OPRF@150_100423

Celebrating

150 years of those things that are best

Oak Park River Forest HS

Oak Park River Forest HS

Oak Park River Forest HS

NO TE FROM THE EDIT OR

150 Years of OPRF

Founded as a oneroom school at the corner of Lake and Forest Avenue in 1873, Oak Park and River Forest High School has become a community cornerstone. Today, the school spans a millionsquare feet over several buildings. It is home to over 3,400 students. Thousands of alumni fondly remember their days at the school.

This special issue is the collaboration of current students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents of alumni. Each shared memories of their time at the school that shaped them.

The Oak Park River Forest History Museum, which became the home of the OPRF archives in 2021, was instrumental in providing photos, memorabilia and stories of days gone by for this special issue.

Past, present and future Huskies celebrate OPRF’s sesquicentennial and the important place the school occupies in the towns of Oak Park and River Forest.

Thanks for joining the celebration.

Lacey Sikora Contributing Editor

Contributing Editor Lacey Sikora

Editor Erika Hobbs

Contributing Reporters

Donald Vogel, Elizabeth Short, Sherry omas, Jessica MacKinnon, Susan Montgomery, Steven Gevinson, Bob Skolnik, Sadie Collins, Mary Andolina, Amaris E. Rodriguez, Kelly Pollock

Digital Manager Stacy Coleman

Design/Production Manager Andrew Mead

Editorial Design Manager Javier Govea

Designer Susan McKelvey

Contributing Photographer Todd A. Bannor

Ben Stumpe, Tram Huynh

Business & Development Manager

Mary Ellen Nelligan

Circulation Manager Jill Wagner

Publisher Dan Haley

Special Projects Manager Susan Walker

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chair Judy Gre n

Treasurer Nile Wendorf Deb Abrahamson, Gary Collins, Steve Edwards, Darnell Shields, Sheila Solomon, Eric Weinheimer

e Histor y of the OPRF Crest

By Donald Vogel Contributing Reporter

The school crest is the readily identified symbol of Oak Park and River Forest High School. However, the history behind Ta Garista, the phrase that appears on the crest, is much less known—and has led to its meaning being greatly misunderstood.

In 1900, Principal John Hanna proposed a motto for the school which would encompass his belief that students should excel academically as well as in co-curricular activities. The motto is- Ta Garista oudein oumen enmenina- roughly translated as -Nothing assuredly but what is the best. The motto was rooted in the Greek and Latin curriculum of the school and was meant as a challenge for students, faculty and staf f. He hoped to inspire the school community in the quest, the struggle and the perseverance to give their all, in every endeavor, be it in the classroom, lab, on stage, or athletic field. The motto was adopted by a school-wide vote.

It was a design decision made a few years later that ended up obscuring the original intent of the motto. In 1908, Mr. Lee Watson, a teacher in the art and manual training department, designed the school crest with the trees, oak leaves, and river re presenting our communi-

ties. The entire motto would not fit on the new crest, so he included just Ta Garista, to re present the motto’s main idea of seeking “The Best.” Over the years, many have interpreted this shortened version of the motto to be a boastful statement about all things OPRF, rather than the aspirational goal it was meant to be.

A new school to house the growing enrollment and designed to give life to the motto was opened in 1907 at the cor ner of Scoville Ave and Ontario Street. The

new school with traditional classrooms as well as innovative facilities such as a library and science labs would grow quickly in the first two decades of the 1900’s. Soon it would also include the Classics Room, the English Club Room, a band room, an auditorium, manual training rooms and a gymnasium. In 1913 the enrollment topped 1000.

The school has been a leader in many ways: adoption of the AP curriculum, early instr uction in driver training, computer based instruction, world languages, African American studies, student television, equity and inclusion. Alumni are noted authors, performers, humanitarians, scientists, business leaders, educators, state champions and Olympic athletes. Each of these individuals has fulfilled the belief expressed by Mr. Hanna in the motto.

At the high school centennial in 1973, the motto was defined as “the willing and productive struggle ag ainst the ordinary and the limiting, in a broad spectrum of endeavors.” In the fifty years since the centennial, the high school has continued to evolve and change, reflecting the communities of Oak Park and River Forest. The challenge, however, for the entire school community remains as the motto proclaims- Nothing assuredly but what is the best.

Happy Anniversary to our Alma Mater

To all Past & Present Faculty, Staff & Board Members, Thank you for delivering us and our gigantic extended families an extraordinary education, both inside and outside the classrooms! Our high school experiences continue to pay dividends across our lifespans.

Most importantly, your contributions to the growth and development of all students help to keep families and our OPRF community healthy and strong.

May the overriding dedication to student success and well-being continue leading OPRF High School into perpetuity.

Forever Grateful!

Mary Jo & Stephen Schuler Class of 1980

Go Huskies!

e school before the village

Remembering OPRF’s forgotten beginnings

By Elizabeth Short Contributing Reporter

This fall, the community celebrates a century and a half of its public high school, making OPRF older than Chicago’s “L” system, 13 of the 50 United States, and, surprisingly, the villages of Oak Park and River Forest.

In the 1850s, Illinois was divided into 36-square-mile townships. Today’s Oak Park was part of Cicero Township, which also included land that is now Berwyn, Cicero, and the Austin neighborhood. Similarly, River Forest was part of Proviso Township. Harlem Avenue separated the two townships, just as it separates the villages of Oak Park and River Forest today.

By the end of the 1850s, the Oak Park area had its first school district–Cicero Township School District #1. A

brick schoolhouse, located at the southeast corner of Lake Street and Forest Avenue, was home to the Central School.

In 1873, Central School began offering upper level classes for “older and more dignified boys and girls,” according to a 1937 historical sur vey of Oak Park. In 1877, James B. Herrick, Walter Gale, and Herbert Whipple became the first three graduates of Oak Park High School.

At this time, publicly-funded high schools were a recent development. Attending high school, said OPRF historian Frank Lipo, was uncommon and a somewhat elite practice. These upper level classes of fered a “classical education,” said Lipo. “By the mid 1870s, (the textbooks they were using show) they taught Latin, botany, physiology, philosophy, rhetoric, geography, bookkeeping–a little more practical in terms of business careers–as well as reading, writing, and arithmetic.”

By 1886, records show the school of fered four different

programs for students: the classical course, the Latin scientific course, the modern language course, and the English course.

As Oak Park’s population increased–from an estimated 200 in 1870 to over 2,000 by 1881–class sizes steadily grew as well–from three students to 42 in the same year, according to a 1972 article. At the end of 1891, the school moved down the street to a new three-story building located on the corner of Lake and East.

The 1890s brought political turmoil to Cicero Township. At the same time, discussions began between Oak Park and River Forest about creating a high school to serve both communities. River Forest of fered two years of high school education in an elementary school. To complete high school, students “usually attended Oak Park or Austin High School on a tuition basis,” according to a book on the history of OPRF from 1873 to 1976.

In two different 1899 referendums, voters living in today’s Oak Park and River Forest voted to create Oak Park and River Forest Township High School. While River Forest had been already incorporated as a village in 1880, it wasn’t until 1902 that Oak Park officially broke away from Cicero Township.

Oak Park and River Forest Township High School began instruction in the Lake and East building in 1900. By the end of the decade, the school had moved across the street onto a plot of land located at Ontario and Scoville, where it has been located ever since.

COURTESY OA K PARK RIVER FOREST HISTORY MUSEUM

In 1873, Central School began o ering upper level classes for “older and more digni ed boys and girls.”

1937 OA K PARK HISTORIC AL SURVE Y

COURTESY OA K PARK RIVER FOREST HISTORY MUSEUM

Featured in this photo is Oak Park High School’s Class of 1895. Students from River Forest were later added to the school in 1899, and the school became Oak Park and River Forest High School

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Ode to Papa

By Sherry Thomas Contributing

A1917 Oak Park High School yearbook shows the grinning photo of a future Pulitzer and Nobel prize winner—a prankster, a self-described “class prophet,” and a storyteller like the world had never seen.

“None are found to be more clever than Ernie,” reads the tribute quote for Ernest Miller Hemingway, who (probably to no surprise of his classmates) went on to become one of the high school’s most f alumni. His short stories and novels would define American literature and his reputation as a sportsman, a journalist, and key figure in Paris’s “Lost Generation” would become the stuff of legend

The author himself became a character in his own right, a larger-than-life figure with personal escapades that many biographers trace to his alma mater. It was here that this young writer published his first articles, stories and poems on the pages of The Trapeze newspaper and in The Tabula. While some stuck to traditional journalism norms of the time, others were injected with Hemingway’s signature wit and sarcasm, such as sports stories he published der the fictitious byline of Ring Lardner Jr.—an homage to the iconic, real-life Chicago sports writer Ringgold Wilmer Lardner.

He also created a fake Shotgun Club at Oak Park High, gathering his pals around for photographs with rifles (which apparently only he owned) and then fabricating entertaining stories about it in The Trapeze. Beyond his

play, played on the football team, and joined the “debating society.”

The wood-paneled, fireplace-laden room where young Hemingway tackled the debates of the day more than a century ago has since been officially designated the Hemingway room, preserved in his honor and as a testament to his le gacy

Glynis Kinnan, an Oak Park River Forest High School alumna who taught honors and AP English Literature to sophomores and seniors in the Hemingway room for 18 years, says while she didn’t teach the actual works of Hemingway often, his spirit was often invoked within those walls—especially when engaged in the art of crafting sentences.

