Local View: A century later, names in stone still speak to Denfeld’s promise

I told a lie — but with great enthusiasm and emotion. I wasn't the first. Their counselors, teachers, and even their principal had been lying to them since the ninth grade.

My lie was specific, at least. I spoke of a girl named Marie striding across the stage to receive her diploma in the same auditorium where these Denfeld seniors and their parents were now sitting. I told them she was in the first class to emerge from this magnificent building. I told the current students their graduation would mark 100 years since that June day in 1925.

That was the lie.

I thought it was true.

But I soon learned there was confusion about the 100th anniversary of the first graduating class from the “new” Denfeld High School. Perhaps it was because since 1905 there had been two other high schools in West Duluth. In 1915, the second was named after Robert E. Denfeld, the superintendent of Duluth Public Schools since 1886. Or maybe it was because of that engraved block of stone at the current Denfeld’s northeast corner.

Challenged by News Tribune Editorial Page Editor Chuck Frederick to find the truth, I agreed to investigate. As seniors, Chuck’s daughter and my granddaughter believed theirs was the 100th class, so we had a personal interest. When I shared my task with school Principal Tom Tusken, another Denfeld grad, he said his daughter was also in the Class of 2025. The stakes just got higher.

And an answer was quickly revealed.

In their book, “Duluth’s Grand Old Architecture,” Tony Dierckins and Maryanne Norton provided the key. After explaining the earlier West Duluth high school iterations, they note the opening of the new Denfeld in September 1926. So, the first graduating class was in 1927. Celebrants, mark your calendars.

However, I know several members of the Class of 2025, and I wanted to connect them to those graduates of 100 years ago. So I spent hours at the library reading old newspaper articles and Denfeld yearbooks. I learned much about the class which grasped the promise of a stunning new building while mashed within walls built 10 years earlier for 500 students. By their senior year, 890 students were enrolled. As one student cleverly chronicled in a yearbook: “Sept. 4,1925 - Too many people for the building. Many casualties are reported.”

1925 was a significant year. Duluth had committed $1.3 million to build a new high school in West Duluth, and senior class president Robert (nicknamed “Curly head”) was asked to be part of the group of dignitaries who would turn over the first dirt at the future high-school grounds. As president of the Boys Club, an award-winning debater, and delegate to the regional Older Boy's Conference, Robert had earned the honor of representing his classmates.

Just weeks after graduation, he joined 200 fellow students at the Euclid Masonic Temple on Central Avenue to prepare for the ceremonies “attendant upon the laying of the cornerstone of the new Robert E. Denfeld high school,” as the News Tribune reported on June 20, 1925, under the headline, “Masonic Chiefs to Lay Denfeld Stone Today.” The story continued, “A parade will start at 2:30 p.m. from the temple with J.F. Taylor, principal of the school leading.”

(Contributed photo by Gary Eckenberg)

After marching down Grand Avenue to the new school grounds, several hundred witnessed the laying of the cornerstone that Saturday afternoon. A copper box made by the manual training department of the school was laid inside.

Historically, a building's cornerstone is the symbol of the beginning of a great effort. Bound within it are the hopes and aspirations of the structure to come. Among other symbolic items, the Denfeld cornerstone contains the names of all 1924-1925 students.

Robert “Curly head” Van Kleek’s name is there. He finally entered the halls of the new Denfeld in 1963 as the first of five alumni to serve as principals of their high school. Marie’s name is also listed. The girl from my lie never actually walked across the auditorium stage, but her love of the natural world led her back to Denfeld five years later to teach biology. Marie V. Saltwick went on to teach for 40 years at Denfeld. At her passing, she left $2.7 million to help Denfeld students go to college. Because of her great effort to their hopes and aspirations, 15 members of the Class of 2025 will receive $180,000 in Saltwick scholarships at Denfeld’s 100th Honor Night this spring.

And that’s the truth.

Gary Eckenberg is a 1968 graduate of Denfeld High School and president of the Greater Denfeld Foundation, which will award Denfeld’s Class of 2025 more than $570,000 in scholarships this year. Eckenberg is also a former Duluth city councilor and retired in 2016 as deputy administrator for governance and policy for St. Louis County.