Union High School - Aurora Yearbook (Grand Rapids, MI)

Page 7 text:

Dedication To Miss Myrtle Heseltine, adviser of the school newspaper, The Reflector, and former adviser of the annual, we dedicate this Aurora. She has surmounted the innumerable difficulties which beset a high school publications adviser to produce Reflectors and Auroras worthy of being called Union's own. The Aurora won AllfAmerican honors in 1936 under her capable direction. No other Grand Rapids high school in the last eight years has produced a year' book which has won AllfAmerican honors, and in 1936 no other high school in Michigan won this distinction. Miss Heseltine was a pioneer in the use of action pictures to replace the stiff, posed groups in annuals of byfgone days. The Reflector received First Class rating in 1936 and 1937, another tribute to our hard working adviser's ingenuity and willingness to experiment. Working on the Reflector staff, students become aware of her consideration to all with whom she comes in contact. She would refuse to allow any item to appear in the paper if she thought that it would hurt someone's feelings even an infinitesimal amount. She strives to make her students appreciate and achieve accuracy, that prime requisite of publications work. She knows how to take a joke, loves fun, and has the knack of pleasing everyf body. She knows and understands boys and girls and helps them improve themselves. We salute Miss Heseltine!

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Foreword The Aurora staff has made an effort to produce a yearbook which will bring back memories of happy days at Union in 193768. We believe that a photograph album and a diary are perhaps the most effective way of ref calling the past, so in our memory book we are making these the outstanding features. Our album contains, for the Hrst time, in addif tion to the usual senior pictures, informal snap' shots of the faculty and group pictures of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades. School life is portrayed in the diary of Jean Unionite. Her activities and interests symbolize those of the average girl studentg while the activif ties and interests of her friend, Joe Highschool, symbolize those of the average boy student. The staff hopes that in the years to come this memory book will bring happy recollections and that our readers will enjoy reviewing its pages as much as we have enjoyed preparing them.

Page 8 text:

5111 'illllemnriam Loyalty is the holiest thing in the human heart?-Seneca The passing of Mr. William Pearn on February 8, 1938, brought sorrow and a distinct sense of loss to students and teachers who were in any manner associated with him. His cheerfulness, helpfulness, and extended interest in the school beneited Union High School both morally and physically. Whatever was of interest to Union was of interest. to Mr. Pearn. He constantly strove to assist in solving his students' social and vocational problems. He was born February 15, 1881. Following his graduation from Western State Teachers College, he began his career at Lewis Institute in Chicago, by teaching machine shop there as he did for twentyfone years at Union. It was in Chicago that he learned the tool and die trade at which he was most skillful. In September, 1916, he came to Union to teach machine shop, mechanical drawing, and mathematics. He kept his own shop in utmost orderliness and in his spare time made several machines for the science laboratory. Keeping his car in perfect running order was his hobby. Although not a sportsrnan, he was a lover of birds, animals, and the outfoffdoors and was keenly interested in the preservation of nature. During his last illness, new machines, obtained largely through his efforts, had been brought into his shop. His last wish was to see these machines and the shop in which he had served so long. Loyalty and devotion such as Mr. Pearn's is an inspiration to all.