webster on the web

You’ll remember the blog I recently posted about the proper pronunciation of Webster Schroeder High School. In addition to all the interesting comments I got on that blog, I got a follow-up question from one of my readers, who asked: When and why did R.L. Thomas High School change its name to Webster Thomas?

I’ll answer that question at the end of this blog. But it got me to poking around a bit online, where I happened upon this piece which I originally posted in 2014. I thought that those of you who remember the old Webster High would enjoy it.

A walk through Webster High
(originally posted March 27, 2014)

I happened upon my high school library’s stash of old yearbooks yesterday, and thought it would be fun to take a look at one. I chose 1958 — not coincidentally the year I was born — and started paging through it.

Naturally, I expected to see a lot of photos of clubs and activities that would seem quaint today. But I also saw a few things I didn’t expect, and some that made me giggle.

The high school back then — or more accurately, it was called the “Webster Central School” — was what is now Spry Middle School on South Avenue in the village. The class of 1955 was the first to graduate from this “new, larger Webster Central.”

The Webster Central School District Principal that year was Mr. Robert L. Thomas. He was ably assisted by Mr. Herbert W. Schroeder who, despite being brand new to the district that school year, received a glowing review in the yearbook.

“In the brief time we have known him,” the caption reads, “we have come to believe he is also a man with a ‘Forward Look,’ treasuring what is worthwhile of the traditional while adopting what is valid of the new.”

The faculty pages included several names you might also recognize.

• Mr. Richard Batzing, previous Webster Town and Village Historian, taught 8th grade.

• Miss Esther Dunn, who wrote Webster Through the Years, long considered the most complete encyclopedia of Webster history, taught grade 7.

• Mr. William J. O’Rourke Sr., a highly respected and long-time Webster coach, led the varsity basketball team and taught Social Studies on the side.

As I continued to page through the book, some other interesting things jumped out at me.

• All of the girls looked exactly like my mother — at least from the photos I’ve seen of my mother in the 50s.

• Members of the National Honor Society all wore robes, kind of like they were in a super-secret fraternity. Maybe it was back then.

• The school had a “Safety Council.” Next to their photo, the caption read, “With an enlarged force of arresting officers patrolling, the Council promoted safety and respect for WCS in and around the school.” Can you imagine students trying to arrest students these days?

• The Senior Play that year was Around the World in Eighty Days. This week, when the Webster Thomas production of Anything Goes hits the stage with its lavish set, I thought the photos of the senior cast members and their set pieces were charming.

• This caption on the Junior High Girls’ Sports page: “The purpose of junior high girls’ intramurals is two-fold. The most obvious one is that it provides exercise for the release of extra energy.”

• It was great to see so many familiar names in the advertisers listed at the end of the yearbook, who were all there in 1958, and are still there now, including Hegedorn’s I.G.A. Foodliner, Hedge’s Nine-Mile-Point Hotel, and Kittelberger Florist. Other familiar names (but not there any longer) were Bill Gray’s Stand, Burke’s Barber Shop and Lipinski Brothers Hardware. I’m sure there are plenty more that others would recognize, but I haven’t been in Webster that long.

Finally, I learned the Webster Alma Mater. I wonder why we don’t sing it anymore? It goes like this:

Where the Ridge Road forms a border
For the lake and sky,
Proudly stands our Alma Mater,
Dear old Webster High.

Flag of WHS, float for aye,
Old Webster High, o’er thee;
May thy sons be leal and loyal
To thy memory.

When the evening twilight deepens,
And the shadows fall,
Lingers long the golden sunset
On thy western wall.

On second thought, I know why we don’t sing it anymore.

****

(editorial note: apparently I spoke too soon. I got an email from Tom Pellett, president of the Webster Museum, who wrote that the alma mater is indeed still sung. He wrote:

Each year at the Webster High Alumni Banquet we close by singing the alma mater …. The tune is the same as Cornell’s and was written, I believe, by Wallace Rayfield back in the early 1900s. The “Webster High” Alumni ends with the class of 1962 as the following year (1963) was the first year of R. L. Thomas High. As you can imagine, the group shrinks a bit every year. 

So thank you to Kathy Hertzel for asking her question about R.L. Thomas and leading me down that rabbit hole.

I was actually able to answer her question from personal experience.

I began my WCSD career at Webster Thomas in Sept. 2001. Willink Middle School opened that year and Thomas became the district’s second high school. I remember sitting in the staff orientation meeting on the first day and listening to Superintendent Strining speak. Because there were now two separate but equal high schools in the district, he said, we were to recognize that both were part of the same district and start referring to them “Webster Schroeder” and “Webster Thomas.” 

That’s where it began.

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(posted 9/26/2023)

Tags: Missy Rosenberry, Webster Central Schools, Webster High, Webster NY, Webster Schroeder, Webster Thomas