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Any photos not otherwise credited are from the personal collection of Frank Passic, Albion Historian.
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Morning Star, May 31, 2009, pg. 9 Each year at this time we present the Albion High School class of 100 years ago. The class of 1909 had 41 members. Twenty-four were girls, and seventeen were boys. Class president was Brockway Dickie; he became an official for Union Steel Products for many years. The members of the class consisted of: Duane Winslow Allen, Flossie Estella Bangham, Mildred Clift Brown, Phoebe E. Broxholm, Grace Joy Carson, Edith Irene Clay, Clara Ellen Clough, Juliet Benjurita Comstock, Stuart Franklin Cooper, Pearl Emma Crippen, James Alfred Cuatt, Joseph Washington Choate, Roy Franklin Doyle, Grace Durrin, Muriel Fannie Everts, Edith Gretchen Foskit, Mildred Steele Gibbs, William Harold Gildart, Howard Bliss Granger, Mable Cordelia Graves, Marjorie Claire Griffin, Edna Emma Humphrey, Eva Pearl Lamont, L. Louise Ludlow, Grace Ellen Mulvaney, Dow DeWitt Nagle, Raymond Fiske Pilcher, Florence Agnes Poirier, Clark Bishop Ray, Erma Lavina Reed, Carl Andrew Smith, Leta Marie Smith, Wayne Gardner Smith, Wilhelmina Schumacher, Perry LaMont Staples, Frances Elizabeth Stem, John Ward Tomlinson, Lulu L. Tubbs, Charles LaVerne Warner, Louis Frederick Wochholz. Class valedictorian was Erma Lavine Reed. The commencement was held on Thursday, June 10 at the Methodist Church. Speaker was the Hon. Michigan Lieut. Governor, Patrick H. Kelly of Lansing, who spoke on the topic, “Does It Pay?” At graduation time, the Albion Recorder printed brief biographies of each graduate! For example, “James Alfred Cuatt is a Jackson County boy, and first attended school at Riceville. He has been in the High School three years. He is very strong in mechanical drawing and has been offered a position in that line, but will return to his father’s farm, where he thinks he is needed, and to the work he enjoys.” From our Historical Notebook this week we present a photo, courtesy of Frances (Warner) Ray, of the Class of 1909 during their Junior year (1908). Front row: No. 1 is Clark Ray. No. 4 is Brockway Dickie. 2nd row: No. 7 is Wilhelmina Schumacher. 3rd row: No. 4 is Mildred S. Gibbs. Top row: Stuart Cooper, William Gildart, next two unidentified, then Roy Doyle, James Cuatt, and Louis Wochholz. How many of our readers had ancestors who were part of the Albion High School Class of 1909?  Albion High School Graduating Class of 1909
Update: 9/22/2009, from Steve Pilcher currently of Bellingham WA: In the photograph of the 1909 Albion High School graduating class, the young man in the top row, third from left, is my father, Raymond Fiske Pilcher. He later attended and graduated from Albion College, and, after a year's study, was granted a second B.A. in pedogogy by Syracuse University. He then served as the minister of the Methodist Episcopal church in Urbandale, Michigan for a year. After that he was an educational missionary for the Methodist Mission Board in Suining, Sichuan, China for ten years. Returning to the States he was employed as a teacher and school administrator until his retirement. He died in 1992 at the age of 100. Taken from the Albion History Blog, Thanks Steve! Update: 01/08/2012, from Nancy Gildart: My grandfather Willam Harold Gildart is the last person on the right in the top row - not the second from the left. He went by Harold. Thanks Nancy! All text copyright, 2026 © all rights reserved Frank Passic | Artwork copyright Maggie LaNoue © 2026
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