2011-12-16-insert

1968.1969.1970.1971.1972.19 West High Project 73.1974.1975.1976.1977.1978 .1979.1980.1981.1982.1983.1 984.1985.1986.1987.1988.198 9.

1990.1991.1992.1993.1994.1 995.1996.1997.1998.1999.200 0.2001.2002.2003.2004.2005.

2006.2007.2008.2009.2010 2011

PAGE DESIGN BY//ADAM CANADY

THE WEST HIGH

PROJECT:

West High School is who we are – collectively as a student body, of course, but also individually. It’s where we find our friends, broaden our horizons and hone our beliefs.

And although they walked these

hallowed (or at least crowded) halls in years past, the West High alums featured in this special insert are also a part of this school, and this school is a part of them. Inspired

by The Oxford Project (see below),

we gave these past graduates time to find their life stories and then checked back in – tracing both West’s and their own histories, and the places where they intersect.

This is the West High Project.

The Oxford project Peter Feldstein didn’t begin the Oxford Project with a grand vision, just the view through his camera lens.

What he and co-author Stephen Bloom ended up with was a profound and nationally-acclaimed portrait of American life; more specifically, a series of portraits of 97 Oxford residents. Feldstein and Bloom published the Oxford Project book in 2008, composed of a compilation of side-by-side photos of each Oxford resident in 1984 and then in 2005, along with the stories of their lives in the 20 years in between.

Feldstein moved to Oxford, Iowa, in 1978 when he bought a storefront with studio space in the small town and began teaching art at the University of Iowa.

“One of the sayings in Oxford is that you’re a stranger here for 25-30 years before you become part of the community. I don’t really believe that, but it compelled me to do the project,” he said.

After originally dismissing the town as Hicksville, Feldstein quickly realized the Oxford residents were not only worth knowing, but worth capturing on film. He was inspired by photog-

1984

“HEARTACHE, JUBILATION, BETRAYED

From The Oxford Project: There were thousands of

bodies piled high.

I saw hearts that had been taken from

live people

in medical experiments.

-Jim Hoyt, Sr. World War II veteran 02 INSERT

strange, but I love Oxford, and I really love the people here, even the people I don’t like. They’re interesting, they’re colorful, they another. …There are some families that have been here for two or three generations and they’re all here, the parents the grandparents, the kids. … You could make a connection from one family to any other family. It’s not inbreeding, it’s that they’re all connected, it’s amazing. You wouldn’t find that in Iowa City,” he said.

Feldstein’s favorite story belongs to Jim Hoyt, a World War II survivor of Buchenwald concentration camp who has since passed away. For Bloom, the stories are like good friends – he likes them all for different reasons.

The nation seemed to be similarly captivated after the book’s release, as Bloom and Feldstein were profiled in major newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post and aired on NPR. “This [reaction] was quite a surprise and it’s very strange because it’s just something I did the first time on a lark almost,” he said.

Feldstein is currently doing abstract print-making and in the rough stages of two documentaries. Bloom is teaching at the University of Michigan this year.

2005

PHOTOS USED WITH PERMISSION FROM// THE OXFORD PROJECT

eleanor.marshall@wsspaper.com

raphers like Douglas Huebler, who it again. Feldstein agreed on one conset out in the 70s to photograph every dition: Bloom had to come along and person in the world, though Feldstein interview each person. So they started aimed a little smaller. again, just over 20 years later – enough “The concept [of photographing ev- time for the Oxford residents to deery person alive] was intriguing to me velop their life stories, tracking down because, number one, it was impos- the residents that remained from the sible but, number two, it was sort of first portraits. imaginable. … I thought maybe I could “People really want to tell their stophotograph everyone in Iowa City, and ries. People really have a longing to then I thought, ‘No, make meaning out but I could photoof their lives and graph everyone in there aren’t many EVERYONE HAS Oxford,’” he said. good listeners out So he put up a sign there. … I wanted outside his storeto show that the front, attracting people of Oxford EVERYONE HAS children on their are like the people way to school, then of New York City or wary adults and fiChicago or Paris or EVERYONE HAS BEEN London or Mexico nally families. In a matter of months, City. … Everyone Feldstein had phohas heartache, evtographed 670 of eryone has jubila-Stephen Bloom, the 676 residents Oxford Project writer tion, everyone has – democratically been betrayed, evletting everyone stand in front of the eryone has been rewarded by children camera and present themselves as they or parents or some achievement. … were. He had finished and he had no These people are a microcosm of all plans to do anything more. the people in the universe,” Bloom said.

Until Bloom, a friend and journalism One microcosm Feldstein has come professor at the University of Iowa, to appreciate. saw his work and convinced him to do “What I found out here was, it’s very

“

BY ELEANOR MARSHALL

PAGE DESIGN BY//KATIE MONS

Stroke of genius West High graduate, Jacob Soll, received a MacArthur Fellowship for his in-depth research of early modern Europe. Find out how his perspective has changed since high school.

