A Lifetime of Memories

Al Hayes

From the time I was born, my dad, Albert Hayes was sure that my blood ran blue and gold.

He was an integral part of Stadium High School since 1954. He began as a teacher, progressed to a counselor, vice principal and principal where he retired in 1978.

Within a year of my birth back in 1958, Dad would bundle me up and take me in his massive arms and parade me through the halls as the proud father of a future Stadium Tiger.

Throughout the years, I would occasionally spend a Saturday mornings roaming the castle while Dad caught up on work in his office overlooking Commencement Bay. I eventually explored every inch of that building from the spires on the roof, to the depths of the basement.

My imagination ran wild as I walked the hallways. The only sound was my PF Flyers squeaking on the waxed floors. I skinny dipped in the girls pool, jumped in the trampoline, shot arrows across the gym at straw targets, and slid down the banisters near the front offices.

Times were good and this was MY school. I felt like a king. No other kid had the opportunities for exploration. Every door and every nook was an invitation to my curiousity. But it was not all fun and games.

My dad taught me to weld and fabricate in the metal shop. My personal instructions were from the top. I learned the to turn a perfect bowl on the wood lathe in the woodshop.

When I started my Sophmore year at Stadium, Dad was on top of the world.

In 1976, Dad had a heart attack that really put things in prospective.

He had put virtually his entire adult life into the advancement of education for the students at Stadium and it almost cost him his life.

He returned vowing to lower his stress levels but he couldn't stand by and just watch from the sidelines. He, along with Vice Principals, John Buffaloe, and Vern Wheeler, made a threesome any school district would envy.

In 1977, I was the last person to walk across the stage and receive my diploma. Imagine the inner satisfaction of giving your own son his high school diploma. It was like a lifelong journey had come to an end.

Dad stayed at Stadium one more year and then retired.

Thousands of students were touched by my father and his caring ways. I heard him explain to many people, while he was employed by the school district, he really worked for all the students of the old brown castle.

Jeff Hayes, Class of 1977

Memories@CelebrateStadium.com

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Architect

Bryant, Jason Lee, Castle

I remember my years attending Stadium High with great pride. I still remember certain classes when we discussed particular subjects. I remember my mother showing me a newspaper article that praised the United States for having the best educational process in the world and that the Puget Sound region in the North West had the best schools in the Country.

While attending Jason Lee Junior High, I had decided to become an architect. I had found a book about Frank Lloyd Wright that convinced me that this is the way I would spend my life.

I graduated with a "C" average from Stadium. I came from a poor family that could not send me to collage so I joined the Marine Corps in order to get the discipline I needed to get through collage. Believe me; they gave me all the mental tools I needed. I worked my way through the University of Washington with a wife and two kids and still graduated with a 3.7 average.

Our class, the class of 56, gets together every year since our 45 reunion. I love attending and seeing all my old class mates. They have made my wife, Toby, feel like she is one of us. I ask myself how could I be so lucky to attend such a great school and have such great friends. I was truly blessed.

I do not remember my football coach's name, but as a line backer he made me tackle every on the team, one at a time, and boy did that toughen me up. In those days if you were on the first team you played both offense and defense.

Gretchen Weller was a class mate from Bryant Grade School thru Stadium, I still consider her as a best friend.

I consider my career as an architect as a way to make it a better world thru good design, so I thank Jason Lee, Stadium High, my teachers, the US Marine Corps, and all my friends for giving me the ability to practice my profession.

Larry Craig
Class of 1956
Poulsbo, WA

Memories@CelebrateStadium.com

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Snapshots under the Seats

In a Darkroom

In 1955-56 I served as Assistant to John Green. John was theTAHOMA photographer. John graduated in 1956. My time as TAHOMA photographer came in 1956-57.

Under the balcony seats there was a photography darkroom. It was the center of action in '56 & '57 for the processing of photographs for the TAHOMA.

My photo activities in the 1956-57 time included working as a lab assistant at Bert Perler Photography. During the summers of '58 through'61 I worked as a clerk at The Camera Shop.

I graduated from Stadium in 1957. In the fall of ‘57 I enrolled at Central Washington College of Education. In 1960 I married Marlene Lindauer (from Mabton, WA). In 1961 I earned my BA in Education and Marlene and I moved to Tacoma.

I taught at Stanley Elementary in Tacoma from 1961 until mid-year 1964-1965.
In that mid-year time I had responsibilities at the Washington State Office of Public Instruction. These tasks also related to my MS Educ. studies at Central Washington University.

In the fall of 1965 I joined the Washington State University faculty. I served on the faculty until 1982 when I went into private business. While at WSU I earned my EdD.

In 1990 Marlene and I relocated to the Kittitas Valley. We live about 15 miles east of Ellensburg.

Now, semi-retired, I serve part time on the Walden University faculty. I do a number of fun projects focused on writing, exploring issues of the alternative futures, and criticizing systems for delivering quality in government.

For Christmas in 2005 Marlene gave me a digital camera. I’m returning to my roots and taking pictures of everything. Having fun.

Jerry Brong class of '57

Memories@CelebrateStadium.com

CelebrateStadium.com