“Like the author for whom the room is named, the room has a style and a character that makes it stand out. Students find the room itself inspiring. It makes them feel cherished, that they are individuals deserving of lovely surroundings,” Kinnan explains, adding:

“The students take particular delight in noting that the room reminds them of Hogwarts. In an era when so many public buildings and, indeed, many of the other classrooms in the school— feature bland, lifeless design based on efficiency, the Hemingway room, with its oak and tile, its stained-glass windows, its built-in wood bookshelves, offers a haven of attractiveness and distinctiveness that speaks to students’

American novelist Ernest Hemingway published some of his rst works as an Oak Park High School student, building a legacy that endures more than a century later

Reporter

Heming way’s class of 1917 in front of the former main entr

ERNEST HEMINGWAY FOUNDATION OF

PAK

Ernie shows o the plaque he received at graduation from OPRF High School in 1917.

self, beautiful and profoundly meaningful in ways that exceed the understanding of the merely practical or functional.”

alle gedly hating his real name), our ev clever “Ernie” Hemingway gave himself a new nickname that stuck—Papa.

is pictured with his teammates on the OPHS football team. He is in the rst row, second from the right.

OPRFHS War Veterans

flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker and his Hat-in-the-Ring (94th) Squadron in France. He and Lt. Douglas Campbell achieved the first official aerial combat victories of the war by shooting down two German planes, for which Winslow received the French Croix de Guer re. While in a dog fight on July 31, 1918, his plane was shot down and he was taken prisoner. Following the war, he entered diplomatic service and served as an executive with PanAmerican Airways.

Alan’s older brother, Paul Winslow , enlisted with the British aviation service before transferring to the American aerial headquarters in London. During his first patrol, he was separated from his squadron during a storm and found himself behind enemy lines and under attack by German planes. Running short of petrol, he switched on the engine’s emergency tank, which gave him an additional 10 minutes, but crashed into an air hangar. Following his service, he returned to Chicago to work in his father’s business

Two other local brothers, Albert and Edward Mampre, achieved renown during WWII. Albert Mampre, Class of 1940, served as a staf f sergeant in charge of medics with the historic 506th Parachute Infantry Re giment of the 101st Airborne Division, commonly referred to as Easy Company. The company was made famous in the acclaimed 2001 HBO-TV series Band of Brothers. Albert received a Purple Heart among many other medals. Following the war, he dedicated his life to fundraising for veterans and visiting critically wounded military personnel at national military hospitals. He also was in great demand as a speaker all over the world.

By Jessica MacKinnon Contributing Reporter

Ernest Hemingway is unquestionably the most famous OPRFHS veteran, but the school has produced a number of alumni who have made distinctive contributions to war ef for ts and lived exemplary lives upon their return. Hemingway, who graduated in 1917, actually did not serve as a soldier in WWI. After being turned away by the Ar my because of poor eyesight, he volunteered at the age of 18 to drive ambulances for the American Red Cross in Italy, where he was seriously injured. His experiences infor med some of his greatest work, including A Fare well to Ar ms and The Son Also Rises. He was a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War, which inspired his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls , and covered WWII for Collier’s. According to many scholars, Hemingway viewed armed conflict as the most important experience of the 20th Century.

Alan and Paul Winslow, sons of prominent Chicago businessman William Herman Winslow, served as daring aviators in WWI. Their River Forest home was one of the first in our area to be designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Alan Winslow, who graduated in 1915, flew with famed

Edward Mampre, Class of 1942, had two brushes with celebrity during the war. He served as a pilot under the command of actor Jimmy Stewart and, through Stewart, met Bing Crosby during one of the crooner’s USO tours in England. Ed flew many missions over the English Channel in the B-24 “Liberator,” a key weapon of the U.S.’s strategic bombing campaign. After the war, Ed became a mainstay in the Oak Park community, serving for several years as PTA president at Lincoln School, a Boy Scout leader, Little League coach and an official for OPRFHS track meets. He and his wife Joyce lived in the same home for 63 years and raised four children who also attended OPRFHS. According to his daughter, Pam Scully, Ed was affectionately known as the “Mayor of South Oak Park” for his extensive community involvement. In 2008, he was selected for one of the first Honor Flights from Chicago to Washington, D.C.—and was joined by his grandson, Major Aaron Scully, an Ar my pilot. Ed celebrated his 99th birthday in May.

PROVIDED

Ernest Heming way in uniform, 1918.

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Edward Mampre (far right) was an OPRFHS cheerleader before joining the war.

OA K PARK RIVER FOREST HISTORY MUSEUM Alan Winslow

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Edward Mampre ser ved as a pilot in WWII, ying the B-24 over the English Channel.

more be drafted into the Ar my. He was stationed as an airplane mechanic in the recently constructed U.S. base in Puerto Rico. He survived a har rowing flight when a plane malfunction landed him in the Pacific Ocean, where he was finally rescued after seven hours. After the war, Frank returned to OPRFHS as a 22-year-old and got his diploma in 1948 before launching his own business, Carroll Tool, named for his wife of 68 years. Ed and Carol raised four

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of the players who went on to play for the OPRFHS 1981 State Championship baseball team. Connie’s son Michael Hernbrott is a chip of f the old block in many ways—he served as a Marine from 1982 to 1986 and has been the head coach for Illinois State University’s hockey team for the past decade.

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aduates, in officially retired only five years ago and, this July, his children celebrated his 97th birthday by treating him to a flight on a 1946 Stearman biplane, which he was able to briefly fly, under the observation of a commissioned pilot, in his original WWII uniform.

Connie Hernbrott, was an outstanding OPRFHS baseball player, covering center field for the 1942 State Championship team before enlisting in the war the next year, a month after graduating. Stationed with the 491st military police, he was engaged in battles and campaigns in northern France and guarded German POWs on ships traversing the ocean from England to the U.S. After the war, he was invited to try out for the Chicago Cubs and was of fered a roster spot with the farm team in Catalina, CA but ultimately decided to come back to Oak Park and work for the post office. A letter carrier, primarily in north Oak Park, Connie turned down a number of promotions so he could watch families growing along his route and spend his afternoons coaching youth baseball. He coached several local athletic standouts, including many

PROVIDED

John Re gister, Class of 1983 and an OPRFHS Tradition of Excellence Award recipient, enlisted in the Ar my after graduating from the University of Arkansas, partially as a means of continuing the athletic success he achieved in high school and colle ge. He served for six years, including active duty during the Persian Gulf War. During his service, Re gister participated in the U.S. Ar my’s World Class Athlete Program, winning nine gold medals in the Armed Services Competition and two World Military Championships. However, in May, 1994, while training for the 1996 Olympic Games, he suffered a devastating injury that necessitated the amputation of his left leg. Refusing to let this setback keep him down, after only 18 months of rehabilitation, he competed as a swimmer in the 1996 U.S. Paralympics in Atlanta, GA and as a runner and long jumper in the 2000 games in Sydney, where he set an American record in the long jump. In 2003, he founded the USOC Paralympic Military Program, which uses sports to enhance the recovery of wounded service members. Today, Re gister remains actively involved with veterans and serves as an inspirational speaker for corporations and organizations around the country.

PROVIDED John Register served in the Gulf War a er graduating from the University of Arkansas.

PROVIDED

Frank Schi ner wore his original uniform during a 97th birthday ight in a 1946 Stearman biplane

Connie Hernbrott was an outstanding OPRFHS baseball player.

John Register, an OPRFHS Tradition of Excellence Award recipient, served active duty in the Gulf War.

Connie Hernbrott was stationed with the 491st military police dur ing WWII.

A look at how a progressive approach to education has shaped OPRF

By Susan Montgomery

Contributing Reporter

When Central School, the precursor to what we now call Oak Park and River Forest High School, was founded in 1873, “progressive educati on” was not a buzzword among educators.

Yet a progressive approach to education has shaped Oak Park and River Forest High School since early on, largely due to two pioneering educators—John Hannah, principal from 1895 to 1914, and Marion Ross McDaniel, principal from 1914 until 1939.

Hannah believed that to receive a wellrounded education, students should also challenge themselves to excel in a variety of areas, including sports and extracurricular activities. To that end, he established a physical education program for both boys and girls. And, he sought to construct a building that would support his progressive ideas, which also included a school library to replace individual classroom libraries, as well as construction of science laboratories and a large room to house the student orchestra. In 1912, he supported the creation of a student newspaper.

When Hannah left to become head of the Illinois State Board of Education, he was succeeded by McDaniel. McDaniel’s goal was to build on what Hannah began in the design of school facilities and determining the appropriate curriculum and athletic activities where students would excel. He also searched the state and nation to recruit high caliber teachers.

“His forte was building a strong faculty, people who were innovative and willing to

try new things,” says Don Vogel, retired OPRF teacher and unofficial school historian. “This goes back to the notion of trying to get students to achieve in the classroom and on the field. If you look at teachers at the time, they included John Gehleman, the English teacher who taught Ernest Hemingway. He also hired Bob Zupke, who coached the football team that won three national championships between 1910 and 1912.”

Other milestones in OPRF’s progressive education have included the offering of summer school in the early 1900s; the establishment of the Crest literary magazine and a developmental reading program to support students preparing for the college board exams in the 1950s, along with the

launch of a driver’s education program.

