Winkler Collegiate Institute - Collegian Yearbook (Winkler, Manitoba Canada)

Page 60 text:

MR. P. L. FRIESEN GRADE VII Back row, left to right: Lome Gies- brecht, Vincent Friesen, Randy Dyck, Jake Kehler, Henry Neufeld, George Elias, George Martens, Wayne Wall, Leonard Neufeld, Donnie Hiebert, Her¬ man Dyck, Harry Toews. Middle row: Peter DeFehr, Peter Klassen, Douglas Dyck, Helen Kroeker, Daryl Rietze, Agatha Thiessen, Elma Wall, Cathie Klassen, Harold Reimer, Richard Hamm, Harold Dyck. Front row: Susan Derkson, Ruth Reimer, Helen Hein¬ richs, Ruth Wiebe, Verna Friesen, Edna Schritt, Dorothy Dyck, Viola Braun. Missing: Agnes Kornelson. MISS T. THIESSEN GRADE VIII Back row, left to right: Frank Peters, Abe Fehr, Gary Dyck, Alan Wiebe, Donald Klassen, Ross Browne, Isaac Dyck, Bill Luptak. Middle row: Don¬ ald Fehr, Melvin Elias, John Klassen, Elizabeth Wall, Judy Hiebert, Tina Hamm, Craig Wood, Leonard Klassen, Dennis Hildebrand. Front row: Leona Banman, June Klassen, Kathy Unger, Sharon Peters, Elizabeth Boschman, Shirley Remple, Dorothy Kehler, Shir¬ ley Derkson. MR. M. SCHULZ GRADE VIII Back row, left to right: Rodney Enns, John Giesbrecht, Brian Remple, Glen Janzen. Henry Hildebrand, Robert Wiebe, Ralph Bueckert, Walter Labun, Larry Luptak. Middle row: Sheldon Friesen, Ronald Dyck, Richard Enns, Allan Loewen, Barbara Janzen, Mary Ann Friesen, Marvin Loewen, Cornie Krahn, Gerald Falk. Front row: Elvera Janzen, Loreen Loewen, Esther Janzen, Marianne Thiessen, Hilda Hamm, Ei¬ leen Loewen, Annette Letkeman, Betty Goertzen.

