JERRY PERSONFond memories of Huntington High

hbi-lookback13TextDA1SME4BA Look Back As Huntington Beach High School celebrates a century of learning, I thought it fitting that this week’s column looks back at how some of the earlier teachers felt about the school and its principals.

It was in February of 1918 that Martha Trafford first found herself stepping into our hallowed halls.

She had come to Huntington Beach from Azusa, Calif., and her first impressions of the school were not of its building, but of the friendly faculty she met on her first day of school.

She found the girl students most beautiful and the boys very courteous.

Trafford taught art, spelling, penmanship and business math.

In her long run as a teacher, she had seen the school go from a single two-story structure built in 1908 to a beautiful new campus in 1926 with its well-manicured lawn and several new buildings.

In those 30-plus years at Huntington High, she recalled those early principals.

When she first began teaching here in 1918, the principal was Mr. Brown; when he retired, Principal Mitchell took over running the school.

But her favorite and most respected principal was McClelland Gibby “Mac” Jones and when these two were at Huntington High, it had less than 200 students and only 10 teachers.

Trafford always considered Jones to be a kind, courteous and the most understanding of principals during her time at Huntington.

Our next teacher, Lloyd Hamren, was born on a farm in Iowa and taught school in Utah before coming to Huntington High in 1924.

His first impressions of our school were of its principal, M.G. Jones, and how this gentleman understood and cared for the personal welfare of his students and faculty.

Hamren taught history at Huntington, and it was he who first suggested a “ground-breaking ceremony” for the new school site, just as had been done in his hometown years before.

He suggested that they have the president of the school board, William Newland, guide a plow pulled by some students in a site dedication ceremony, and in an earlier column we looked back at this event.

One of Hamren’s fond memories of the new school in its first year was of someone forgetting to close a vent under the cafeteria and how a couple of skunks got in. You can imagine the students’ reactions to the smell. At least the cafeteria staff could blame the smell on the skunks and not the cooking.

As the Pacific Electric’s red car rolled into town, on board sat Dale Braybrooks looking out its window and wondering if he made the right decision to teach way out here in the country.

As he got off the streetcar, principal Jones met him, and the two rode over to the school in Jones’ Model T Ford. Braybrooks would be teaching shop class to the boys as well as coaching them in basketball with legendary coach “Cap” Sheue.

At that time in the old school there was a lack of everything that a new physical education coach would need. There was no gym for the boys, but there was a low, weather-beaten building that the boys referred to as “the shack” behind the main school building that was used as a dressing room for the boys.

Helen Moore recalled starting her long teaching career at Huntington in 1925 as a substitute English teacher and how Principal Jones would encourage her and her students to work harder.

Before she retired from Huntington, Moore told her students that she hoped they and future students would continue to take good care of this beautiful campus, which she felt was one of the best in Southern California.

Our last teacher to remember the school and Principal Jones is R.P. Meairs who, during his long association at Huntington, taught bookkeeping.

In those years, he would maintain that Jones was the main reason he came here in 1925, and he considered Jones not only a principal but also a good friend to work with.

It appears by these comments from the faculty that Jones was well liked by his students, teachers and the community.

Sadly, Jones left Huntington High on July 1, 1945 to teach at Chaffey College.

Over the years, Huntington High has changed but in some ways has remained the same as when these teachers were there. As the school celebrates its centennial year, may today’s teachers reflect with the same feelings of the school and its principal as these earlier teachers have.