On Saturday I made a trip back to the building where I went to high school for the first time since I graduated in June of 1992. Back then, it was called Wheaton Central High School. It was the building that hosted the original Wheaton Community High School

On Saturday, they held a good bye to the building as a new middle school is being built. The building will come down and something new, probably condos, will be put in its place. A sad day for a school that has served the community so well. It was erie to walk thru the halls again. See my old lockers and the rooms of good and bad memories. I was able to see the room where I took drafting and architecture with Mr. Ken Holland - the room where my dream that lead me to University of New Mexico began. It might have been all purple - not the orange of my Tigers - but it was still my building.


Every high school has it's famous alumni, and here is some of the folks who went to high school in the same building I did:

Wheaton High School (1876-1925)

• C. Wayland Brooks, 1916, U.S. Senator
• Harold "Red" Grange, 1922, professional football player
• Edwin Hubble, 1906, astronomer

Wheaton Community High School (1925-1964)

• Dennis Dugan, 1964, actor
• James H. Monroe, 1962, Vietnam War soldier and Medal of Honor recipient
• William Rathje, 1963, "Professor of Garbology" at University of Arizona
• Grote Reber, 1929, inventor of the radio telescope
• Samuel K. Skinner, 1956, former United States Secretary of Transportation and Chief of Staff for President George H. W. Bush.
• Orrin Tucker, 1929, band leader
• Bob Woodward, 1961, reporter

Wheaton Central High School (1964-1992)

• Robert D. Beck, 1979, News Director of Wyoming Public Radio
• James Belushi, 1972, actor
• John Belushi, 1967, actor

oh, and

• John Head, 1992, consultant and troublemaker

:-)

Red Grange is the alumni that has the most visible impact, the football field is still named for him. Funny how I went to Red's high school and then cheer on the Fighting Illini - the college team he played for. And the Chicago Bears. That seems a bit like destiny talking. Then there is Edwin Hubble, who the middle school was named for - and the famous telescope in the news right now.

I had one of the rare moments of feeling old this weekend - its been 17 years since I graduated high school and going back was not something I would have done for any other reason. But it was a fun trip back in time.