By the 1960s, OPRF and a few other schools nationwide were selected by the Colle ge Board to pilot early Advanced Placement courses. OPRF was identified as a national model of a comprehensive high school in a 1968 Conant Report, a national study led by Harvard University President James Conant.

In the early 1970s, the Experimental Program, or XP, was launched as a school within a school, providing differentiated instruction as an alter native to the traditional classroom structure. The program lasted 20 years. Also in the ‘70s, a course in ethnic studies was first offered.

As the community’s population became

more racially diverse during the 1970s, OPRF’s curriculum began to reflect the diversity of its student body as well. This included the creation of a gospel choir and, later, the introduction of courses in African history and African American history.

During the 1990s, African American achievement became a focus of OPRF. The school administration collaborated with Evanston Township High School to identify racially diverse schools nationwide that were interested in sharing best practices to address this achievement gap.

The quest to excel and provide the most progressive education continues to this day to meet the ever changing needs of students, the community, and the nation.

TODD A. BANNOR

History Teacher of the Year Dr. Ty rone W. Williams and students in his classroom at OPRF High School on Sept. 7, 2023.

“This goes back to the notion of trying to get students to achieve in the classroom and on the eld.”

DON V OGEL

Historic Homecoming

OPRF High School alumni from several decades march on the football field on Friday, Sept. 22 before the Homecoming game, celebrating the school’s 150th anniversary. (Above) A family with multiple generations of OPRF grads poses proudly

PHOTO S BY TODD A. BANNOR

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7300 Division Street in River Forest 708-366-6900

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Before and after-school care available

PROMS OVER THE DECADES

One can see much continuity in the 150-year history of Oak Park and River Forest High School, especially when it comes to excellence, but in thinking about its racial history, it makes sense to identify two distinct periods, even two distinct schools. T he first period lasted about 100 years, a period with no racial inte gration to speak of; the second emerged after the Fair Housing Act of 1968, passed seven days after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., be g an to have its impact on Oak Park and River Forest. T he school’s motto, “Those Things That Are Best,” has continued to define the aspirations of the school, but while “best” was synonymous with “excellent” during the earlier period, in the current era the school’s bywords have become “excellence and equity.”

The first OPRFHS was a remarkably successful sorting institution, funneling students through its four years so that the relatively few students remaining in honors track classes senior year reached the highest levels of academic excellence and attended the nation’s elite colleges and universities, making OPRF one of the top performing schools by any measure, not only in the state, but nationwide. Further, in its quest to turn out wellrounded students, OPRF provided rich extracurricular offerings. The school’s superb music groups of fered concerts locally, sometimes in national venues, and even on concert tours through Europe. Theater productions drew large local audiences and excelled in state competitions. Athletic teams won state championships in nearly every sport, sometimes gaining national reco gnition. Without question, the most important influence in making the early OPRF what it became was Marion Ross McDaniel, superintendent from 1912 until his death in 1939. Under McDaniel, the school developed, in the words of Don Offermann in his doctoral dissertation on McDaniel, “a culture in which there were academic and athletic winners and losers and no apolo gies for the latter, for losers themselves had decided to take the road to failure by their lack of energ y, ef fort, and enthusiasm,” and, according to Offermann, himself OPRF superintendent from 1992-1999, “The

Essay: Addressing race and equity at OPRF

By Steven Gevinson

values McDaniel cultivated in the school culture reflected the values of the community.”

When it came to race, those values revealed themselves most clearly during an episode in 1937 involving OPRF’s undefeated football team, which some called the best prep football team in the country, and Lewis Pope, a star in the offensive backfield and one of the few Black students to attend OPRF before the 1970s. At season’s end, Miami Central High School in Florida challenged OPRF to meet in Miami for a “national championship game,” but would not host a team with a Black player. OPRF received several communications, including letters from Percy Julian and the New York City chapter of the NAACP, urging the school to reject the invitation, but McDaniel wanted the team to play and had the OPRF head coach ask Pope to stay home while the rest of the team traveled to Miami, which he ag reed to do. In 1936, African American track star Jesse

Owens had humiliated Hitler and his racial theories by winning four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics; in the summer of 1937, African American boxer Joe Lewis had won the world heavyweight championship; but in the fall of 1937, to play a football game for a fantasy high school championship, OPRF surrendered to the Jim Crow South. The game ended in a tie, but along the long arc of the moral universe, history has judged the school and community of the day as retrog rade losers.

In 1996, OPRF invited Lew Pope back to the school to honor him with a Tradition of Excellence Award. Much had changed. The school’s Black population had grown from a fraction of one percent throughout its first century to about 27 percent by the nineties, with another several percent identifying themselves as mixed race. The school no longer aspired to winnow winners from losers but strove instead to individualize instruction to the extent resources allowed, enshrining in its first strategic plan in 1994 the overarching goal of providing a superior education to all students to enable them to realize their human potential. Adopting this goal was a signal moment in a movement, beginning in the seventies, gathering much steam by the nineties, and attaining unchallenged dominance in the first decades of the 21st century, aimed at achieving racial equity along with academic excellence. Indeed, throughout the 50-year history of the second OPRFHS, the school has enacted many concrete initiatives in service of explicit school policies in its ef for ts to bring educational excellence to the life of each of its students.

The sidebar to this article contains a partial list of the equity-related effor ts the school has made, especially from

Spoken Word reunion in August.

English teacher at OPRF from 1978-2010, Division Head 2002-10; School Board Member 2013-2017; parent of three OPRF graduates

LEWIS POPE

HONORINGATRADITIONOFEXCELLENCE

HONORINGATRADITIONOFEXCELLENCE

HONORINGATRADITIONOFEXCELLENCE

HONORINGATRADITIONOFEXCELLENCE

WHILEBUILDINGTHEFUTUREOFOPRF

WHILEBUILDINGTHEFUTUREOFOPRF

WHILEBUILDINGTHEFUTUREOFOPRF

WHILEBUILDINGTHEFUTUREOFOPRF

CongratulationstoOakParkandRiverForestHighSchoolon150yearsofdedication toeducation,excellence,andcommunity!

CongratulationstoOakParkandRiverForestHighSchoolon150yearsofdedication toeducation,excellence,andcommunity!

CongratulationstoOakParkandRiverForestHighSchoolon150yearsofdedication toeducation,excellence,andcommunity!

CongratulationstoOakParkandRiverForestHighSchoolon150yearsofdedication toeducation,excellence,andcommunity!

TheOPRFHSImagineFoundationsupportsourcommunitycornerstonewith philanthropy.Togetherwecanharnessthegenerosityofouralumniandcommunity tocreatemodernfacilitiesforthenextgenerationsofHuskies.

TheOPRFHSImagineFoundationsupportsourcommunitycornerstonewith philanthropy.Togetherwecanharnessthegenerosityofouralumniandcommunity tocreatemodernfacilitiesforthenextgenerationsofHuskies.

TheOPRFHSImagineFoundationsupportsourcommunitycornerstonewith philanthropy.Togetherwecanharnessthegenerosityofouralumniandcommunity tocreatemodernfacilitiesforthenextgenerationsofHuskies.

TheOPRFHSImagineFoundationsupportsourcommunitycornerstonewith philanthropy.Togetherwecanharnessthegenerosityofouralumniandcommunity tocreatemodernfacilitiesforthenextgenerationsofHuskies.

TheFoundation’scapitalcampaign, BUILDINGTHEFUTUREOFOPRF,officially launchesin2024.

TheFoundation’scapitalcampaign, BUILDINGTHEFUTUREOFOPRF,officially launchesin2024.

TheFoundation’scapitalcampaign, BUILDINGTHEFUTUREOFOPRF,officially launchesin2024.

TheFoundation’scapitalcampaign, BUILDINGTHEFUTUREOFOPRF,officially launchesin2024.

Cheerstothenext150yearsofeducationalexcellence!

Cheerstothenext150yearsofeducationalexcellence!

Cheerstothenext150yearsofeducationalexcellence!

TolearnmoreabouttheImagineFoundation'sboldplanspleaseemail info@imagine-foundation.orgorvisitimagine-foundation.org

TolearnmoreabouttheImagineFoundation'sboldplanspleaseemail info@imagine-foundation.orgorvisitimagine-foundation.org

TolearnmoreabouttheImagineFoundation'sboldplanspleaseemail info@imagine-foundation.orgorvisitimagine-foundation.org

Cheerstothenext150yearsofeducationalexcellence! TolearnmoreabouttheImagineFoundation'sboldplanspleaseemail info@imagine-foundation.orgorvisitimagine-foundation.org

ADDRESSING RACE

from page B23

the 1990s on. An account of the successes and failures of these undertakings is far beyond the scope of this article, but the list may provide a sense of the approaches the school has taken on equity issues in recent decades.

