Alumni Put Their Mark on High School

When Huntington Beach High School activities director Darrell Stillwagon was hired as a teacher in July, 1963, he had a little trouble finding his new campus.

“I drove right by the school,” Stillwagon said. “I thought it was a church or a monastery, it was so beautiful.”

But, as school Principal Gary Ernst said, “there’s nothing in front that tells anybody the name of the school, or even that it is a school.”

All that changed Friday with the unveiling of a 4-by-4-foot granite marker in front of the campus. The sign, visible to Main Street motorists, reads: “Huntington Beach High School--Home of the Oilers.”

The marker was made possible by a group of septuagenarian and octogenarian graduates from the 1920s. About 50 members of the group, which calls itself the Roaring ‘20s, attended Friday morning’s unveiling with about 350 current students.

The former students feel strongly attached to the school and wanted to do something for it, said Harl Crockett of the class of ’27.

The Roaring ‘20s raised $2,500 for the sign after getting the idea last year to show the school’s identity to people passing by it, he said.

“We’ve got our marker out there--instead of at Forest Lawn,” said Crockett, 81, chairman of the alumni organization.

The group has been returning to the campus for homecoming the last four years. But Friday’s marker installation may be the last hurrah for the aging group of graduates.

It’s getting difficult to bring the Roaring ‘20s group back each year, Crockett said, because some live as far away as Florida.

After the alumni group raised the money for the sign, the current students chipped in $2,000 to have it installed, Ernst said. The sign will be lighted at night.

Besides listing the school’s name, the sign notes that it was donated by the Roaring ‘20s.

Having the school’s name on a granite marker will help extend the pride the 2,200 students feel for the school, Ernst said. Because the sign notes that it was donated by the Roaring ‘20s, it also helps link the school to its past.

“I have students here that are fifth-generation students,” Ernst said. “I’ve got teachers who graduated from the school and whose parents graduated from the school.”