BY ANNA EGELAND

anna.egeland@wsspaper.com

E

arlier this year on a dreary September day, Jacob Soll ’87, halfbrother of Ben Soll ’13, was trudging through the rain on the way to the fine arts library at the University of Pennsylvania to work on his Ben Soll ’13 book. He was grumpy and was thinking about how he could possibly continue to finance his research. Then Soll got a call that changed his outlook completely. The call came from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and it informed Soll that he had received a MacArthur Fellowship, nicknamed the genius award, which would provide him with a $500,000 grant over a five year span.

“I went into a sweat and I had to take off my coat,” Soll said. Filled with disbelief, Soll says he Googled the number on his phone and called back several times in an attempt to verify the news.

Then Jacob called his father, David Soll, a professor of Biology at the University of Iowa.

“I was on my way to George’s tavern when [Jacob] called. He was at an intersection in downtown Philadelphia, semi-catatonic,” David said. “I wasn’t surprised [that he had won a MacArthur Fellowship], given his work was lauded as original, and ground-breaking. He had just won the Guggenheim Award.”

Hold it right there. Re-wind about twenty-four years and stop…now!

The year is 1987. Jacob is a student at West High and a self-proclaimed punk rocker. He’s the school board represen-

tative for student government and his favorite subjects are History, German and English. Every morning his math teacher throws a trash can across the room to get the class’ attention, which works pretty well. One day during Biology, his friend Jeff Cooper puts a fish preserved in formaldehyde in Jacob’s backpack. Jacob doesn’t discover it until Algebra.

Jacob describes his high school career as “not wildly successful” and says he didn’t know what he wanted to do in the future. He says he wishes he had spent more time in high school learning Greek and Latin.

“At one level, I didn’t do very well and it marked me. Now, I am a highly competitive person to say the least,” Jacob said.

David describes Jacob’s high school self as “argumentative, creative personally and academically, a risk-taker and far from a brilliant student.”

Jacob says things changed for him when he went to France during his junior year and afterwards started spending his summers in Europe.

Now, Jacob is examining Europe through a different lens: the same lens that earned him a MacArthur fellowship. Jacob, currently a professor in the Department of History at Rutgers University, Camden, received the award for his studies involving early modern Europe. Jacob says he plans to spend a lot of time traveling and working on his two books in progress: one about libraries and why they’re essential to Democracy, and another about accounting and politics.

After winning the fellowship, things have changed for Jacob.

“Every door opens and the New York Times suddenly thinks your work is interesting,” Jacob said. “[The MacArthur Fellowship] will allow me to continue taking intellectual risks and being a free-thinker.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF//JACOB SOLL

Jacob Soll, West High graduate of 1978, won a MacArthur Fellowship grant that will allow him to continue his research of early European society. He was one of twenty-two recipients of the 2011 award given to individuals working in all fields who are nominated for their creativity and potential to make contributions in the future.

PHOTO BY//ABBIE SKEMP

03 INSERT

PAGE DESIGN BY//ZORA HURST

I’m big, you’re little

BY JULIANN SKARDA AND AMELIA MOSER juliann.skarda@wsspaper.com amelia.moser@wsspaper.com

“ NOT TO TAKE I WOULD TELL MYSELF

BECAUSE IN HIGH SCHOOL YOU

WILL DEFINITITELY MISS IT.

“

NAP TIME FOR GRANTED

PHOTOS USED WITH PERMISSION FROM// ASHLEY MERRICK

Ashley Merrick ’13

“

I WOULD TELL

MYSELF THE HARDER YOU WORK, THE

YOU GET.

“

LUCKIER

PHOTOS USED WITH PERMISSION FROM// THOMAS SPARKS

What are some words of wisdom you wish you had heard when you were in kindergarten?

Thomas Sparks ’14

I WOULD TELL MYSELF IT’S OKAY TO BE FRIENDS WITH BOYS

AND ENJOY FREEDOM BECAUSE THE OLDER YOU GET,

THE LESS TIME

YOU HAVE TO JUST HAVE FUN. Kate Thorne ’14

PHOTOS USED WITH PERMISSION FROM// KATE THORNE

PAGE DESIGN BY//ZORA HURST

“

ACTUALLY NAP DURING

NAP TIME.

“

AND NOT ALL BOYS HAVE COOTIES.

PHOTOS USED WITH PERMISSION FROM// APOORVA RAIKWAR

Apoorva Raikwar ’14

“

ONCE... I WORE

BOXERS TO SCHOOL. I THOUGHT THEY WERE

REALLY COOL PANTS. SO I WOULD TELL MYSELF JUST TO

WEAR PANTS TO SCHOOL.