In my early years at OPRF, as we began to reco gnize significant gaps in student success on a racial basis, I along with many like-minded members of the staf f felt that if there were a school in the country that could eliminate these gaps, OPRF, with its desire, expertise, resources, and commitment, was it. But by the mid-nineties when Superintendent Offermann initiated an ambitious, 10-year, gap-closing program for which, he announced, “failure [was] not an option,” I had come to understand that the task would require much more than this high school’s desire, expertise, resources, commitment, a well-intentioned program, and a motivational slogan, and I had become certain that the program’s failure was not only an option but inevitable. The problems of inequity in American society run deep, and it is far beyond the capacity of a high school to solve them. Yet, as the various measures of academic outcomes continue to disappoint us on a macro scale, the school’s many worthy ef for ts to address the issues have often brought appreciable educational successes. The more we have committed to the project, the better have been the results. Some strategies have been more effective than others, the idea being to evaluate, then expand, improve, or eliminate, as appropriate. But in these early decades of OPRF 2.0, innumerable individual students have benefited greatly from the school’s ef forts, in many cases their lives immeasurably improved. I’ve seen the results on the human, personal level; I’ve heard the moving testimonials from the heart; I’ve appreciated the complex process of a homogeneous, high-performing school remaking itself into a welcoming, diverse, high-performing school to which every student fully belongs. Decision makers at OPRF have understood that even a great school can do only so much, but it must do as much of the so-much as possible. OPRF has made manifold, focused institutional ef for ts to transform its proud early history into a prouder, evolving tradition. If the ef for ts continue, and the progressive OPRF spirit catches on throughout our society and its schools, the day may come, on another big anniversary, when all Oak Parkers and River Foresters will look at the results of the ongoing, honorable work of this venerable, estimable school with immense satisfaction.

EQUITY-RELATED INITIATIVES ( PA R TIAL LIST)

Diversity Training

• ADL’s A World of Difference Prog ram

• Kochman Group

• Local facilitators as part of 1996-2006 prog ram

• Courageous Conversations About Race (CCAR)

• Numerous visiting speakers and facilitators

• Numerous professional development sessions and workshops

Research

• Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN) research studies and conferences

• Consultation with local researchers

• African American Achievement committees and reports

• Consortium for Educational Change (CEC) curriculum and conferences

• CEC Book Club

• Collaborative Action Research for Racial Equity (CARE)

Goal Setting

• 1994 Strategic Plan

• 2017 Strategic Plan

• Racial Equity Policy

Networks

• CEC

• CEC Four-District Network

• MSAN

• Illinois Coalition of Educational Equity Leaders (ICEEL)

• Illinois Par tners of Educators for Inclusion and Equity (IPEIE)

• MSAN Intersectional Social Justice Collaborative for High School Students

Curriculum & Instruction

• African American History

• African History

• African American Literature A

• World Studies

• Multicultural Literature inclusion

• Project Scholar

• Colle ge Prep Scholar

• Clustering in Honors classes

• Collaborative Teaching Model

• 4-for-100 school-within-a-school

• Team-teaching in Transitions and Colle ge Prep classes

• Social-Emotional Learning

• Numerous divisional ef forts, e.g., Learning Teams

• Student Support Program (SSP)

• Response to Intervention (RTI)

• Standardized test prep classes

• Summer School bridge prog ram

• Numerous Reading programs

• Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)

• “Honors for All”

• AP African American Studies Pilot

• Equity and Youth Action

Co -c urricular

• Gospel Choir

• Blacks Organized for Student Support (BOSS)

• Students Organized Against Racism (SOAR)

• Spoken Word Poetry Club

• Black Leaders Union (BLU)

• Hip-Hop Club

Discipline

• Evolution of Dean/Counseling/Student Support system

• Behavior Education Plan (BEP)

• Culture, Climate, and Behavior Committee (CCB)

• Trauma-Infor med Interventions and Restorative Practices

Student Recognition

• Human Relations Award

• Student Hero Award

Mentoring & Coaching

• Senior Instructional Leadership Corps (SILC)

• Peer mentors

• Motivational Mentorship Prog ram

• Peer coaches

• Racial Equity Coach

Personnel

• Minority recruitment and retention work

• Director of Employee Relations and Recruitment

• Additions of student support personnel

• Office of Equity and Student Success

Community Outreach

• African American Parents for Purposeful Leadership in Education (APPLE)

• National African American Parent Involvement Dinner (NAAPID)

• Community Council

• Community Outreach Coordinator

Decision makers at OPRF have understood that even a great school can do only so much, but it must do as much of the so-much as possible.

Oak Park River Forest Museum’s Exhibit: Ever Changing, Yet the Same OPRF High School at 150 opens

The grand opening of the exhibit dedicated to the 150th Anniversary of OPRF High School will be held on Oct. 4 at 6 p.m., and the exhibit will be open until the end of 2025.

The new exhibit will feature memorabilia, yearbooks, school spirit wear from throughout the decades, photos, dance bids, scrapbooks, and a wide range of other artifacts that will help tell the rich story of Oak Park and River Forest High School, which enrolled its first students in 1873 in a classroom at Lake and Forest and graduated its first three alumni in 1877.

T he exhibit will curate milestones and moments along the way as the institution gradually grew from one classroom to its imposing campus, a diverse student body, its wide-ranging academic and cocurricular offerings, and its Tradition of Excellence.

The exhibit was developed with the gen-

erous support of a Park and River Forest High School Alumni Association and in partnership with the Sesquicentennial Steering Committee, comprised of faculty dents and alumni.

Visitors will be invited to find out more about some of OPRF’s notable and add their own stories to a that used to be located in the OPRF High School Library.

The exhibit will feature a of OPRF history and colorful banners which will break down the “big picture” of 150 years of tradition and innovation into smaller chunks. A large collection of memorabilia from the OPRF High School Archives (loaned to OPRF Museum in 2021) and from the Historical Society’s collection will show just how much the Huskies have changed through the decades and yet how entrenched traditions still echo from

earlier decades and impact the students of the 2020s.

OPRF senior Anna Miller worked as a paid intern for the project thanks to the Alumni Association funding, which also supported graphic and design work by

Museum Explorer, a Berwyn-based firm owned by a 1977 OPRF graduate.

“Ever Changing, Yet the Same …” is a line from the “Oak Park Hymn” (sometimes called the Alma Mater).

“We thought that line really captures OPRF Lipo, OPRF “Continuity every activities like sports and clubs and dances providing trathe same time each new cohort of students brings their unique skills and the school in new dievent m., with a rib-

OPRF Museum, located in an 1898 forStreet enue a few blocks east of dnesdays drop-in by ap-

IMAGES COURTESY OF OA K PARK RIVER FOREST MUSEUM

OPRF High School items on displ ay at the OPRF Museum.

Throughout its 150 year history there has probably been no time that Oak Park and River Forest High School received more attention nationwide than during the fall of 2018 when the 10-part docuseries America to Me aired on Sunday nights on the Starz network. America to Me was directed by then Oak Park resident Steve James, a noted documentary filmmaker who had made such highly re garded films as Hoop Dreams, The inter rupters and Life Itself

America to Me focused on the experiences of Black students at OPRF and was controversial within OPRF The school administration had strongly opposed allowing James access to the school to film students but in 2015 the school board voted 6-1 to allow James to film at OPRF. Sharon Patchak-Layman was the only board member to vote against approving the contract with Kartemquin Films. Even now, some at OPRF are reluctant to talk about the series.

James followed 10 Black or mixed race students, and midway through the 2015-16 school year, added 2 white students.

“When we started the project, I was not thinking of following white kids,” James recently told the Wednesday Journal.

James wanted to focus on the experience of Black students at OPRF but for mer OPRF administrator Chala Holland and for mer school board member Jackie Moore convinced James that he should include some white students to get a fuller picture. James said that it was hard to find white families that would allow their children to be filmed because they feared being the poster child for white privilege.

America to Me is an unvarnished look at the students’ lives and their experiences at OPRF, focusing a lot of attention on racial disparities.

“I’m very happy with it,” James said. “I think it’s a completely fair and honest portrayal of the reality of that school and that community around these issues. And the series isn’t all negative, it shows inspired teachers and kids who are incredible and who are having a great experience there. This is not some expose of Oak Park and OPRF at all.”

mates come up to me and be like ‘oh I saw you on TV,’” Buford recalled. “It felt like someone was reading my diary.”

Buford said that she thought America to Me accurately captured life at OPRF, at least for her.

Although the administration opposed allowing James access to the school to film once the school board voted to allow James and his camera crews in, administrators cooperated with him. But then-Superintendent Steven Isoye and Principal Nathanial Rouse and other top administrators refused to be interviewed by James for the series.

A Documentary that Captured a Moment in Time

By Bob Skolnik | Contributing Reporter

the second semester. Throughout the year James could not film in the faculty cafeteria and could only film in classrooms if the teacher allowed it

Sullivan is one of the few top administrators at OPRF from 2015-16 who is still at the school. Isoye announced during the year of filming that he would leave OPRF for a job as the superintendent of Niles School District 219. Isoye is now the chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education having been appointed to that post last year by Gov. JB Pritzker. Rouse resigned as principal OPRF in 2019, a few months after America to Me aired. Rouse first took a dean’s position at Bartlett High School and is now the Director of Equity, Race & Cultural Diversity for Barrington District 220. Many believe that Isoye’s and Rouse’s departures from OPRF were connected to America to Me.

America to Me was also divisive among the faculty. Some supported allowing cameras into the school while others opposed it in public comments made at the 2015 school board meeting before the board voted to approve the contract with Kartemquin Films which gave James and his crews access to the school.

