MILLER
Anna Dickson Robinson Holmberg, the oldest living alumna of Miller High School, stood beaming by the newly erected memorial tribute on Sunday afternoon, which was fashioned out of 258 bricks from the former high school.
Holmberg, 100, graduated from Miller High School in 1925. There are 258 total graduates from Miller High School. Sixty-eight of those are living and range in age from 70 to 100 years old.
Each brick on the memorial marker, which sits where the former high school was, represents each graduate. The memorial marker also is made out of etched granite, which bears the image of the school. It was unveiled Sunday at the end of the 85th anniversary high school reunion. Holmberg and her daughter, Joanne Robinson Pherago, who also graduated from the high school in 1952, were at the marker’s side. The youngest graduate present, Dale Dickson, who graduated in 1953, also stood beside the marker for the unveiling.
Alberta Brinkman, who graduated from the high school in 1938, said the committee was hoping to have 85 people show up for the 85th anniversary of the school, which was founded in 1922. They ended up serving 130 for lunch, which was coordinated by the Dickson family. About 150 people showed up for the afternoon.
A book about the school is going to be published, with the final chapter coming from Sunday’s picnic. The book will include everything from memories to pictures and stories ranging from 1922 to 2007. The school closed in 1955 after voters in the Admire, Allen, Bushong and Miller districts agreed to consolidate into one new high school — Northern Heights.
Sunday afternoon’s picnic was about honoring the 85th anniversary of the school, but also to swap memories and stories.
Ronald Fredrickson, who was looking at a table full of memorabilia from the school, attended MHS in 1945 and 1946 and shared some of his favorite memories. He recalled what the school used to look like.
“The gym was downstairs in the basement,” Fredrickson said. “It had a low ceiling so you had to shoot in (the basketball goal) very flat. Several schools were like that.”
Fredrickson recalled that when he attended school, every boy had to play basketball so they could have an “A” and “B” team.
MHS was small, Fredrickson said.
“You knew everybody, it was wonderful,” he said.
Taking the bus to school was a big deal, Fredrickson added.
“I rode a school bus driven by Homer Jones,” he said. “We thought it was great because we didn’t have to walk or ride horses.”
After the high school closed, the building was used to house elementary school students. The students moved to that building following a fire that destroyed the elementary building in early 1956.
“That building served a lot of students,” Brinkman said.
Doris Peterson Holloway, who now lives in New York, was one of the students who attended elementary school in the building. Holloway’s father Ellsworth Peterson graduated from MHS in 1929. Her aunt Marie Peterson graduated from the school in 1932.
“They walked a mile and a half every morning and afternoon,” Holloway said. “They were very, very poor. He (Holloway’s father) was a bright man. He didn’t speak English until he was 6 years old. He only spoke Swedish.”
Holloway helped design the program for Sunday’s event and had them printed in New York. The picture on the front of the program she had created from a diploma.
Before the memorial marker was unveiled, all 258 graduates’ names were read for the first and last time. Either the graduate or family or friends answered for the names that were read aloud.