How Admiral King High School was named

Hey, don't miss my Letter to the Editor that ran in today's Morning Journal. My letter quotes part of an article that ran in the Journal back in February 1959 to shed a little light as to how Admiral King High School got its name in the first place. Contrary to the tacky email campaign underway right now to rename AKHS, a lot of effort went into the original campaign to get the school named after Admiral Ernest J. King.

If you don't have access to a printed Journal, you can read my letter online here.

No matter what the final name ends up being, at least a lot of people have written letters in support of keeping the name Admiral King High School. The momentum is definitely on the side of the Admiral, judging by the letters.

A nice compromise would be for the school to have "Lorain High School" as its name, and the  'Admirals' or the 'Kings' as its mascot. As long as Admiral King continues to be honored in some way by his hometown, I'll be happy.

Remembering Alex Visci, 1910-2010

It was especially sad to pick up the Morning Journal today and see that Alex Visci had passed away a few days ago. To those who knew him, enjoyed his music or took trumpet lessons from him (or all three), he was a truly unforgettable character.

My family's relationship with Mr. Visci goes back to the late 1960's, when my older brother Ken began to take trumpet lessons from him once a week, and my younger brother Ed and I soon followed. Going downtown on Saturday mornings for trumpet lessons was a fixture in our house for years.

Mr. Visci's music studio and instrument repair shop was originally in a rather creepy building at 356 Broadway. The building was largely vacant except for a couple of insurance companies, a lawyer and a letter shop. Eventually the building came down thanks to urban renewal and Mr. Visci was forced to relocate around 1974 to 438 Broadway above Faroh's Candy.

Taking trumpet lessons from Mr. Visci was a unique experience. His raspy voice and larger-than-life personality could be rather intimidating to an elementary school student. During your music lesson, you never knew what would happen. He might flip lighted matches at you or pretend to smack you around – but it was all in fun. One of his favorite bits was to tell you to put your hand on the table as he threateningly held a hammer above it, ready to flatten it. (Of course, he would smack the table a few inches away from your hand.) And woe to you if you hadn't practiced your lesson during the week!

I remember that he would make pencil marks on our music books, indicating what exercises we were to practice that week. Sometimes he would make a simple X, and sometimes he would get more creative and draw a skull and crossbones. Once he even drew a teepee with smoke coming out of it and decided to explain why.

"Do you know what that is?" he asked. "A teepee," I replied.

"Do you know why there's smoke coming out of it?" he asked.  I shrugged.

"Because you're gonna get BURNED AT THE STAKE if you don't practice!" he yelled, smacking me in the arm. Then he would laugh that raspy laugh. Then you would laugh along with him until he suddenly stopped and became serious. But it was always a gag.

He had several favorite terms that he would use as nicknames for people. "Bigack" was one. No one knew what it meant. "Erbs" was another. I was surprised to see that according to his obituary, it was his nickname as well.

The memories of those Saturday mornings are still quite vivid. I can still remember the stack of old Life magazines in his waiting area, the pile of instruments waiting to be repaired, the steady stream of old friends stopping in to see him. I also remember being sent over to the Flame Cafeteria to get him a cup of coffee. And when the trumpet lessons were through, Mr. Visci would admonish us to practice and chase us out of his studio and down the stairs, waving a hammer!

He made trumpet lessons fun, and I've never forgot the music principles that he taught me either. Braces later kept me from continuing as a trumpeter and that was the end of my lessons with Mr. Visci.

For a while, like many of his ex-students and friends, I would stop in as an adult to see him once in a while, always bringing him a cup of coffee. As the years went on, he wasn't always sure which one of the Brady boys I was, but he was always glad to see me and asked about my brothers and parents.

As Mr. Visci entered his 90's, he looked pretty much the same as he always did. To me, he became a Lorain icon much like Woody Mathna and Rosie Brest (of "Rosie's Pizza" fame), who also made it to their 90's and seemed as if they would go on forever. It's sad to know that he's no longer with us.

He was a great guy and will be missed.

So long, Bigack.

When Admiral King High School was New Part 2

Here's a photo that ran in the Journal a few days before Admiral King High School opened in September 1961. And here's the article that accompanied it as well.

57,000 Students To Enter Area Schools This Week


Upwards of 57,000 public and parochial students will enter Lorain area schools this week as classes resume for another year.

While a few of the area schools opened today, most will begin the 1961-62 school year on Wednesday.

Students at one school, Tenneyson Junior High in Sheffield Lake, won't have to report until Thursday, however, as construction workers are still cleaning up the hallways. All other students in the Sheffield Lake public school district will report to classes on Wednesday.

Highlight of the new school year will be in Lorain, where Admiral King High School will be filled with students and teachers for the first time.