Jada Buford, was a senior who James followed and filmed. Buford, who is now studying film in a master’s degree program at Columbia University, said although it seemed strange at first to have a camera crew follow her around at school, she soon got used to it

“It was, I want to say, kind of surreal,” Buford recalled in a telephone interview with the Wednesday Journal. “It was kind of uncomfortable at first, but once you get used to the cameras it kind of feels like they’re not there.”

The cameras captured some uncomfortable moments she had with a teacher

By the time the series aired on Starz, Buford was a student at Howard University. She was surprised by her new found notoriety

“It would be a little bit weird because I would have class-

“For some, having film crews in the building on a regular basis was exciting, but in many ways it was challenging to our educational mission,” said Karin Sullivan, the Executive Director of Communications at OPRF in an email. “Three teams of filmmakers were here for a full school year, and by the end, there were well over 700 entries on the filming schedule. The filmmakers’ goal was to have unfettered access to as many spaces as they possibly could, while our goal as a school was to protect the educational environment. The Superintendent, chair of the Faculty Senate, and I had weekly meetings with the filmmakers, and there is no doubt that we had some clashes around these different objectives.”

James said that the administration was mostly cooperative but tried to limit some access as the filming moved into

One teacher who emerged as something of a star of America to Me was young English teacher Jessica Stovall. Her attempts to connect with one of her students and her frustrations with administrators are shown in vivid and emotional detail. Stovall also is no longer at OPRF. She resigned her teaching position at OPRF in 2018 to pursue a doctorate in education at Stanford. This fall Stovall is beginning a job as a professor at the University of Wisconsin.

John Condne, a veteran film teacher at OPRF who is currently on leave, served as the producer for America to Me and was the impetus for the series.

In an interview with the Wednesday Journal after his documentary on Roger Ebert, Life itself, was released James, the father of three OPRF graduates, said that he was interested in making a documentary about race and OPRF but assumed that the school would never allow him to film in the school. Conde, who also has his own production company, read that interview and encouraged James to approach school officials and propose doing a film noting that it was

See AMERICA TO ME on pa ge B33

“I think it ’s a completely fair and honest portrayal of the reality of that school and that community around these issues.”

STEVE JAMES

America to Me

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AMERIC ATO ME

from page B31

the school board, not the administration, who had the final say.

Conde is happy with the way America to Me turned out.

“I thought it turned out amazing,” Conde said. “What I was super pleased with is how we were really able to tell and show the lives of these students and what they were going through. Yes it was about race, yes it was about achievement, but it was also about just looking into the lives of high school students and what they’re actually doing and going through.”

Tom Cofsky, the only current member of the OPRF school board who was on the board when it voted to allow James to film at the school, said he doesn’t re gret his vote, except for one thing

“The one re gret that I do have is that if it caused some of our employees angst and made their life a little more difficult you don’t want to wish that on them, but in terms of actually doing it I have no re grets at all,” Cofsky said.

Cofsky said that he learned a lot from

watching America to Me.

“It gave me a lens that I didn’t see and I had five kids who went through this school,” Cofsky said. “I think it was benefi-

cial in the big picture of exposing things and learning things.”

Cofsky noted that the series was not a comprehensive look at OPRF

“It was through the eyes of our students of color,” Cofsky said. “They represent a fraction of our students but this was their lens and I thought it was well done.”

Sullivan says that she believes America to Me opened a lot of eyes, especially in Oak Park, about the persistence of racial disparities and whose responsibility it is to address those issues.

“I think the biggest impact was on the white members of our community—and I say that as a white person who moved to Oak Park 30 years ago in no small part because I valued its diversity,” Sullivan said in an email. “Oak Park was a pioneer in deliberately fostering racial integration back in the 1970s; I think a lot of us thought that history automatically made us a progressive, anti-racist community. America to Me opened a lot of white peoples’ eyes to the racism that people of color endure every day, not just in school but in our community. It’s not enough to have good intentions. As white people, we have to reco gnize and be willing to actively disrupt racial microaggressions whenever we see them. I think the series made a lot of people realize that becoming a racially just community takes a lot of hard, deliberate, ongoing work by ALL of us, not just the high school.”

Filmmaker Steve James and members of his production team shot for a year at OPRF during the 2015-16 school year for their 10-part documentary series, “America to Me.” e

result is a fascinating, metaphorical, non-judgmental exploration of race in America

A History of News: e Trapeze

By Mary Andolina and Sadie Collins Current Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor of The Trapeze

As Oak Park and River Forest High School celebrates its 150th anniversary, its rich history continues to be represented by the student newspaper The Trap eze. The paper, founded in 1912, originally had four pages per issue, each with news and columns. Ernest Hemingway was an early reporter for The Trapeze when he was in high school in 1913-1917.

An OPRF Memorial History book (1976) said that The Trapeze was founded “to give the news of the school and its affiliated organizations in a spicy, clever. and altogether interesting manner.”

It was distributed every other Friday. By the 1940s, the paper expanded to 8 pages, and became weekly. In 1993, according to The Chicago Tribune, the Trapeze was awarded the highly prestigious re gional and national Peacemaker award.

Throughout history, the newspaper has covered important national and local issues. During the Vietnam war, reporters infor med students about the draft. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the paper covered mask mandates and cases in the community.

day, T he Trapez e distributes monthly 12-page papers with News, tures, Sports, Arts and Entertainment, and Opinion sections.

Although sponsored by the school, the paper has relatively free rein over what to publish and whether or not to criticiz e the administration. Head of communications, Karin Sullivan said “The administration really doesn’t get involved.”

“Students should have the freedom to speak up when they disag ree, and the student newspaper is an important forum for doing that,” said Sullivan.

The students operate a fairly traditional newspaper, with a team of editors overseen by an editor-in-chief and a faculty advisor, Kate Hawley. The student staffers and editors meet every day during a class period.

“When we protect student journalism, we

protect not only the future of journalism, but an important aspect of local journalism that is often overlooked,” said Hawley

“Listening and responding to student voice(s) is a fundamental value of our high school,” said Sullivan.

Any willing student can contribute to The Trapeze through monthly contributor meetings, which allows interested students to participate even if they are not currently taking the class.

The students’ coverage of school board meetings and administrative changes allows for the student body to stay infor med on important information.

Despite a highly digital News world, The

tion to the distribution, the paper has a re gularly updated website and an Instagram account.

In the rush of a Monday morning, members of The Trapeze class hand out newspapers to the thousands of students coming in through all entrances of OPRF.

“It’s pretty chaotic,” said Junior Alice Cadwell about distribution day. “I like to

Fothlete in Focus, a Trapez e special, highlights a different exceptional student athlete every edition.

From the crossword to the horoscopes, The Trapeze has something for every student.

“We’re really proud to have such an excellent student newspaper,” Sullivan said, “we’re happy that OPRF has the resources to support such a robust publication.”

celebrates the beauty of the 150-year-old school

The “Our Time to Grow ” mural was commissioned to commemorate the school’s sesquicentennial anniversar y

Reliable, respectful, responsible are the three core values proudly displayed on the colorful mosaic mural Oak Park and River Forest High School dedicated on Monday in a special ribbon cutting event.

Held at the high school, faculty, staf f and students gathered on Monday evening to celebrate the “Our Time to Grow” mural, which was commissioned to commemorate the school’s sesquicentennial anniversary.

In attendance to celebrate the special moment, Superintendent Greg Johnson

it was the partnership between the school and community organizations that worked together to make the mosaic mural possible.

Largely funded by the Huskie Booster Club, which donated $50,000 toward the le gacy item, the remaining expenses, which were estimated to be a little more than $90,000, were covered by the Oak Park Area Arts Council.

The sesquicentennial mural was commissioned by OPRF art teacher and mosaic artist Tracy Van Duinen in partnership

See MURAL on pa ge B38

OPRF Art teacher Tracy Van Dienen cel ebrated the 150th anniversary of OPRF alongside artist Carolyn Elaine and students from the O the Wall summer program.

AMARIS E. RODRIGUEZ

MURAL

from page B37

with local artist Carolyn Elaine and the Oak Park Area Arts Council’s Of f the Wall ogram. The latter hires OPRF students the summer to help design and construct murals around Oak Park. This summer’s project was the OPRF mural.

To fully understand the significance of the mural, one should read it left to right, said Johnson. Starting of f on the right side, a giant tree representing the start and ending of the school year is showcased with leaves blowing in the wind. Those leaves lead into a husky’s face, the mascot of the high school and a point of pride for the athletics department. The mural also includes the year the school was founded, 1873, leaves that read “reliable,” “respectful,” and “responsible,” and, over the entrance to the south hall, the school’s motto “those things that are best” displayed in ancient Greek.

an Duinen, who worked alongside 14 students and recent OPRF graduates in the OPRF auto shop, said it was a great eeling to be on the other side of the proj-

JAVIER GOVEA

e completed mural was unveiled on the west side of the school this fall.

ect and to finally g et to see the whole thing come to g ether

“It was a lot of work, but we had a really great team to get it all done so I wasn’t worried,” Van Duinen said. “It’s nice to be on this side of projects like these and to be here celebrating and having the community enjoy it.”

The project also provided Van Duinen a “full-circle” experience — the beloved art teacher plans to retire in the next three years.

“For a community based artist like me I always put a piece up in the community and then walk away Van Duinen said. “Here, I am around it every day with the kids that I did it with so that is a special feeling. It is a new experience for me.”