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(Eommemorating 70 f para of thr Utnklrr J rfyonl itatnrt Seventy years ago, April 22, 1893, the Winkler Public School District was formed by a Board of Arbitrators. According to the half-yearly report for the fall term of 1893, there were 62 pupils enrolled and the first teacher was Mr. Cornelius B. Past who had come here from Minnesota. He held an Interim Certificate. However, for two winters previous to that, private school classes had been held. In 1891-92, Mr. Jacob Andres taught a private school in a shed on what is today West Street. The following winter, 1892-93, Mr. George Froese taught a private school in a house a half mile east of Winkler at the site where the nuisance grounds are now located. The first public school building in Winkler was erected in 1893 on the lot at the southwest comer of Mountain Avenue and Sixth Street. It was a one-room school. However, by the fall of 1894, there were 106 pupils enrolled. Therefore, it had become necessary to engage a second teacher. A second classroom was consequently temporarily opened in a house to the north of the present Post Office on the east side of Sixth Street. By 1912, with 150 children enrolled, and with a look to the future, the District was ready to construct a brick building on the present school grounds at the southwest comer of Mountain Avenue and Eighth Street. Prom 1949 to 1954, this structure was used exclusively for High School classes. It was demolished in the spring of 1954, with the erection of the Collegiate and auditorium. A HISTORY OF WINKLER SCHOOL By the spring of 1953, the school population had increased to 552. Therefore, more accommodation was urgently required to take care of five over-flow classes. Consequently, on June 29, 1953, the School Board called a special meeting of the ratepayers and electors of the Winkler School District to discuss plans for a new building. The By-law which was subsequently drawn up and passed by the electors, called for a $190,000 debenture issue for the construction of a new 14-room school and an auditorium. The official opening of this building was held in the new school auditorium on Thursday, November 4, 1954. The Hon. W. C. Miller, Minister of Education, was the guest speaker on this occasion. THE SCHOOL POPULATION However, the most important factors of a school are not its buildings but rather the lives and minds that are developed within the four walls of the classroom. On graduating from High School, by far the greatest number of local students choose the teaching profession as a stepping stone to other fields. The nursing profession also receives a large share of Winkler Collegiate Institute graduates. Others have chosen medicine, engineering, agriculture, home economics, dentistry, stenography, business, industry, farming, etc. Before 1913, any pupil at Winkler who wished to complete his High School with Grade XI, had to go to Morden. One of the first students from Winkler to attend the Morden High School at the beginning of this century was Max Steinkopf. Max used to walk barefooted to Morden every morning in order to attend the classes there. Mr. Acheson, the station agent at Winkler at the time, says he would have been quite willing to loan him a pair of shoes but they would have been too small anyhow. After Max Steinkopf had finished High School, the family stinted in order that he could go to University. After graduation, he became a successful lawyer and owned a beautiful home on Wellington Crescent in Winnipeg. He died a millionaire. Mr. W. Schram, who preceded Mr. Frank Derksen as the Massey-Harris agent in Winkler, had two daughters who attended school in town here. One of these girls, Hattie, married Mr. Allan, the C.P.R. agent at Killarhey, Mani¬ toba. Ralph Allan, the editor-in-chief of Maclean’s magazine, was a son of this marriage. Another former Winkler school boy who has become a prominent western newspaperman is Mr. Jimmy Greenblatt who is the owner and editor of the Swift Current Sun. His father, Mr. Isaac Greenblatt, operated a general store in Winkler. On October 24, 1952, Mrs. Mary Klassen was elected to the Winkler School Board. This was the first time in the history of the Village of Winkler that a woman had been a candidate in a local civic election. Mrs. Klassen was bom in Winkler and received her education here. She attended Normal School in Manitou and Winnipeg and taught school for 15 years in the Winkler, Plum Coulee, and Gretna area. Another Winkler High School graduate, Mr. Reynold Siemens, son of Mr. G. G. Siemens, has won distinction as a cellist. He began his studies of the cello under Mr. Ben Horch as a member of the Winkler School Orchestra. Later he studied with Irwin Plumm and Mrs. J. M. Sinclair of Winnipeg and was a member of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. He then went to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia on a scholarship. Here he studied under Leonard Rose for three years. Mr. Siemens is the only student ever to receive an A-plus rating from Leonard Rose, and has appeared with many outstanding orchestras, as well as in recitals at many U.S. Universities and Colleges. THE TEACHERS AND PRINCIPALS The first teacher of the Winkler School District was Mr. Cornelius Past. In 1893, he received a salary of $550 and taught on an Interim Certificate. He had come here from Minnesota through the efforts of Rev. H. H. Ewert. The only lady who has served as principal of Winkler School was Margaret V. Bennett. She taught here from 1904 to 1907. Prom 1907 to 1912 Mr. Joe S. Walkof acted as principal. Mr. A. M. Headlam, M.A., 1912-13, appears to have been the first principal of the Winkler School who held a University degree. Mr. Frederick Philip Grove is possibly the only ex-principal of the Winkler School who has won national fame. Mr. Grove was the principal for two years, 1913 to 1915. After leaving the teaching profession, he became a noted Canadian author. Mr. Grove had the first grade XI class in the Winkler High School. He is remembered by his students as a “teller of tales.” In 1952, the Programme of Studies for Manitoba listed “A Search for America” by F. P. Grove as one of the novels on the Grade X Literature course. The principal with the longest tenure was Mr. John R. Wolkof, B.A. He served the Winkler School District for a period of 24 years, 1916-1940. The year before Mr. Wolkof came to Winkler, the enrolment had been 186 and the teaching staff numbered five. By 1940, the school population had risen to 331 and the staff to nine. THE SCHOOL TRUSTEES Excellent service to the community has been rendered by the local citizens who have served on the Winkler School Board. The trustees of the first School Board in 1893 were Isaac Dyck, Abram Kroeker, and Peter Peters. During the years since 1893, the following trustees, as well as many others, have given unstintingly of their time: Rev. Gerhard Wiebe (10 years); J. A. Kroeker (10 years); J. J. Enns (11 years); Rev. John Warkentin (12 years); Bern- hard Loewen (12 years); Herb D. Dick (13 years); Mr. Henry Janzen (12 years); Mr. H. F. Wiebe (12 years); and Dr. C . W. Wiebe (24 years), who for 18 years out of the 24 years that he served on the School Board, has acted as chairman of the Board.