Turners Falls High School - Peske Tuk Yearbook (Turners Falls, MA)

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A TRIBUTE OF LOVE AND REMEMBRANCE TO ONE WE WILL NEVER FORGET With feelings of deepest regret we felt the passing of Miss Welcome Ayer, our beloved and respected teacher, who died on December 29, 1950. Because we realize to the fullest extent what we have gained because of her inspired teaching and because of the warm personal feeling engraved in our hearts by her kindly unselfish life, we feel we have lost more than a teacher but a dearly beloved friend. Her English sessions were never drab or monotonous but flavored with good humor and wisdom. The wealth of her teaching was not confined to the classroom, but reached out and touched our personal lives. She was all a teacher should be. Her achievements and sacrifices will ever be a living monument to her useful life on earth. She left the coming generation a heritage of a richer and better world because she passed this way. 6

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DEDICATION He has worked with but one aim-that of making T.F.H.S. the school of which we are proud. He has asked for no reward but the raising and keeping of its high standards and seeing better future citizens graduate each year. His efforts have often gone unappreciated because unknown but all his en- deavors are shown clearly in the steady progress of the school. He has repeatedly championed the student and demonstrated good iudgment in all matters. innumerable graduates have had a chance to a better life because of his aid. But most outstanding is the security and dependability he symbolizes and the fact that every student knows he will get uncompromised fairness from him. So, as a small but really sincere acknowledgment of all he has done for T.F.H.S. and its past, present, and future students, we dedicate this yearbook to our principal, Mr. George Wrightson. 5

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ln September of 1920, Mr. Arthur E. Burke came to the Turners Falls High School as a teacher of science and athletic coach. He had recently graduated from Boston College and earlier had been an Infantry Officer in the United States Army. For six years Mr. Burke was sub-master and head of the science department and in 1926 he became principal of the high school and served in that position for the next eleven years. During this period, both the town and the high school were rapidly growing and, in 1936, work was started on eight new classrooms, an auditorium, and a gymnasium. This was a maior project and in the midst of the expansion, during the summer of 1937, Mr. Burke was appointed Superintendent of Schools in Mon- tague. ln 1938 the high school was at its peak enrollment of 596 pupils. Just two years later the boys and girls who were to become members of the class of 1951 entered the first grade. During World War Il, Mr. Burke served as Lieutenant Colonel of the 22nd Infantry, Massachusetts State Guard. He did extensive work in that capacity and contributed greatly to the local and state war efTort. The members ofthe class of 1951 sincerely appreciate and are deeply indebted to Mr. Arthur E. Burke for his continued guidance and interest in the pupils of the Montague School System. MR. ARTHUR E. BURKE