Because both began their art careers around the same time and have been longtime friends, working alongside Elaine was also a meaningful experience, Van Duinen said.

For mer OPRF student Hasani Cannon, 23, also had a hand in the mural. T he 2018 graduate has been working with Of f the

Wall since he was a sophomore at the high school.

“It was definitely surreal, coming back here every day and seeing how the school has literally changed right in front of my eyes,” Cannon said, adding that working with current OPRF students and his mer art teacher was his full-circle moment.

OPRF parent and local art teacher Brooks Middle School, Kristi Mury, whose son helped with the mural, said she was really excited to be able to see the mural up close.

“I love that Oak Park Area Arts Council gives students the opportunity to be a working artist,” Murray said, adding that being able to work on the mural solidified her son’s desire to pursue a career in the arts.

According to Van Duinen, the whole mosaic mural took about three and a half weeks to install.

The mural can be seen by the high school entrance of f of East Avenue as well as by driving down Linden Avenue.

AMARIS E. RODRIGUEZ

OPRF students worked with mosaic tiles and mi rrors to build the mural in celebr ation of the 150th anniversar y of OPRF.

OPRF discovered a custodian was a former Nazi

How would they handle it?

By Elizabeth Short Contributing Reporter

After the end of World War Two, an estimated 10,000 Nazi war criminals made their way into the United States. One of those 10,000 worked as an OPRF custodian for over two decades.

In 1957, for mer SS guard Reinhold Kulle illegally immigrated to the United States. His family started a new life in Forest Park, and in 1959 OPRF hired Kulle as a custodian. In 1963, he was promoted to chief night custodian.

“When his shift started (at 3:30), he would go into teachers’ classrooms, shake their hand, and ask if they needed anything. He made sure anything they needed was covered,” said Michael Soffer, OPRF graduate and Holocaust studies teacher. “He was a really, really good custodian. He worked so hard that some of his colleagues complained that they were missing opportunities for overtime.” This spring, Soffer will be publishing a book with the University of Chicago Press about Kulle and the community

Kulle’s contact with students was limited, but he frequently interacted with students who participated in the theater program or during school dances.

By the time educator, advocate, and organizer RaeLynne Toperoff moved to Oak Park in 1973, Kulle had been chief night custodian for a decade. In the early 1970s, the village experienced a period of great change. Housing prices dropped, and people like Toperoff– “people who were looking for a liberal, progressive, on-the-move community”–flocked to the community. Toperoff compared life in Oak Park to “living in paradise.”

“I was absolutely astounded by how intelligent people were; the people that I somehow had the good fortune to land in their midst,” said Toperoff. “So many brilliant people that cared so deeply about the community.”

One morning in 1983, as Toperoff read through the morning paper–“I think it was the Tribune”–she saw an article that made her “bolt upright.”

The article was about that day’s federal court proceedings, and said there was a judicial hearing scheduled to determine if Kulle lied on his immigration papers about being a member of the SS.

When she realized who the man was, Toperoff decided to

take action. She called her friend Rima Schultz, who was working from home, and the two rushed to take the green line downtown to witness the public hearing. Soon the two were re gularly attending these hearings and became more familiar with Kulle’s past.

Kulle, born in Germany in 1921, grew up a member of the Hitler Youth. In 1940, he volunteered to join the Waffen-SS, “the lead Nazi paramilitary group that was largely responsible for many of the atrocities the Nazis committed against various groups including Jews, POWs, Roman Sinti, homosexuals,” said Soffer

In August 1942, Kulle was transferred to the concentration camp Gross-Rosen, where he worked as a guard and a training leader. Of the estimated 120,000 prisoners who entered the concentration camp between 1940 and 1945, 40,000 died. While working at the slave labor camp, Kulle earned two promotions

After learning of Kulle’s past, Toperoff and Schultz went to the OPRF administration and met individually with

PROVIDED

Reinhold Kulle, a former head custodian at Oak Park and River Forest High School.

Board of Education members in an attempt to put the custodian on paid leave

“We made presentations at the School District 200 board,” said Toperoff. “Everybody said we want to wait and see how the ‘trial’ turns out.”

Toperoff pointed out that it was not a “trial,” but rather a judicial hearing. When Kulle was originally called in for questioning in August 1982, his identity as a for mer SS guard was confir med. “He didn’t deny anything,” said Soffer

While attending the hearings, Toperoff witnessed community members express “love and adoration” for the custodian. She recalls one OPRF employee claiming to have “even more respect for (Kulle)” after hearing of his past.

Toperoff and Schultz continued to push the administration to take action, working with local organizations to raise awareness and bringing Holocaust survivors to speak at Board meetings. “They kept saying, no hard evidence,” said Toperoff. “Yada yada yada.”

Eventually, the two women gathered a group of citizens and “decided to go to the Board of Education and ask if they felt that it was within OPRF school policy to employ somebody who was a for mer member of the Nazi SS. If they said yes to that, then that would be a terrible admission. If they said no, they would have to terminate Kulle because his employment would be a conflict with district policy,” said Toperoff “And that’s eventually what happened.”

In January 1984, the school announced that at the end of the school year, Kulle would be placed on a terminal leave of absence. In November, a judge ordered Kulle to be deported to Ger many.

Before the affair, “Oak Park was so good at addressing problems before they became visible,” said Toperoff, and many community leaders lacked experience with an unexpected scandal of this size. Local media outlets, including the Wednesday Journal, failed to accurately report on the situation and often defended Kulle, said Soffer

“Nobody wanted to take (the issue) on,” said Toperoff. “They wanted us to go away.” To some, Toperoff said she became the “village idiot” or a “witch.”

“Why were we the issue, instead of the issue being the issue,” said Toperoff

“Oak Park is a community that prides itself on its ideals,” said Soffer. “Sometimes our ideals place us in personally uncomfortable situations where our ideals come in conflict with our friendships…It’s really hard to do the right thing. Oak Park did not live up to its ideals, but RaeLynne Toperoff and Rima Schultz made sure that it did.”

“I don’t mind being remembered as being angry,” said Toperoff, “as long as I’m remembered as being determined and trying to have some principles.” Later, she reflected on the events in an email: “What happened to us as individuals was insignificant against what happened to us as a community.”

e Wednesday Journal in 1984 repor ted on the Reinhold Kulle scandal.

“Sometimes our ideals place us in personally uncomfortable situations where our ideals come in con ict with our friendships.”

MICHAEL SOFFER

Kimberly J Wojack (‘77) 708-837-4142

Kim.wojack@bairdwarner.com kimwojack.bairdwarner.com

Anne Ferri 708-267-2113

anne.ferri@bairdwarner.com anneferri.bairdwarner.com

Five Generations of Huskies

It’s not unusual to see generations of Oak Park and River Forest residents who have attended OPRF. Some lucky students find themselves in classes helmed by instructors who taught their parents. Families of Huskies have a lot of bonds to celebrate.

Current OPRF Science Teacher Libby Kane’s family is one of those families that has a deep connection to OPRF High School. A 2012 graduate of the school, she and her siblings Jay and Paige are the fifth generation of the family to attend OPRF. Her great, great grandfather Clarence Fox started the family tradition when he graduated in 1886. Will the family tradition stretch on to a sixth generation and beyond? Only time will tell.

(Le to right) omas W. Hoagland, (Libby’s maternal grandfather), Amy Hoagland Kane, class of 1982 (center), Marcia McNeill Libby class of 1960 (Libby’s maternal grandmother).

John J. Kane and Amy H. Kane, class of 1982 and high school sweethearts (Libby’s parents), in their 1979 OPRF Homecoming photo.

Rober t A. Hoagland and Gertrude I. Fox, both class of 1928 (Libby’s maternal great grandparents).

(Above: Le to right) Elizabeth “Libby” Kane, class of 2012, with her brother John “Jay” Kane, class of 2023, and sister Paige Kane, class of 2015.

Clarence E. Fox, class of 1886 (Libby’s maternal greatgreat grandfather)

Mabel A. Fox, wife of Clarence (Libby’s maternal greatgreat grandmother)

New Exhibit Tells Story of OPRF High School at 150

The

An ode to thos e awful room numbers

I was going to find the answers that had been tormenting me since I began my time as a Huskie.

By Elizabeth Short Contributing Reporter

The 2021-2022 school year marked the end of an iconic OPRF tradition: the impossibly confusing room number system. Rather than being pelted by pennies on their first day of high school, as legend has it, OPRF freshmen found themselves in a much more difficult situation.

I was unfortunate enough to be a freshman at OPRF before 2021, and I remember feeling so powerless against it all; following signs that pointed me to rooms that weren’ t there and watching in disbelief as a hallway just over skipped the room number that was on my schedule. At least I knew to never, ever ask upperclassmen for directions.

This experience, and so many others like it, lives in generations of OPRF memories. I thought no section about the school’s history would be complete without mention of its old room numbering system. As I began writing this article, I was determined to find an explanation behind how they possibly came up with the old system.

After poring through the OPRF history museum’s archives, however, I realized there was not much to be found. The system most likely came to be in 1967, after the building’s largest renovation to date. Since 1907, the school has seen more than a dozen large renovation projects, so all hopes of having an easy-to-navigate building died long ago.

Somehow, however, the new numbering system does seem to actually make some sense. OPRF sophomore Madeline Walski told me about her experience over text.