“

PHOTOS USED WITH PERMISSION FROM// HARIN LEE

Harin Lee ’13

I WOULD TELL MYSELF TO

FOCUS

ON BUILDING A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH MY SISTER SO WE COULD BE

FRIENDS BEFORE SIBLINGS.

PHOTOS USED WITH PERMISSION FROM// EMILY BELDING

“

“

Emily Belding ’12

05 INSERT

PAGE DESIGN BY//OLIVE CARROLLHACH

Then and Now

It’s hard to imagine West High School with any principal besides Jerry Arganbright, but once upon a time, when West first opened, another administrator led the school.You may remember Ed Barker as the donor of $270,000 towards the new soccer fields. And he remembers West as a very different place. At the school’s opening in 1968, Barker said there were approximately 1,000 students enrolled in grades 7-12, compared to 1,800 in 9-12 currently.

Before West was born, Barker began as a teacher in the small town of Sharpsburg, Iowa, in 1950.

“There were 20 students in grades 9 through 12. I taught half of the subjects and the superintendent taught the other half. My teaching included typing, social studies and one mathematics course. I also coached boy’s basketball, directed the school play and sponsored the newspaper. It was more like a community news sheet than a school paper. At the end of the first semester, I was drafted into the United States Army, serving two years with one year in Japan,” he said.

Barker returned to the classroom in 1955, teaching in Stanhope, Iowa, before serving as principal in various Iowa towns.

He was hired as West’s first principal and began planning for the grand opening in February of 1968, including hiring faculty and building extracurriculars. The school opened the next fall.

Unlike current tension surrounding the transfer of students from West to City High, the students once migrated across town in the other direction.

“We needed to establish traditions. …

Making the students feel welcome was an important part of our responsibilities. I 06 INSERT

BY ELEANOR MARSHALL

eleanor.marshall@wsspaper.com knew that it was going to be a difficult transition for the high school students, especially the seniors, who would be transferred from City High to West High,” Barker said.

Barker asked City High’s principal for a list of juniors that held top executive positions and created a planning committee to help inform the formation of West High.

Student input was important to Barker, and so was getting it right, he said.The committee met every two weeks, consulting representatives from Kennedy High School, which opened a year before West. Barker attributes West’s smooth and successful first year to the thorough planning he and his committee undertook.

“Opening a new school in Iowa City was very exciting. … There were two other major challenges. The first was to develop student loyalty to West High School. The second involved the challenges of the early 1970’s when student unrest throughout the nation, especially in major university towns, was at its peak,” he said.

Barker spent 11 years leading West, before retiring. He then began work in his family’s apartment business, where he has been ever since - though he has begun to cut back in recent years. After departing from West, Barker did extensive travelling in all directions, visiting every continent except Antartica. He made 14 trips to the Soviet Union (now Russia).

“Since 1968 I have changed from being an energetic 40-year-old to being an energetic 83-year-old. Our four children graduated from West High. My wife and I have also acquired 10 grandchildren. I learned from my experiences that I had the best high school principal’s job in Iowa. The post-West years have treated my family and me well, but I’m just an ordinary guy who enjoys life just as I did in 1968,” Barker said.

Former West principal Ed Barker circa 1969

Photo obtained from//The Trojan Epic

[

[Ed Barker

Former West Principal

Scan this with your smartphone to visit wsspaper.com to see more then and now articles

Photo courtesy of//Ed Barker

High school is a place of constant change.

Students grow up and leave, faculty retire and even the walls themselves are rearranged.

Yet despite the changes around us, the time spent here at West is always unforgettable.

So here’s to remembering.Take a look at who once filled your shoes with the WSS.

Ed Barker at work, 2011

PAGE DESIGN BY//OLIVE CARROLLHACH

[Kristin Cannon‘92

[

Former Student

BY ELEANOR MARSHALL

“

BY BRENNA DEERBERG

eleanor.marshall@wsspaper.com

High school sweethearts Connie and Chuck Hippee, pictured in highschoool in 2011

As close to her friends as she was, Cannon said the person she remembers most from high school is principal Jerry Arganbright.

“I just remember him always walking the halls and talking to us, and that was fun,” Cannon said.

West grad and Horn principal, pictured in 1970 and 2011 07 INSERT

Photos courtesy of// Kristin Cannon

Photo courtesy of//the Hippees

sense of humor. He was a member of band and the Speech team, doing extemporaneous speaking. His parents owned a small business, and Chuck spent much of his time in high school working.

“I remember spending a lot of time with my friends. We would go to movies in downtown Iowa City which had three theaters at the time. Music was a big part of my life and it was always a thrill to get the latest album that was released. At that time, I liked a lot of different musicians, the most notable being Neil Young, the Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Lou Reed,” Chuck said.