Construction on the new $4.5 million high school began in March, 1960, and although not completed will open Wednesday. Workers will remain in the building until mid-October, but according to Principal J. F. Calta they will not interfere with classroom studies.

A tentative total of approximately 2,050 students is expected at Admiral King when the doors are officially opened Wednesday morning.

Throughout Lorain, almost 14,000 students are scheduled to enter the public schools.

Lorain High School is expecting a population of a tentative 1,577 students, including 272 seniors, 309 juniors, 444 sophomores and 552 freshmen.

Total enrollment of the two high schools in Lorain will be approximately 3,625 students.

Teachers in the Lorain public school system attended a general staff meeting held at the LHS auditorium this morning. It was followed by a luncheon, sponsored by the Lorain PTA Council, at the Emmanuel Evangelical United Brethren Church. In the afternoon teachers reported to their respective schools for further meetings.

***

Student populations sure aren't what they used to be. According to information found on a website called Public School Review, there are approximately one thousand less high school students in the two high schools in Lorain now as there were in AKHS and LHS in 1961. (3,625 students in 1961 versus 2,660 now.) In my opinion, if Lorain waits a few years, it won't even be necessary to build a new high school, whatever its name may be.

Closing the book on "An Open Book" by Michael Dirda

Gee, I've been so distracted by all of the ruckus surrounding the high school situation in Lorain that I forgot to wrap up my look at An Open Book by Michael Dirda. Like I said, I enjoyed the book very much. It gets a little ponderous at times with a lot of literary references, poetry and lists of books, but I think Dirda was just trying to encourage others to read just for the enjoyment of it.

As someone who is big on nostalgia, I think it's great that Dirda wrote a book that contains references to the places and things that symbolized Lorain at the height of some of its most prosperous years. His book will help keep them alive for future generations (although I'm sure there will always be a Yala's Pizza.)

For those of you who haven't read the book, but would enjoy a taste of Dirda's Lorain memories, here's a link to a great essay entitled "Sweet Lorain" that he wrote for Preservation magazine.

Photo of Michael Dirda courtesy of the Library of Congress website.

When Admiral King High School was New

Since I've got Lorain high schools on my mind, I might as well keep going with it as a topic. Here's another photo and caption that ran in the Journal on December 7, 1960. (Click on it for a close view.) It shows a nice aerial view of Admiral King High School, which was then under construction.

Since I've been out of there for more than 30 years, the labeled photo is a nice refresher course to reacquaint myself with the layout of the building and campus. (This knowledge will come in handy during my next trip to the building, which will undoubtedly be in a few years when the inevitable 'say goodbye' open house occurs before the wrecking ball swings!)

Oh When the Saints Go Marching Out...

As usual, I stumble on interesting things on microfilm while looking for something else, and here's one of them. It's a photo and caption that ran in the Journal on September 3, 1970, announcing that the 'Southview Saints' name had been added to the front of George Daniel Stadium. (Click on it so you can read it.) This is the classic painted sign that is well-remembered by many, and it is an impressive bit of artwork. I also mentioned it here in an earlier blog. The photo's kind of interesting in view of the fact that by next school year, both the 'Saints' and 'Admirals' will be no more, and will join the 'Steelmen' name in High School Limbo.

I accept the fact that when a new high school is built in a different location in the city, a new name would probably be in order. A few people (including my mother and the clerk at the dry cleaners) think it should be called Lorain High School, since it will be the only high school in Lorain – and I tend to agree. However, I still think the quick abandoning of the Admiral King name by this September is a disgrace.

If by some miracle the new high school name is Lorain High School, I'm not sure that the Steelmen name would necessarily be revived for the mascot, since Lorain isn't exactly making a lot of steel – or anything – anymore. It could be a real problem coming up with a mascot that sums up what Lorain is all about.

Not to worry, though. Your friendly blogger has come up with a few (tongue-in-cheek) mascot names for the new high school:

• the Fighting Democrats
• the Internationals (gotta promote the Festival, right?)
• the Woody's (in honor of Mayor Mathna)
• the River Rats (why do I think this one has a real chance?)

Okay all of you regular readers of this blog (both of you)! What do you think would make a good mascot for the new high school?

Admiral Ernest J. King: soon-to-be-forgotten by his own hometown

I'll have more to say about this in a future blog series, but it is a sad thing that the decision has already been made to quickly abandon the 'Admiral King' name when the Southview students are consolidated next school year at the current Admiral King High School location. Click here to read the story.

It's almost mind-boggling that Lorain would do this in a feel-good effort to make the two currently separated high school student populations get along at the new location.

Ernest J. King is Lorain's number-one son, arguably its most famous and accomplished citizen – a true hero. He was Commander in Chief of the United States Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations during World War II and a Five Star Admiral. And, as you will see in my blog series, he never forgot Lorain.

He deserves better than this.