Another peek at some fine local teachers

JERRY PERSON

It will only be a few more weeks until the halls of Huntington Beach

High School empty for the summer break as teachers and staff members

take their well-earned vacations.

Last week, we began looking at some of the dedicated educators who

influenced so many of our city leaders and residents. Our first

subject knew the Huntington campus very well.

Verle Cowling not only taught class there, but as a student at

Huntington High, Cowling was his class student body president and

quite an athlete. After he graduated from Huntington, Cowling went on

to attend UCLA, where he graduated cum laude. During World War II,

Cowling served in the Navy on the U.S. aircraft carrier Croatan and

on the carrier Bon Homme Richard. He saw action in three theaters of

the war -- the Atlantic, the Pacific and in Africa.

Returning home, Cowling taught at East Bakersfield High School

before returning to his alma mater of Huntington High with wife Helen

and daughters Kay and Rae. Cowling coached both boys’ football and

basketball when not teaching the art of metal craft.

He designed and built his own home at 1828 Park St. in Huntington

Beach and he loved to go camping and surf our waters. Our next hero

of Huntington spent his military duty down under; water that is,

while serving in the U.S. Navy submarine service in Australia, Hawaii

and the South Pacific.

Norman Dilley spent his early years in Wabeno, Wis., where he

attended high school before coming to California to get his master’s

degree at USC. Before coming to Huntington, Dilley taught classes at

a high school in La Habra.

Dilley taught a subject that I was terrible at, mathematics, both

algebra and geometry. Norman, his wife Edith and their two children,

Celia and Neil, lived in Fullerton.

In 1957, Dilley became the Southern California president of the

American Assn. of Physics Teachers and when he had some free time,

could be found in his “shack” talking to people around the world on

his amateur radio outfit.

Our next teacher was anything but a dip, as he served his country

in the Army’s counterintelligence unit. Pittsburgh was the hometown

of George A. Dipp and it was there that he graduated from high

school.

During the war, Dipp served in the U.S. Army 2nd Infantry in

England and in France. He received his master’s degree from Cal State

Long Beach, where Dipp taught Spanish before coming to Huntington,

and while at Huntington Dipp sponsored the school’s Spanish Club.

Dipp and wife Lorna continued to reside in Long Beach while teaching

at Huntington.

It was in that cold, and I do mean cold state of North Dakota that

Huntington’s baseball coach, George Galloway, called home. He

attended and graduated from Tower City High School in North Dakota

before attending North Dakota State University.

During World War II, Galloway served in the Navy from 1942 to 1946

as an aircraft repairman in the Marshall Islands, Tinian and in Iwo

Jima. Galloway returned to his home state to continue his education

at North Dakota State, where he received his master’s degree.

With degree in hand, Galloway taught classes at West Fargo, N.D.,

before coming to California to teach in Vista and later to

Huntington. George and Myrtle had two children, Gail and Kent, and

would call Westminster their new home.

Our next hero of the blackboard would not hesitate to jump into

any problem set in front of him. This probably stemmed from his days

in the military as a paratrooper during the war in the South Pacific.

I have spoken to both Frank Munoz and his wife Lilia ‘Lillian’ on

several occasions over the years, and to their daughter, Vivian.

Frank received his formal education at Fullerton Union High

School, and after he graduated, went on to UCLA. For awhile after the

war, Frank taught at Colton before coming to teach Spanish and coach

“B” football and varsity baseball. Frank would also coach the

athletics during noon lunch period. Frank and Lilia, with Vivian and

second daughter Lisa, lived on California Street in Huntington Beach

and recently in the city of Orange.

Our last teacher for the week had been an Illinois native before

coming to California. Audrey Peterson spent her youth in that state

and she graduated from Freeport High School in Freeport, Illinois.

She continued her education by attending Iowa State, and after

graduation taught classes at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill.,

before coming west to California to earn her master’s degree at Cal

State Long Beach. During her time at Huntington High, she taught

girls’ physical education and coached girls’ athletics.

Next week, we’ll continue our look at the lives of some of our

unsung heroes of Huntington Beach High School.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.