Latin School of Chicago

"When I was there James O. Wood was Headmaster, we played kick ball on the roof, Pop Keeler was our Cub Scout Master and also taught shop. My class were all in puppy love with our second grade teacher Ms. Peterson (a ten), and we mostly detested our French teacher Monsieur Lubrijay (sp?) who wore a rug type wig and used makeup. He would walk around with a yardstick and slam it on the desk of any kid dozing, generally me. In my class, Dickey Barnes was the fastest runner, Billy Wrigley gave the most fantastic birthday and Halloween parties, Billy Diener was the strongest guy in class, John Cervenka made the funniest noises. Now that I look back on this class, it was loaded with scions of empire builders and it made me think that everybody was like that." — John Harvey '50 Advertising the big game. 1939 girls school alumna.) "We were hard workers and we expected much of ourselves. For many of us the high expectations and discipline we had at Latin was much like what we experienced at home." The structured stability at Latin was especially meaningful to Davis, whose mother had died before he came to the school in ninth grade and whose father, a well-respected neurosurgeon, spent part of the war treating wounded soldiers in England. "The teachers were always very encouraging," said Davis. "They knew that I very much wanted to go to Princeton and they helped me every step along the way. The personal interest they took in each one of us was marvelous. To me, my four years at Latin were among the most gratifying times in my 88 years." One of the memories he holds most dear is the recognition students received when they were selected for the honor roll: "Every month Mr. Wood would come up to the fourth-floor study hall to hand out the honor roll cards. I remember the anticipation as he called each student's name to come up and get his card." Those cards are still among the mementos Davis has kept from his school days. Davis also experienced great success on the playing fields and enjoyed deep comradeship with his teammates. One of those teammates was Howard "Howdy" Carroll '44. "We were a very tight-knit group and were friendly with students two or three grades up or two or three grades down," said Carroll. "Looking Latin's football team at the fieldhouse. back, I know that we went to school with the children from some of the most prominent families in the city, but at the time we didn't think about who belonged to whom. The same applied for the scholarship students. We were all just friends." One of Carroll's closest friends was Johnny Groth '45. Together, Carroll and Groth helped Latin to many victories in football, basketball and baseball and proudly continued to make their mark on the basketball court at the school even a decade after graduating. (See more in the athletics story.) It never occurred to Carroll, or his parents, that he should leave Latin to go to boarding school for high school, as was the tradition for many families at the time. "I couldn't have asked for a better education. We had a wonderful faculty." Carroll can still name all of his teachers. He also can still remember scientific theories based on experiments he did in class at Latin, as well as assembly lectures, playing games of capture the flag in Lincoln Park and that Latin offered a generous hot lunch for 50 cents. "You could spend a quarter more to get dessert," he said. For the price of a latte, you could get hot lunch at Latin – with dessert – for a week in the 1940s. Post-War Years As the war came to a close in 1945, Latin students' understanding and awareness of the world around them had grown and in the coming years, the school's curriculum would reflect this more global outlook. LATI N SCHOOL OF CHI CA GO 49

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