Sir Adam Beck Secondary School - Lacedaemon Yearbook (London, Ontario Canada)

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COMPLETED SCHOOL 1927 The completed building was described as equipped with every modern convenience, of fireproof construction and providing spacious accommodation for work and re- creation , The students of the collegiate, how- ever, were forced to share their modern facilities with their public school counter- parts. In 1931, a great sigh of relief might have been heard in the hal Is of S .A . B .C . I . , as the public school classes were transferred to the recently completed quarters in Lady Beck Public School. As the years passed, and Beck grew in population, it became necessary to add to the school . In 1949, the first of a planned series of additions to the school was begun . A cafeteria was added, built at the back of the original building. The other additions planned, a gymnasium and a classroom wing, never materialized. Students who graduated from Beck before 1960 wouldn ' t recognize their alma mater today. For in 1961, an addition was added to the front of the school to create the building we now know so well . At this same time the boys ' gym was also built. The addition was designed to be in the same style as the original building. In this centennial year a great number of organizations have become historically minded. Many are looking back to the cir- cumstances contributing to their founding and to the achievements, both famous and infam- ous, they have made. We at Beck have a double incentive to do just that. Besides marking the 100th year of Confederation, 1967 also marks the 40th year of the com- pletion and naming of our school . In the year 1924, a growing popula- tion in London ' s east end forced the founding of a secondary school in an old school build- ing on Princess Ave . The name of London East Collegiate was chosen for this establish- ment. Within one year however, facilities at this location became inadequate and a new collegiate was built on a twenty acre site on Dundas Street, across from Oakland Ave. The land, which was owned by the Ontario government, was purchased by the city through the good offices of Sir Adam Beck MPP. The grateful city honoured its illust- rious citizen by naming the new school after AN EARLY ASSEMBLY FORMER LIBRARY

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BECK: a History 85

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Of course, a school is not a building alone, a school is people. And some of the most important people in a school are the teachers. The teachers who are the most associated with Beck ' s history are the ones who have been here the longest, and who have become the most involved with Beck. Such teachers as Mr . Bartley, Mr. Cropp, Mr. Groat and Mr. Chapman con tell a thousand tales about the school, its traditions and its people . The late John H. Dolan was Bee established the school in its new school in the important first few man; he invented the desks the [ desks, that now stand in Mr. Gr he was an airplane fighter pilot. : ' s first principal . He building and guided the In World War 1, Mr. Dolan ' s daughter Dolan was school libn retired. She made our now. (no slight to Mi: Beck. Miss Kathlee 927 to 1963, when : excellent institutioi Longman intended.) lib H. A. Stewart joined the staff in 1932 and guided many of our school teams to victory. In his later years here, he left physical education and specialized in geography. Last year he was called out of his first year of retirement to serve as temporary vice-principal when Mr. Traut was transferred. Mr. Groat, a Latin teacher, presently holds the Beck record for length of tenure. He began teaching at Beck in 1932 and is still here . No lengthy discussion of his exploits need be recorded here, for last year ' s yearbook was dedicated to