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Interesting facts for, and about the Gale community ........ |
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WHO WAS STEPHEN
FRANCIS GALE ?
Most of us heard that he opened Chicago’s first book
store, but there is much more to the story. Stephen Francis Gale was
born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1812, and later moved to Boston. He
came to Chicago in 1835, two years after Chicago was incorporated as a
village (it became a city in 1837). He opened a book and stationery
store on South Water Street near Clark Street. His residence was at
Dearborn and Washington streets. He became a very successful
businessman, making a fortune on real estate deals in addition to his
bookstore. In 1839, he published "Gale’s Statutes", the
first law book published
in Illinois. He administered the fire department from 1844 to 1847 and
is remembered for his connection with the "Red Jackets", one of the
early firefighting brigades. He was nominated for mayor of Chicago in
1849, but declined to run. In 1855 he retired from active business, and
at the time of his death he was half owner of the Illinois Stone Company
at Lemont, owner of several blocks of west side real estate, and heavily
invested in the Pullman company, of which he was one of the ten charter
members. Stephen Gale died in 1905 at the age of 93. Although Gale
himself declined to run for public office, he was apparently still
influential in politics. In 1915, his grandson -- William Hale "Big
Bill" Thompson -- was elected mayor of Chicago. This is probably the
main reason that Gale School, which was completed in 1922 and dedicated
in 1923 during the Thompson administration, was named after the mayor’s
illustrious grandfather. Nevertheless, a scandal erupted in 1923 amid
charges of graft and inferior materials being used at several recently
constructed buildings, including the Gale School.
Gale Street and the neighborhood of Galewood, both on
the Northwest Side of Chicago, are NOT named after Stephen F. Gale,
although they are sometimes erroneously attributed to him.
Sources: Chicago Tribune
Archives, World Book Encyclopedia, Early Chicago Encyclopedia
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GALE’S FIRST PRINCIPAL
The
first principal of Gale School was Mary G. Guthrie. Miss
Guthrie was born in Mount Carmel, Indiana, about 1869, the daughter
of the Rev. Hugh W. Guthrie, a Presbyterian minister. Her family
subsequently moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, where her father served a
lengthy pastorate. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from
Oxford College (later absorbed by Miami University of Ohio). Miss
Guthrie came to Chicago in 1898 and was a teacher and administrator
in the Chicago Public Schools for more than 35 years, serving at
schools such as Knickerbocker (replaced by the Oscar Mayer School in
1959), Penn, and Murphy. She also did graduate work at the
University of Chicago and served as president of the Ella Flagg
Young Club, named after the first woman superintendent of schools in
Chicago (or any major city). Miss Guthrie served as Gale’s principal
from 1922 until 1930, when she left to become the first principal of
the new Burbank Junior High School on the northwest side (now the
Luther Burbank School). At the time of her retirement in 1935, she
had returned to Rogers Park as the principal of the Kilmer School.
She died in 1938 at her home at 1639 W. Farwell Avenue, just three
blocks from Kilmer and about a mile from Gale.
Sources: Chicago Tribune, Oxford College,
and University of Chicago archives.
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ESTON TUBBS
Dr. Eston
V. Tubbs had a very short tenure as principal of Gale School, serving in
that capacity for only one year. However, he is remembered for his long
involvement with the Chicago area education community where he had a
reputation as an activist educator. Dr. Tubbs graduated from R ossville
High School in Centralia, Illinois, in 1902. He married Vinnie
McAllister, also a Rossville graduate. Dr. Tubbs received his
undergraduate degree from Northwestern University in 1909 and his
doctorate from the University of Chicago. He was a member of the Alpha
Delta Phi and Phi Beta Kappa fraternities and was secretary of the Phi
Beta Kappa scholarship fraternity chapter in Chicago for many years. He
wrote a number of articles for national educational periodicals and was
the author of several books. Dr. Tubbs coached high school football
from 1910 until at least 1912. He served as superintendent of New Trier
Township High School in Winnetka from 1919 to 1923, and from 1921 to
1923 he was also a lecturer on education at Northwestern University.
