A Look Back:

It’s surprising how much is happening over at Huntington High these days. Restoration of the tower is progressing nicely and should be completed shortly. The tower has been a symbol of the beloved school for past and present students since it was completed in 1926.

This week lets look back at teachers who have formed part of the school’s rich heritage.

In 1945 the school had 32 on its faculty. From Compton came English teacher Marian Mize, who had taught in that city while her husband served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. Mize came to our school with a good background in education, having attended Phillips University in Enid, Okla., Oklahoma College for Women and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Mize spent two years teaching English at Albuquerque High School before coming to Huntington High.

Having been born and educated in the Los Angeles school system, Victoria Hunter was a true Southern California girl. She left Los Angeles to complete her education at Santa Barbara State College before coming here to teach girls’ physical education.

Coming all the way from Kansas was another girls’ gym teacher, Dorothy Ann Rosier, who would attend State Teachers College to get her degree at Emporia, Kan.

After her graduation from the state university, Rosier taught there for one year before leaving to teach at Maricopa High School in California for the next three years. She then left Maricopa High to begin her new teaching career at Huntington High.

LeMoille Pugh came to Huntington High from Ohio to teach business education to our students. She had received her training at Oberlin College in Ohio, Northwestern College, Sawyer, Gregg, Stanford School of Nursing and Claremont College in Southern California before arriving to join the faculty at Huntington.

Evelyn Mahony was another teacher who came to Huntington to teach business education and typing to our students. She was born and raised in Long Beach were she received her early education in its public schools. Mahony went to Pasadena Junior College prior to attending UCLA.

Helen Jean Stengel came to teach our young girls at Huntington how to be better homemakers. She had previously taught homemaking classes at El Centro High School. She received her education at UCLA like Mahony, where she specialized in advanced clothing and dressmaking classes.

Stengel also attended the Frank Wiggins Trade School in downtown Los Angeles before working at the Custom Made Dress Stores for the next three years.

One of the teachers at Huntington to welcome these teachers to their new campus was Melvin Strong, the youth coordinator for the Huntington Beach High School District. Strong began life in the northeast corner of a two-room log cabin in Lyman, Wyo., on July 20, 1898.

In 1904 the family moved to Cowley, in Big Horn County, Wyo., and it was there that he received his early education. He joined the Boy Scouts and climbed the ranks to become an Eagle Scout.

During his summer months as a teenager, Strong worked on construction projects and on neighboring farms and ranches. In 1913 he participated in a summer cattle roundup for the L7 Ranch and two years later the family moved to Twin Falls, Idaho, where 17-year-old Melvin worked in the summer at the Twin Falls Garage.

While in high school, Strong excelled in sports and received his letters in athletics. When not on the field, he took part in school dramatics, debating, or playing in the school band and orchestra. After he graduated from Twin Falls High School he enlisted in the Army during World War I.

In 1918 Strong was sent to officer’s training school in Texas, but the armistice was signed and the war ended. For the next three years he was employed in the machine shop for the Denver and Rio Grande railroad in Salt Lake City. While working there, he met Ruth Thorson and shortly thereafter the two were wed, followed by the births of their two sons, Eugene and Ralph.

Strong was able to save enough money to enter Brigham Young University in 1924 and three years later he graduated. With a wife, two sons and $1,000 in debt, he taught in the local high school while working on his master’s degree at Utah University.

In 1931 another child, LaPriel, came along and by 1933 Strong had earned his degree and become a member of the faculty at Utah University. He remained there for the next 11 years and at one time took a sabbatical from the university to earn his doctorate at USC. Two more children came along: Ruth in 1936 and Norma in 1943.

While being part of our faculty at Huntington, Strong wrote many fine articles on educational and scientific topics that were published in many national magazines. He made many guest appearances to speak on educational subjects, including one at the Woman’s Society of Christian Services of our Methodist church on Orange Avenue, where he gave a vivid account of the work the district had accomplished for our students.

Huntington High can be proud of its teachers, both past and present, and excited about the teachers that will occupy its classrooms in the future.

JERRY PERSON is the city’s historian and a longtime Huntington Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.