While Chuck still follows current music and has kept his mischievous streak – playing practical jokes on co-workers at Hills Bank rather than classmates, he said he has gained confidence since high school. The same is true for Connie.

“I am probably a lot more serious than I was in high school and a lot more confident as well. I cared way too much about what people thought of me when I was young.

I am much more worldly now seeing the beauty of diversity in cultures and different types of people and places. I am a lot more

brenna.deerberg@wsspaper.com As a girl who loved school, it’s no wonder that that Kristin Cannon’s career is centered on education. Presently, Cannon is the principal of Horn Elementary, which feeds into West High.

Cannon graduated from West High in 1992 from a class of about 250 people. Twenty years ago, when Cannon was enrolled at West, things were very different. The recently built ninth grade center, band wing, and auditorium that students now take for granted were non-existent. While West High was short one auditorium, Cannon still participated in swing choir.

“I loved performing,” said Cannon.

“I really enjoyed being in a tight knit group of students from all grade levels.

I loved every opportunity I could have to be social,” Cannon said.

Cannon said that when her senior year drew to a close, she “was excited to go on to college, but I was sad I was graduating.”

Cannon still keeps in touch with her high school friends, and some of their children currently attend Horn Elementary.

sensitive to the needs [and] feelings of people that I did not necessarily hang out with in high school. I have also learned to ‘let things go,’” she said.

She said that West, too, has changed much since her graduation. When she and Chuck attended, there were no honors classes and only one AP class: English.

“Certainly, there was not the rigor or the opportunity for rigor as there is today. I would say that [Principal Jerry] Arganbright has hired an incredibly talented staff at West in all areas. … [In addition], there was no diversity. If you removed all ethnic groups out of West High, that would be what it was like in the early ’70s,” Connie said.

Chuck said he is similarly struck by the increase in diversity between his West years and those of his daughters: Cami, Anna Hippee ’11 and Alaine Hippee ’09.

“Each of our girls has a broad base of friends that would have been unthinkable when I was there. It’s incredible to see all of our girls having so much respect for their principal and the teachers. That says the most to me. …Can I re-enroll?” Chuck said.

When Chuck and Connie Hippee, the parents of Cami Hippee ’13, graduated from West High School in 1974, they hadn’t exactly set a date for the wedding. In fact, they weren’t even dating. Although they have known each other since they both attended sixth grade at Roosevelt Elementary School; it was only in 1986 when they were both living in Des Moines, that they were reintroduced by a mutual friend and eventually started a relationship.

“We knew of each other and in seventh grade met at a dance, held hands and danced but hardly ever spoke to each other. We were both painfully shy then. That relationship did not last long. We did not hang out at all in high school, but we both had some of the same friends.

I probably would not have been ‘cool’ enough for Chuck in high school, and he was probably not really my type either,” Connie said.

Connie recalls being a quiet, easygoing and somewhat studious high school student. She played on the varsity tennis team at West for three years and ran varsity track her senior year – although she said there were fewer opportunities for girls to participate in sports at that time.

Chuck was similarly shy and studious, though he was known for his

[

[Connie and Chuck Hippee‘72

Former Students

Letters to my future self At the beginning of every year, each student in Ann Rocarek’s freshman English class COMPILED BY ZORA HURST zora.hurst@wsspaper.com writes a letter to themselves, not to be opened before graduation. The WSS tracked down recent graduates and broke the seal on the sage, or just silly advice.

To: My senior self

“

I do remember some of what it was about. I told myself that I would be a chemist (very different from the investment banker or consultant that I want to be now). I also told myself that I would probably be rich from having a brilliant idea by the time I graduated from high school.

I’m not sure if I was being serious with myself or not on that one.

‘12

THAT I

WOULD BE A

CHEMIST.

To: My senior self

Mainly I talked about what classes I was in and how I ran an 18:26 5k as a freshman and how I hope I’m still running, in band, playing piano, and getting good grades. I also left thumbprints on the paper which is kinda creepy...

“

I HOPE I’M

STILL

RUNNING

Ben FIck ’12

Ryan Rumpf

Ryan Rumpf ‘11

‘11

To: My senior self

I don’t think I have the letter anymore, but the most meaningful quotes or parts was that when I was a freshman I wrote “I hope my future self gets a scholarship to play D1 baseball somewhere” and when I opened the letter on the last day I was kind of shocked. I forgot I even wrote that and I was shocked that it even came true. Another thing I remember about my letter is that I wrote “when you get this I hope you have a girlfriend”. I didn’t.

“

‘I HOPE YOU

HAVE A

GIRLFRIEND’.

check out wsspaper.com to submit letters

I DIDN’T.

“

Ben Fick

I TOLD MYSELF

“

Kap Mueller ’11

‘11

“

Kap Mueller

WWW.WSSPAPER.COM

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