, reads thoroughly and endlessly about countries, people and things that catch her interest, and has unending sympathy, care and understanding for the underdog. Needless to say, Mrs. Clark’s fantastic number of friends love her dearly and so do wave after wave of students as they come and go, Everybody in the old school crowd remembers Mrs, Clark, because everybody doted on her, She lives with her husband, Dick, the very light of her eyes, in a garden-bound house, and takes devoted care of her mother, She was not born in Richmond, but in Hayward. Neverthe- less, she went to grammar school in El Cerrito and graduated from R,U.H.S, At Cal she majored in Physical Education, minored in Bacteriology (her “true love”) and also—this beats all—received her Social Service Credential. With all this extraordinary, background, String of interests and accomplishments, and host of vital personal qualities, Mrs. Clark remains serenely unaware that she is different, special and totally admirable. She thinks that she is “just plain folks.” The is one of the reasons why we love her so much. Why such a burdensome career has not driven Mrs. Thompson up the wall becomes clear when we consider her life away from school. She lives in a gracious house built by her adoring husband, Wayne. Her son, Gil, is an airline pilot, her daughter, Joan, chief therapist in an Oakiand hospital. She has three grandchildren to whom she reads with verye and melting affection, She is a respectable golfer, and has lately been persuaded to bowl. Her delight in classical music, opera, art and literature is proverbial, And she has traveled around Europe on three separate occasions, the first time in the interests of archery. Archery, as a matter of fact, has been asimportant to Mrs, tournament that she first set eyes on her husband and Cupid emptied his quiver. It was also at the International Archery Meet in Paris in 1937 that she put Richmond on the map when she became world champ- ion in the sixty meters distance and placed third in combined long distances. Although Mrs. Thompson was not born with bow-in-hand nor yet in Richmond, but in Fitchburg (?) now part of Oakland, the fact that she shot her first arrows into Richmond air and went to U.C, via Stege and R,U.H.S,, make her a local product. As such, we take exceeding pride in her athletic celebrity, her academic career, her administrative savoir faire and, withal, her unique, lovable and highly disorganized Thompson’s life as it was to William Tell’s. It was at an archery self,