Pages with Department Histories and Faculty Biographies Added

Preservation of Chattanooga Central History

Posted on behalf of the author, Charlie Sedman, two samples appear below:

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The Champion 1974

The Champion 1974.

via The Champion 1974.

Dedicated to Lindia Caldwell Harless

Chattanooga Central Class of 1965

Many of us are going through “care-giving”, but right now I’m thinking about Lindia.

Please click on the following:  http://play.simpletruths.com/movie/heart-of-a-caregiver/store

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Bill Harless’ Obituary

William Edge Harless, 66, Chattanooga, died peacefully on Tuesday, April 16, 2013, at his home on Missionary Ridge.

Bill was born in Chattanooga, educated at Central High School and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.   He loved sports, collecting antiques and spending time with his family.   Bill left his mark on numerous projects in Chattanooga.   He was recently inducted into the Central High School Sports Hall of Fame.

Bill was preceded in death by his parents Wilma Edge and George Brown Harless, Sr.

Bill is survived by his wife of 44 years, Lindia Caldwell; son, William Caldwell Harless; daughters, Mary Cummins (Richard) of Nashville and Laura Hamn.   He is also survived by his brother, George B. Harless, Jr. (Tootsie); sister, Pamela Harless Miller and his nieces and nephews whom he adored.   Bill was affectionately known by his five grandchildren (Wyatt Christian Harless, Richard Fenner Cummins III, William Bradford Cummins, Louisa Courts Cummins and John Houston Hamn) as “Buzz.”

Graveside services will be held at noon on Friday, April 19, at Forest Hills Cemetery with Dr. David Harr officiating.

Visit www.heritagefh.com to share words of comfort with the family and view the memorial tribute.

The family requests memorial contributions be made to the American Cancer Society or a favorite charity.   The family would like to express heartfelt thanks to the staff at Emory Winship Cancer Institute and Dr. Edward Arrowsmith of Tennessee Oncology.

The family will receive friends from 4-7 p.m. on Thursday, April 18, at First-Centenary United Methodist Church.

Arrangements are by Heritage Funeral Home and Crematory, Battlefield Parkway.

Rest in Peace Bill Harless

It is with much sadness that we let you know that Bill Harless, Pam Harless Miller’s and Butch Harless’ brother, and husband of Lindia Caldwell Harless (Class of ’65), passed away last night.  He was a true Pounder with the spirit we all respect.  Keep Lindia and the Harless family in your thoughts and prayers.  No details on memorial yet.

Update on Bill Harless

Received the follow update on Bill–please pray for Bill and Lindia:

The fight in Bill goes on even though he suffered a major stroke last Friday rendering him paralyzed on his right side.  This left him unable to eat, drink??, or speak causing him major frustration but he is still trying.

We continue to receive wonderful support from our great class and we are eternally grateful.

Love to everyone,

Lindia

Bill Harless, Class of 1965

Many of you know Bill has been battling cancer for some time now.  The purpose of this post is to let you know he has been at home on hospice for a few months, and to let you know that he and Lndia appreciate prayers, calls, and cards.  Getting calls and cards are a real boost to Bill’s spirits.

Champion Night 1962

This is our story, (Jack Scruggs Class of ’61 and Marshall Harris, class of ’62) based on accounts as best I can recall of Champion Night – 1962.

The American Dance Through the Ages

After Jack had graduated, we got together at summer’s end just before school started and began tossing ideas around for a skit for Champion Night.  I thought comparing different dance styles from over the years might be good and Jack suggested that we try dances throughout American history.  Together we wrote a program that started with the Indian dance then cycled through the major American dances up to the present.

Jack then came up with the idea to look into the future.  We both knew that in most cases, whatever was old would be new again.  So Jack suggested the future dance would bring back the Indian dance, thus making the cycle.

After we polished up the program, I took it to school to pitch the idea to a few of my friends.  They all loved it.  I knew in order for us to be successful with everyone, I had to recruit dancers from all social levels in the school.  At that time the twist was still popular and this one guy who I can’t remember now, bought a pair of shoes called the twisters.  They were candy apple red with a clip top to close instead of the usual shoe strings.  He said he got them at Tom McCanns.  I recruited him to do the twist.  I talked Hardy Cox into doing the Indian dance and he really did an all out funny dance.  The minuet consisted of football and basket ball players who played both male and female parts!  Their willingness to participate surprised me and their mom’s made all their costumes, which surprised me even more!  I talked to Scott Sullivan, who played trombone in the school’s swing band.  He got the rest of the guys to play all our music.  They usually had to practice after school on their own time.  For the square dance, I mixed in some girls and they helped teach some of the guys how to dance whatever category they were in.  Again, they made their own costumes.  After the square dance came the Hippy era where there was no dancing, but rather poetry reading.  Jerry Poe was into Mad comics and found this cool poem to read.  I played bongos during the poetry reading and when it was over, we snapped our fingers rather than applaud.  Then it was on to Rock & Roll.  Again, the dancers were improvising and the costumes were typical of the day.  We ended the Rock era with the twist guy dancing by himself.  Then the curtains closed and our MC, Phil Hise, came out and said, “Now we dare to bring you the dance of the future!”  Our Indian Hardy Cox, came back out dancing and whooping it up wilder than the first time.

After the skit was over, we got a nice ovation from the crowd.  Mr Morris Bales and the band leader Jimmy Lee, said we had the best skit and Mr. Bales said I would be famous one day! HA!

Jack and I had a lot of fun putting it all together.  Still, to me the best part was the fact that everybody jumped right in and did their best to make everything work out, especially the Moms who made such great costumes.  I can’t tell you exactly how many people were involved simply because it happened so long ago.  Perhaps someone reading this little story may have a memory of this and can add more to the story.