From 1924 to 1927, he was head of the department of education at Lewis
Institute. He served as principal of several Chicago public elementary
schools including the Brentano, Salmon P. Chase, and Lyman Budlong
schools, and finally at Gale school during the 1935-1936 school year.
He left Gale the following year to become the principal of Morgan Park
High School, holding that position until his death. Around 1937 he
also formed the American Youth League, a student organization dedicated
to the preservation of American heritage and ideals. Dr. Tubbs
died on June 16, 1947, in his home on the far South Side, at the age of
64.
Sources: Chicago Tribune Archives, Geneasearch,
the Wranglers Organization, and the Illinois High School Association
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THE EKMAN FAMILY TRAGEDY
In the summer of 1962,
we were doing The Twist and listening to Gene Pitney’s rendition of
“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”. Early in the morning of July 16,
eleven year old Pamela Ekman, her eight year old brother Steven, and
their parents, left their home at 7615 North Sheridan Road bound for
Florida. They never made it. The Ekmans were all found dead in their
car parked at a roadside cafe near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the apparent
victims of carbon monoxide poisoning. The windows of the car were
rolled up and the engine was kept running to operate the air
conditioner, which had allowed deadly fumes into the car from a
defective exhaust system. Pamela Ekman was going into the 6th grade and
would have graduated in 1965. Steven Ekman was in the 3rd grade and
would have graduated in 1968.
Sources: Chicago Tribune Archives and the
Webmaster’s collection
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Pamela and
Steven Ekman |
The Ekman gravesite as
it looks today (2005) |
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Gale Principal
ALMA V. JONES
Alma V. Jones had the longest
tenure of any of Gale School's principals, serving in that
capacity for 17 years. Miss Jones
was born in Chicago and lived in Wilmette during her later years.
Although we don't know much about her early life, we do know that she
was a World War II veteran and one of the first female commissioned
officers in the U.S. Navy. She received a commission as a lieutenant of
the WAVE's in 1942 and served in that capacity until 1946.
After
leaving military service, Miss Jones went to work in the Chicago Public
Schools. She taught at Fo reman High School from 1946 to 1948 and served
as principal of Newberry Elementary School from 1948 to 1955. She
became the principal of Gale School in 1955 and held that position until
1972. Perhaps her most memorable achievement at Gale was the
introduction of the "Lighted Schoolhouse" program in 1957. "Lighted
Schoolhouse" was an after school social center program that had already
been successfully introduced at several other schools. At Gale, the
program was initially held on Friday afternoons for 4th through 6th
grade students and on Friday evenings for 7th through 9th grade
students. Later, additional programs were held on either Tuesday or
Wednesday afternoons. Many Gale alumni have fond memories of
socializing at Friday night "lighted" followed by a late snack at one of
the local restaurants.
After
retirement, Miss Jones became a "snow bird", spending her winters in
Winter Haven, Florida. She died on May 30, 1991, at the age of 84, at
St. Francis Hospital in Evanston. Burial was at All Saints Cemetery in
Des Plaines, Illinois.
Sources: Wilmette Life
and Chicago Tribune Archives
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THE MARSHFIELD AVENUE FIRE - 2006
On
Sunday, September 3, 2006, six children from two families were killed in
an apartment fire at 7706 North Marshfield Avenue. The apartment is
located just a few feet north of the Gale Academy. The dead were
identified by the Cook County medical examiner's office as siblings
Vanessa Ramirez, 14; Erick Ramirez, 12; Suzette Ramirez, 10; Idaly
Ramirez, 6; Kevin Ramirez, 3; and neighbor Escarlet Ramos, 3, who was
staying with the Ramirez family. The four oldest victims were Gale
students. Four other Ramirez children and their mother survived. The
father was not home at the time of the fire.
The
fire was apparently caused by burning candles in the Ramirez family's
apartment. The family was using candles because their electricity had
been cut off since May. They were said to be in the process of being
evicted from their apartment.
The
Mexican Consulate in Chicago flew the Ramirez children's paternal
grandparents from Mexico to attend their funerals at St. Jerome's
Church, 1709 West Lunt Avenue. Some 1200 mourners came to show their
support for the family.
The
Ramirez family was well known at the Howard Area Community Center, where
two of the sisters volunteered.