“I honestly like the numbering system,” she said. “When I first started at OPRF all I really knew about the numbering system was that the system had changed. I wasn’t and still am not exactly sure when the numbering system was changed, but this way works well.”

e halls of Oak Park and River Forest High School

Does she even go to OPRF?

Growing up in Oak Park, I heard tales of the high school’s winding halls that were absolutely impossible to navigate. I could never imagine a version of myself who would carry herself confidently through that terrifying beige building. But time flies by; all of a sudden it was the spring of my sophomore year, and I advised my younger friends on how to make their way through the school.

Returning to school after the pandemic, my classmates and I entered an OPRF that we did not reco gnize. Senior year in 2021 was weird, and the new room numbers didn’t help

But my peers and I knew the old OPRF. The person sitting next to you in physics might have had different taste in music or opinions on Kanye West or plans for after high school, but we all understood the hopelessness of the OPRF freshmen on that first day navigating the paperclip. My OPRF was so different from the OPRF I looked forward to when I was in elementary school. Now I’m older and that version of OPRF is just in my memory. Things I thought were given went away, and I got so much more than I could ever imagine. I never actually did get to point the confused freshman in the wrong direction, and that’s okay.

In an e or t to make OPRF easier to navigate, the school lost its most iconic hazing ritual

Since 1907, the school has seen more than a dozen large renovation projects, so all hopes of having an easy-to-navigate building died long ago.

OPRF Alum Returns to High School, Musical in Hand

By Kelly Pollock

Contributing Reporter

On May 5, 2023, Oak Park and River Forest High School was the site of the world premiere of the musical X-Men: Mad Av enue written by Riley Thomas and directed by Michelle Bayer. It ran for two weekends and played to nearly sold-out crowds in the Little Theatre.

Thomas grew up in Rive

Woods. I say ‘surprisingly’ because that’s not who I am anymore. That role was before my growth spurt. Now I’m a pretty large man.”

Thomas attended Baldwin Wallace University and majored in music theatre but soon realized that he didn’t want to act anymore. “What I liked about acting was the storytelling. But as an actor, the only tool you have to tell a story is yourself. As a writer, you are worldbuilding and creating. Coming out of olle , I ealized that I

And Thomas has had other successes with a total of four off-Broadway shows.

All of which led him back to the doors of his alma mater when he contacted Bayer, the chair of the performing arts department. Thomas told her that he wanted to write something to be premiered at OPRF and wondered if she was interested. “I knew that Stuck had gotten good rece ption. And it would be a great opportunity for our kids. Why wouldn’t I say yes?” she said.

Once Bayer greenlit a world premiere, Thomas needed an idea. He had always wanted to write an X-Men musical. “I’m a huge Marvel nerd and I love the characters. I think it’s a great subject matter because

it’s so representative of civil rights. Plus the characters are diverse, well-known, and larger-than-life.”

He had some contacts at Disney who “agreed to look the other way” with the understanding that Thomas was interested in collaborating with them further. “They let me write the show and perform it at OPRF with certain stipulations. It’s just a threepage agreement.”

Workshopping the musical with the cast was a great experience. “I fell in love with all the kids,” said Thomas. He works a full-time job in New York as a professional

PROVIDED

OPRF students perform in the premier of alum Riley omas’ X-Men: Mad Avenue.

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omas was thrilled to return to his own high school for the premier of his original show. See X-MEN on pa ge B47

RILE Y THOMAS

from page B45

puzzle designer and flew back and for th every week to attend rehearsals and then took vacation time for three weeks leading up to opening night.

“The kids were so focused and so professional and so supportive of each other. It felt like a normal rehearsal process to me,” said Thomas. “What was different was the incredibly powerful feeling of being in the same green room that I rehearsed in and the same theater that I performed in over twenty years ago. It was a nostalgic feeling that I haven’t experienced anywhere else.”

Bayer thought it was a great show for the high school with sixteen leading roles and an eightperson ensemble. “It was a young cast with mostly freshmen and sophomores and just a few juniors and so we could feature kids who haven’t been highlighted in our shows before,” she said. “Riley was editing and adding and changing all the way through rehearsals, but the kids were amazing. Stuf f came to them on the fly and they just

did it. In fact, we didn’t get the last song until a week before the show opened.”

“It was a great experience for the kids. One, they got to work with someone who works in the New York theater industry; two, he is an alum of their high school; and three, they got to be the first ones to have ever done something,” said Bayer. “They worked very hard to master this super dynamic script and I’m so proud of them.”

When asked about the future of the show, Thomas doesn’t harbor any delusions of grandeur. “I don’t think it’s going to Broadway. My greatest aspiration for the show is an educational license where they let the show be done in schools. I want as many people as possible to perform it. And I love the message that’s summed up in the final number ‘The Light.’”

“It’s a message that we’ve heard over and over and over again, but now it’s packaged in a nice, superhero musical. Essentially, what are the choices you’re going to make that

make the world a better place for people who are disenfranchised? It’s very timely, unfortunately, because that’s what we do as a culture. We clash with anyone who is different from us.”

will

According to omas, the high school students were incredibly professional as they staged the Mar vel-themed musical.

“I’m a huge Marvel nerd and I love the characters. I think it ’s a great subject matter because it ’s so representative of civil rights. Plus the characters are diverse, well-known, and larger-than-life.”

RILE Y THOMAS

From the phantom jukebox to the oating girl: OPRF’s ghost stories

A discussion with the OPRF ghost stor y expert reveals the building’s ancient secrets

By Elizabeth Short Contributing Reporter

Hunting for stories of OPRF’s ghosts is nearly as difficult as ghost hunting itself, as these stories hide in the shadows and often jump out at those who never sought them in the first place. Rumors about paranormal activity are passed among students–whispers about a haunted water fountain or a second floor hallway to avoid at night–yet it can be difficult to distinguish rumor from urban legend…and urban legend from the truth.

After hours spent scouring the internet and attempts to interview staf f members who refused to tell their stories, I had only one lead: a 2012 Wednesday Journal article. Of a supposed OPRF “phantom,” the article said “(OPRF) security cameras captured a ‘wooshing’ sound.” The article also cites “rumors of a Huskie Hulk.”

But just as I thought I had reached a dead end, my friend knew what I should do: “Reach out to Mr. Ganschow!”

After attending OPRF as a student and working at the school for 24 years, English teacher and Tabula supervisor Daniel Ganschow has become keeper of OPRF’s seven legendary ghost stories and was the only source willing to share the lore.

“The only folks that have knowledge of these stories have either retired, work elsewhere, or don’t want to talk about them,” he said in an email.

When Ganschow began working at OPRF, he had the opportunity to see some of the more mysterious par ts of the school he had heard about as a student. “I’d heard crazy stories about tunnels here and there, secret walls, and secret stairwells,” said Ganschow. The hunt soon went beyond the physical and to the paranormal.

“I grew up with ghost stories,” said Ganschow. “I love the story, I love the oral tradition.”

Ganschow found an OPRF IT specialist who led a double life as a folklorist ghost hunter. T he source told Ganschow about seven different ghost stories, but said Ganschow would have to seek the stories himself. “I’ll tell you who to talk to and you can talk to them and come back to me” the IT specialist directed Ganschow.

And so the English teacher be g an his quest.

T he first story Ganschow told was the “story of the drinking fountain on the four th floor.”

While wandering the school one chilly f all evening, a couple re por tedly witnessed a girl in an “older period” dress drinking from the water fountain. As they walked up the stairs to the fourth floor, the two saw the hemline

of the girl’s dress floating a few inches above the floor with no feet touching the floor

Another paranormal occurrence is said to have happened in the old third floor library. After school one day, three employees apparently heard the “blood-curdling screams” of two girls. One employee ran to g et help, while the other two remained in the library, where they supposedly saw the girls run up to and pound on a set of doors before disappearing into a cloud of black smoke. Other hauntings include a woman who r uns around the second floor and an old jukebox that played songs after being unplugged. Additional paranormal activity was re ported in the culinary arts room, before the situation was handled with holy water.

Word count limits and fact checking can take away from the mysterious and absurdly entertaining nature of ghost storie s. For more detailed versions of these stories, you will have to ask somebody who had Ganschow as a teacher. Ganschow tells the stories to his students during the 31 days of October, encouraging students to think about oral tradition.

“We pass on stories,” said Ganschow, comparing the OPRF ghost stories to Greek mytholo gy. “We love to hear stories…With Greek mytholo gy, it was never meant to be written down. It was meant to be sung and then told generation after generation. ”

COURTESY OA K PARK RIVER FOREST HISTORY MUSEUM Oak Park River Forest High School in the early years.

“The only folks that have knowledge of these stories have either retired, work elsewhere, or don’t want to talk about them.”

DANIEL GANSCHOW

OPRFHS Alumni Domestic and International Service

By Jessica MacKinnon

Contributing Reporter

Throughout its history, Oak Park River Forest High School has encouraged students to engage in community service through clubs and activities including Tau Gamma, Best Buddies, Huskie Helpers, and the annual Empty Bowls event. In addition, many students participate in service projects through their churches and local nonprofit organizations. This year, in celebration of its 150th anniversary, the school is launching the Sesquicentennial Challenge by rallying current and for mer students, as well as parents and Huskie supporters, to log 150,000 hours of community service before

The following OPRFHS alumni were transformed their service experiences as teens and continue to ma a significant difference in their own communities and world. While at OPRFHS, Katlyn Keller, Class of 2007, volunteered with the Infant Welfare Society and participated in a variety of service activities through her including construction projects with Habitat Humanity and a camp for refugee children. A year after aduating, she joined the Peace Corps in Guinea, teaching English to high school students and leading a women oup. She learned Malinke, the native Guinean language to communicate with women, many of whom drop out of school as adolescents to get married and have children.

