When the pen was mighty

I’ll bet you’re glad that the holidays are over and life gets back to normal. The kids are returning to their classes, and the sounds of moaning and groaning in the classrooms have subsided.

Boy, can those teachers moan and groan.

For this week’s look back, we’ll journey to the year of 1933 and see who was teaching the future leaders of the area at Ocean View Elementary School.

That was a trying year for many in our county, as residents began to recover from the horrors of the earthquake that struck the area in March.

After a jittery summer, Ocean View opened its classroom doors to 50 more students than it had the previous year; it now had an enrollment of 369.

It was also the year that Ocean View got a new district superintendent and principal, John R. Peterson, who later had an elementary school named after him.

Peterson was born in Denver, Colo., in 1901 where his father, Marian, had been a successful and well-known architect. The family moved to California in 1903.

After serving in World War I, Peterson married Opal Thompson, and in 1922 he received his bachelor’s degree and began teaching in Ventura.

In the early 1930, Peterson rose to the position of principal of Adelanto Elementary School in San Bernardino County. He left that school in September 1933 to become the principal of Ocean View Elementary.

While he was here he organized the school’s Orpheus Male Quartette and the Ocean View Community Band, which would later be combined with the Huntington Beach Municipal Band.

Peterson remained at Ocean View until he accepted the position of principal and superintendent at Huntington Beach’s Central Elementary School in 1940.

Serving as Ocean View’s vice principal at this time was Joseph Gebauer. Gebauer came to Ocean View in 1929 and taught students drama, literature, science and the industrial arts in addition to coaching boys’ athletics and serving as scoutmaster to a local Boy Scout troop.

It was in 1931 that Roscoe Bradbury joined the staff to coach track and teach math, physiology and industrial arts.

He had previously been a track coach at Harvard Military Academy in Los Angeles, and I’m sure his knowledge of physiology came in handy in his role as bus driver.

It was in 1930 that Ruby Gray came to teach the fifth grade at Ocean View and also head the girls’ athletic classes.

In 1929 Susan Russell joined the facility to begin teaching third-grade students and art to the older students at the school.

In 1926 Mildred Moulton joined the staff to teach second grade. She would also teach a subject that today’s teachers would consider a lost art -- that of penmanship.

The school employed Mrs. Hansen to teach the first grade beginning in 1931; she would also teach the upper students literature.

It was in 1930 that Helen Schoenbery joined the staff to teach her students what was called “Americanization.” She also instructed the choir, served as assistant coach for girls’ athletics and was the school’s librarian.

Two new teachers were added to the facility in 1933. Josephine Bell became the kindergarten teacher. Bell also taught piano and geography to the upper classes and served as a coach for the girls.

Also joining the staff that year was Genevieve White. She taught classes in both the fourth and fifth grades.

Other members of the school staff included school nurse Anna Ekdahl; cafeteria head Mrs. Mayes; bus driver and attendance officer Harry Letson; and janitors Ralph Clay and Roy Fox.

School trustees that year included Vernon Heil, Wellington DeLaVergne and T.J. Holt.

It’s important to try and remember your teachers, for these fine individuals are a special link in your chain of life.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.

20060105gzerjpke(LA)