A special thanks to Jack for his help way back then.  Without him, it wouldn’t have been as much fun.

Marshall Harris, Central Class of 1962

Chattanooga Central Class of 1965

Received the following update from Treva Schlosshan:

Please have everyone remember Bill & Lindia in their prayers.  I spoke to Lindia & it seems Bill has been in the hospital recently.  He was given only 24 hours to live at that time, but 2 weeks later was back home with hospice care.  He is very weak & sleeping a lot, but still able to talk to Lindia.  Fred took him a gift by the house Christmas Eve, but he was asleep at that time, so he did not get to visit with him.  Lindia called me later & said that she thought he was just trying to make it through Christmas.  It will not be long before the Lord calls him home & Lindia gave me permission to have everyone updated.  This has to be so difficult for them & prayers will be appreciated.

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Revitalization of Central Alumni Association

NOTES FROM ALUMNI ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING

DECEMBER 6, 2012

CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY

Those alumni and friends of Chattanooga Central High School who attended the organizational meeting on December 6, 2012 included:

Martha Faye Blabon

Brielle Farrow

Brandon Farrow

Bobby Byrd

Buffy Hoge

Nancy Nance Fuller

Charles E. Fuller

A. Cherie Fuller

Tonia Martin

Finley King

Barney Ottinger

Gordon McGlohon

Joel Kennedy

Don Huskey

Connie M. Hay

Ed Hoback

Lucy Bottorff

Jerry Summers

Eddie Test

Pam Miller

Butch Poole

Judy Phillips

Barney opened the meeting by asking everyone to introduce themselves since we had some present who had not previously attended a meeting.  He passed out an agenda for review and discussion and stated that the first order of business needs to be for the organization to get legal.  It needs structure and interested and dedicated members. Recruitment is of the utmost importance.

Jerry has updated the bylaws and informed the group that we are within guidelines to present the slate of officers now to be voted on at the January meeting.  The slate is as follows:

Lucy Bottorff – President

Tonia Martin – Vice president

Judy Phillips – Secretary

Pam Miller – Treasurer

Buffy moved that the slate be accepted by acclamation.  Martha Faye seconded the motion and it was passed.  Officers will be elected in January.

No one has received any information from James Walker regarding finances.  Finley contacted Mr. Walker by phone from the meeting and he did commit to having the charter situation finalized by December 14th. Finley had previously received a check from Mr. Walker for the website.  It was determined that the charter is currently in limbo and that the annual report for the years 2011 and 2012 needs to be filed.  Jerry stated he will do what needs to be done to bring us current.  He also urged us to bring in younger members.  Barney said he will hold all “doers” accountable.

As of right now, the bylaws say that officers should “shift” each year with one year’s slate consisting of the “old” and the following year’s slate consisting of “58” alumni. Discussion was held concerning the possibility that this would promote a division within the group.  General consensus was that this would not be a problem.  For now, the only bylaws change will pertain to election of officers.

Joel stated that new membership is the key and urged everyone to recruit.

Finley urged appointment of various committees where the interests lie, such as athletics, membership, scholarships, etc.

Discussion of how the finances are currently being handled revealed there has been no audit, no procedure nor any authorization for spending of funds.  Jerry indicated the bylaws have a method and he will review it by the next meeting.  Funds will be transferred from the current account to a new account in January after the officers are elected.  An audit will be performed before the new treasurer accepts the account. In addition to Pam as treasurer, those authorized to sign checks will include Bobby and Jerry.  Two signatures will be required.  Lucy read the duties of the treasurer currently stated in the bylaws.  Jerry said they can be changed at any time and we may have to “fix” them as we go.  Alumni was defined as anyone who has attended Central with graduation not being a stipulation.

It was agreed that membership fees will be waived for the year 2013 and be evaluated in January of 2014 for any changes.  This move hopefully will encourage membership. The membership form on line will be updated to let everyone know that there is no charge to join the alumni group.  Seniors will have a notice and membership form in their graduation packet to remind them they are now alumni and will be welcome at all functions.  The website will be updated with this information as well.  A small anvil (Pounder’s symbol) will be provided by Gordon to the first 100 members joining if he can determine from his former boss that it can be reproduced.  He will report back at the January meeting.

Tonia presented copies of her proposed communication plan which was accepted and applauded by all.  This will include the domain name, www.chattanoogcentralalumni.com, currently owned by Butch, an email address for our group, Google apps and Facebook.  Complete approval was given to Tonia to move forward with her plans.  She was appointed communication committee chairperson with Buffy and Martha Faye agreeing to serve with her.

Our group needs a mission statement and Finley will bring the school’s mission statement to our next meeting.  We will attempt to incorporate theirs to ours and finalize at our January meeting.

Discussion was held concerning updating and reprinting the directory.  This will begin from 2007 and go forward at no cost to us.  We will receive a percentage of the sales and an electronic copy.  Lucy will review the contract and contact Harris Connect to begin the process which takes about a year to complete.

Butch indicated he does not get a lot of feedback from his requests for information on the website.  He and Ed share information.

The school librarian, Melinda Martin, has written grants and the school will receive one totaling $10,000.00 on December 7, 2012.  It will be used for improvements at the school.  Finley again urged alumni to agree to speak at school functions and let students know what Central has meant to them during their lifetime and how much meaning it still has for them.

Lucy suggested having business cards printed for active alumni members to pass out to classmates or any Central alumni they run across who are not active or involved in the association.  This was well received by the group.

Martha Faye asked each one to bring at least two new members to the next meeting.

The January meeting will be held on Thursday, the 10th, at 6:00 pm in the school library.  This will be in conjunction with the monthly Central Connection meeting.

Judy Phillips