From 1953 to 1971, boys and girls took specific routes from dorms to school and vice versa. The rationale behind the selected walkways where they were wassupposed to walk every day was to see less mixture of intermediate and upper students. Administrators and teachers had enough work on their plates and didn’t need to handle potential conflicts.
The cluster of four Shasta dorms was located southwest from the upper school buildings. They were for intermediate and upper girls. The intermediate girls in Shasta IV (in purple) were instructed to walk toward the infirmary first and then continued past the dining hall and then the Rubidoux I dorm (now the Counseling Center). At that point, they turned north and continued walking toward the Seely Center (formerly P Building). See below the yellow highlight where they went.
See below where Intermediate School Principal Alyce Thomas stands inside the Seely Center. This was where intermediate students entered the entrance door and scattered to their assigned classrooms.
Karen Kleiman, ‘66, instantly identified the two boys on the right: Greg Decker, ‘66 and Jack Lamberton, ‘66. Karen also said the girl in the center was herself.
Three intermediate classrooms were found on the right side in the Seely hallway.
Many more intermediate classrooms were located in the 300-building wings.
Miss Thomas had her office on the left side down the Seely hallway. She held her office there from 1953 to her retirement in 1971 around 60 of age for health reasons.
Miss Thomas explained to me 25 years later that being a principal took many hours of work and carried multiple-pronged work load. She made a surprising remark that Dr Brill took it upon himself and Assistant Superintendent Armin Turechek (1953-1962) to handle phone calls with parents of all 500-600 students. Today counselors, teachers and secretaries contact parents by phone or computer. Below is an example that Miss Thomas came at night to help sell snacks at a game for fund raising.
Here comes for the location of three Palomar dorms (yellow) in a cluster for upper boys.
Upper boys walked on the route in orange from Palomar dorms in yellow toward school in lime.
Below show where upper girls came on the slope walkway from Shasta dorms in yellow.
The young man in the foreground is Tom Utley, ‘62. Behind him is Mark McCrory, ‘62, in the center.
As can be seen above, at left, is Principal CL Gover where he stood every morning for years to monitor boys and girls as they ambled to their first-period class.
Gover came to CSDR in Fall 1953 from the Arkansas School for the Deaf. In 1955, he took over the principal duties to administer the upper department from Miss Alyce Thomas when both the intermediate and upper departments became big enough to have a separate principal for each.
Like Thomas, Gover worked long hours and experienced office pressure with endless tasks. He joined with Thomas in announcing his retirement in 1971 for the same reason as hers. They were often together on campus, but they were never sweethearts. They lived separate in the same apartment complex at the base of Mt Rubidoux.
Around 1998, Greg Decker, ‘66, and I went to their apartment units and selected their belongings for the school museum. Thomas moved back to Illinois to take care of her older deaf sister at age of 100. Gover moved to Florida to live with his sister for living assistance.
Today’s campus looks different with the demolition of the old Shasta and Palomar dorms and the construction of new cottages in different configurations and locations. Students have their walk routes different from the early years. Principals don’t stand outside every morning like Thomas and Gover did. Instead, teacher aides and teachers stand outside to monitor students. Also, teachers and principals take turns monitoring students in the dining hall for lunch.
As true in the past, proper supervision of students across all grades continues to be essential for school safety.
Kevin Struxness, ‘76
Editor, CSDR Old Times
31 December 2024
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