I attended Denver Public Schools beginning in the autumn of 1921. I attended Park Hill Elementary School, Aaron Gove Junior High (for one year), Smiley Junior High (I was in the 8th grade in its opening year), and East Denver High, graduating in June 1934.
I can still remember the names of the principal and all my teachers at Park Hill Elementary. When I was in the sixth grade, I was selected to be the fire marshal for fire drill. I stood on the first floor at the foot of the stairs to monitor the students as they exited. I also went to the local fire station to get a permit for the school to have a bonfire on the playground to burn an old tattered American flag. I remember playing marbles on the playground during recess.
In the fall of 1927 I started attending Aaron Gove Junior High, which was about one an one-half miles from home. I rode my bicycle so the trip usually didn’t take very long. I well remember one day, however, which started as a fairly nice day. By noon a heavy snow was falling, with so much on the ground tat I couldn’t ride my bike, so I had to push it through the snow. I felt half-frozen by the time I reached home.
Smiley Junior High was completed during that year, so in the fall of 1928 I started 8th grade there, much closer to home. I have especially good memories about a few classes at Smiley. One was shop, where I especially enjoyed making a fireplace set, with stand, poker and tong, fashioned of iron bars, heated in a forge, and then shaped by pounding with a heavy hammer on an anvil. It wasn’t a very elegant set, but it worked, and I still have it by our basement fireplace. In the ninth grade I was named editor of the school’s small newspaper, the Smiley Announcer.
My three and one-half years at East Denver High School were very enjoyable and productive. One unusual class was a semester of calculus, which was basically beginning calculus at a freshman college level. With an interest in a future engineering career, I took physics and chemistry and was an assistant in the physics laboratory during my senior year. I played cello in the orchestra and also played in the all-city orchestra, with participants from all five Denver high schools at that time. I earned a letter in tennis, and my doubles partner and I were state high school doubles champions. I also played basketball on the second team as a senior. I well remember one football game played in the rain at the old Denver University stadium. I was selected to the National Honor Society as a junior and was elected president for my senior year. I enjoyed looking at my 1934 Angelus and recalling my many wonderful friendships.
My education in the Denver Public Schools Provided an excellent basis for my later studies at the University of Denver, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University, the last resulting in the degree of Master in Public Administration.
William W (Will) Reedy