Community members have donated more than $45,000 to help the family.
There are also plans for a memorial at Gale Academy for the four
students who perished.
CLICK HERE for a link to a video regarding this story,
including remarks by Gale Principal Rudy Lubov
Sources: Chicago Tribune, Chicago
Sun-Times, ABC News.
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NATIONALLY KNOWN JOURNALIST HAS GALE
ROOTS
Morton
Kondracke is a well known and well respected veteran journalist and
political commentator. You can search his name on the Internet and get
hundreds of thousands of responses. What few of you may know, however, is that he is
an alumnus of Gale School.
Mr.
Kondracke was born in Chicago in 1939 and attended Gale until the 6th
grade when he moved to Hamilton, Ohio. He later returned to the Chicago
area and completed high school in Joliet, graduating in 1956. He
graduated from Dartmouth College in 1960. He joined the U.S. Army and
served in Washington, DC in the Counter Intelligence Corps while
pursuing graduate work at Georgetown University and working part time
for the Washington Star. After leaving the Army in 1963, Kondracke
joined the staff of the Chicago Sun-Times, moving to its Washington
bureau in 1968 and eventually working his way up to White House
correspondent in 1974.
Kondracke left the Sun-Times in 1977 to become executive editor of
The New Republic. He worked there until 1985 when he left to become
Washington Bureau Chief for Newsweek magazine. He also landed
commentary positions at National Public Radio, This Week with David
Brinkley and The Wall Street Journal. In 1982, he joined The McLaughlin Group as one of the original panelists, a position he
held for 16 years. In 1984, he was a panelist for the second televised
debate between President Ronald Reagan and Democratic challenger Walter
Mondale.
In
1991, Kondracke began serving as executive editor of Roll Call.
He made a cameo appearance as a talk show host in the 1996 sci-fi film
Independence Day. In October 1998, he began co-hosting his own
show, The Beltway Boys, with Fred Barnes on Fox News Channel. He
is also a regular nightly contributor on Special Report with Brit
Hume on the same network. Kondracke also writes a twice-weekly
syndicated column in Roll Call ("Pennsylvania Avenue").
Kondracke lost his first wife, Millicent, to Parkinson's Disease in
2004. This made him an advocate for Parkinson's research and for
increased government spending in this area. He detailed his family's
struggle with Parkinson's in a 2001 book called Saving Milly: Love,
Politics, and Parkinson's Disease. The book was the basis for a CBS
television movie called Saving Milly which aired in 2005.
Kondracke still occasionally visits his old Rogers Park neighborhood
when he is in Chicago, and he recently observed that the community seems
to be coming back.
Sources:
Webmaster's 11/27/06 conversation with Morton Kondracke; Foxnews.com,
nndb.com, wikipedia
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Mort Kondrake
at Gale in 1949
Room 302 - 5th Grade |
Mort Kondracke
at Fox News |
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The transition of Gale School to The Gale
Academy in the 1980s brought many new challenges, including
steadily increasing enrollment. This challenge was met with
the construction of a new, separate school building on
Marshfield Avenue directly across the street from the
existing school. The construction site was on land already
owned by the Board of Education. It had previously been a
vacant lot used as a faculty parking area and a play area
for students (once known as "Tiger Field").
The new school building at 7650 North
Marshfield opened to students in 1997. The building was
initially called the "Gale Annex", but it's not really an
annex because it isn't physically connected to the original
school. It's now referred to as the "West Building" due to
its location directly west of the original school. The West
Building has four floors served by two elevators, making it
fully handicapped accessible. In addition to classrooms and
administrative offices, there are computer labs, a second
gym, a cafeteria, and even a greenhouse! Currently, the
West Building functions as an upper grade center or a middle
school, i.e., it serves grades 6 through 8, while students
in kindergarten through 5th grade attend class in the
original school building across the street. During the
summer, the West Building is used for summer school classes
and activity groups.
Pictures courtesy of Google - click on any image below for a
larger version.
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View of building looking northwest along Marshfield
Avenue |
View looking southwest from Marshfield Avenue and
Jonquil Terrace |
The rear of the building looking southeast
from Jonquil Terrace. The glass enclosure on top is the
greenhouse. |
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