“I always knew service would be a part of my life. I had been interested in the Peace Corps since I was a kid and I wanted to go someplace of f the beaten path,” Keller said. “I thought it would be a good way to see the world while helping others.”

Keller has spent most of her career working for causenonprofits, including the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Haven House in St. Louis. She moved back to Chicago this summer to take a development position with the University of Chicago’s Laboratory School.

PROVIDED

Javin Peterson , Class of 1995 and a 2013 Tradition of Excellence Award recipient, was a natural leader and

athlete at OPRFHS, serving as a member of the senior class council and captain of the boys gymnastics team. After graduating, he enrolled in the Air Force Academy and was a pilot in the Air Force for 20 years, earning a Meritorious Service Medal and Afghanistan and Iraq campaign medals. He also flew Air Force Two, shuttling

While serving with the Peace Corps in Guinea, Katlyn Keller worked to empower local women.

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Katlyn Keller served with the Peace Corps in Guinea, where she taught English to youth.

PROVIDED

Jav in Peterson (far le ) launched Shepherd’s Gate Health to prov ide the Jacksonv ille, FL community with information about the A ordable Care Act.

senior-level White House administrators to their destinations

Since retiring from military service, Peterson has seamlessly transitioned to community service. Disturbed by the political posturing surrounding af fordable healthcare during President Obama’s administration, Peterson decided to tackle the issue himself.

and engage with local residents. Kudlacz found the experience so transformative that she now co-leads Ascension Church’s ASP trips with her older sister, Katie, also an OPRFHS graduate.

212 S Marion Street Fl G Oak Park, IL 60302 Bus: 708-383-3163

www.colinfane.com Monday

Peterson got a certificate in health administration and, in 2018, launched Shepherd’s Gate Health in Jacksonville, FL. The nonprofit organization, which is now based in Charlotte, NC, works with community stakeholders to provide preventive healthcare solutions for the underserved.

“OPRF propelled students to discover what they wanted to do by providing opportunities for us to interact across what might be considered boundaries—we had shared experiences even if we came from different backgrounds. And the Oak Park community was the incubator that helped us fulfill our dreams,” Peterson said.

Julie Kudlacz participated in the national Appalachian Service Project (ASP) all four years of high school. Over the past 20 years, hundreds of OPRFHS students have joined the week-long summer ser-

“It’s so much more than a week doing home repairs. It’s the chance to give teens a new experience that takes them out of their comfort zone, unplug from their phones and see what the world is like outside our bubble. It’s easy to think that we keep going on these trips to give back to those in need, but we get just as much out of it as what we are giving them. I come home every year knowing how blessed I am,” Kudlacz said

Mike Carmody, Class of 2000, co-founded Opportunity Knocks (OK) in 2010 to provide developmentally disabled young adults with more options after the age of 22. He had a personal reason for starting the organization—he grew up with a brother, John, with Down Syndrome who was aging out of the high school’s transitional education program. OK was, and still is, a family affair, including his parents and three other brothers, Phil, Colin and Chuck, all of whom are OPRFHS graduates.

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Before co-founding OK, Carmody taught in the high school’s special education department, helped with

Olympics,

Impacting Lives of Young Musicians for 25 years

Impacting Lives of Young Musicians for 25 years

Impacting Lives of Young Musicians for 25 years

Support Students in Music

Serving students in need in Oak Park and River Forest public schools, including OPRF.

Support Students in Music

Serving students in need in Oak Park and River Forest public schools, including OPRF. pingoprf.org info@pingoprf.org

Serving students in need in Oak Park and River Forest public schools, including OPRF. pingoprf.org info@pingoprf.org

“

OPRFHS set a high standard and instilled in us the importance of doing something cool with our lives. The teachers and administration focused on preparing us to make our mark in the world.

ADAM WALL AC E

OPRF SERVICE

from page B51

and coached the basketball and soccer teams. In 2007, He organized a softball tournament to honor his friend Kathy Garrigan, a fellow OPRFHS graduate who died while serving with the AmeriCorps in Alaska. The tournament was a huge success and has become OK’s biggest annual fundraiser.

OK now provides recreational programming and life skills training five days a week to 20 to 40 participants, referred to as Warriors. The organization also includes a social enterprise, providing farm-to-jar pickles to local restaurants, and a catering operation. Last year, the OPRFHS Alumni Association provided OK with $10,000, the association’s largest grant in history.

“Opportunity Knocks was the best way for me to provide our Warriors with access to our community in ways that they might otherwise not have. It’s really the best of all worlds for me—I get to teach our Warriors in a way that stretches their limits every day,” Carmody said.

Adam Wallace and his wife Valentina Se govia, both

Class of 2009, spent several years after colle ge volunteering as emergency medical technicians with Floating Doctors, a nonprofit that provides healthcare to underserved communities in rural Panama. In 2015, Wallace joined the Air Force and served as an instructor with the rigorous Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) program.

Wallace and Segovia worked with a team of other Floating Doctors volunteers to prov ide healthcare to communities in rural Panama.

PROVIDED

“We taught Air Corps crews how to survive in brutal conditions, including in the desert, the Arctic and oceans. And we taught them how to resist becoming a tool of the bad guys if they were captured,” Wallace said.

Wallace is now pursuing his medical degree at the University of Washington while Segovia is getting her doctorate of nursing practice at Johns Hopkins University. He recently received a prestigious Pat Tillman Scholarship, awarded to remarkable active-duty service members, veterans and spouses committed to strengthening their communities.

“OPRFHS set a high standard and instilled in us the importance of doing something cool with our lives. The teachers and administration focused on preparing us to make our mark in the world. We knew that, with so many notable alumni, we were walking in some big footsteps,” Wallace said.

PROVIDED

Mike Carmody (right) and his brother, Phil, cofounded Opportunity Knocks with their parents and other brothers to prov ide oppor tunities for individuals with development disabilities

PROVIDED

Adam Wallace (center) and Valentina Segovia (le ) spent several years a er college volunteering with Floating Doctors in Panama.

Project 2 facilities plan designed to impact students’ educational needs

By Susan Montgomery Contributing Reporter

In 2024, Oak Park and River Forest High School will begin a nearly $102 million construction project to raze the antiquated southeast corner of its building—currently used for the physical education program, as well as athletics—and bring it into the 21st century.

The southeast wing, which includes the 1928-era girls’ pool, will be replaced with a new 10-lane pool and spectator gallery, larger multi-use gymnasiums suitable for use as competition spaces, and locker rooms, and will include gender neutral locker rooms, training rooms, a dance studio, a yoga studio, and a new Green Room and property storage for the high school’s drama program.

The high school will continue to offer traditional athletic programs while expanding its curricular offerings to include a focus on helping students develop the overall wellness skills that will serve them well throughout their lives, according to Dr. Greg Johnson, school superintendent. Having more gymnasiums that are larger will also allow the high school

to host more extracurricular events at On the curricular side, the high school will continue to develop and enhance the programming already in place. “The pool is part of our overall strateg y to enable all of our varsity programs, with the exception of golf, to have a home on our campus,” Dr. Johnsons says. “First, we are able to have any diving in our school as a result of the antiquated spaces we have Currently, students travel to RiversideBrookfield High School for diving practice. at transpor t time cuts into all aspects of their lives. So this is a huge benefit to our students. The same is also true of our track and field renovation.”

Given the anticipated cost of the project, some community members have expressed concern that it would increase the tax burden and make the community less affordable to residents who are low income, a population that disproportionately includes people of color.

Dr. Johnson emphasizes that funding for Project 2 will come from three sourc-

es: the district’s current fund balance, private fund raising, and through borrowing at a level that will not exceed its current tax burden for the community. Another concern that has been raised pertains to racial equity and whether this is the best use of funds to serve all OPRF students. Dr. Johnson explains that improving facilities and working toward racial equity are not mutually exclusive. “I understand the concern and share the values to ensure we are serving the educational and academic needs of all our students--and in a way that is consciously and deliberately focused on racial equity concerns in our community and country. It is the number one priority,” he says.

He goes on to point out that academics will continue to receive ample support “We need to keep in mind, as far as our yearly operational costs are concerned, that District 200 is funded at 138 percent of what the state deems as adequate. We are blessed to be in a community that supports education as strongly as it does,” he says.

Aquatic schematic design, aka the new pool, is one part of OPRF’s Project 2 proposal. PROVIDED

Exterior schematic design for Imagine OPRF Project 2.

Committed to Oak Park and River Forest

Whether you’re seeing a movie at the Lake Theatre or heading for a hike in the G.A.R. Woods, we think you should be able to get all of your banking done in your neighborhood… with people who love the area as much as you do. Byline is privileged to be a part of the Oak Park and River Forest community, and we are proud to partner with local nonprofits like Beyond Hunger and sponsor local events like Thursday Night Out in downtown Oak Park.

To learn more about our commitment to Oak Park and River Forest, visit bylinebank.com/oprf