History

I've been talking recently with Earl Baker (left in the photo) who was one of the first African-American graduates of the old De La SALLE.

For those of you who don't know, the old De La SALLE was a Catholic boys high school that was founded in 1910 by the Christian Brothers.

Interestingly, that school had several different names over the years.

From 1910 to 1941, the school was officially called the "De La SALLE Academy".

When World War II started in 1941, the name was changed to the "De La SALLE Military Academy".

Then, in 1960, the name changed again, this time to the "De La SALLE High School".

That school closed in 1971, and the name was "borrowed" by the founders of the new DeLaSalle, one of whom was a Christian Brother, Brother Theodore Berni. (Brother Theodore left the new program after a few years, but the other two founders remained far longer. Godfrey S Kobets remained until he retired at the age of 70 in 1985, and Norman O. Sanders remained as Chairman of the Board until his death in 2008!)

As you know, the new DeLaSalle is neither a boys' school (it was, and still is, co-ed) or Catholic (it was, and still is, non-sectarian). Moreover, the name was "stylized" in 1985 to eliminate the spaces beween the French spelling of the "De La SALLE" name, and to lower the case of the last four letters in "SALLE".

Earl Baker entered the old De La SALLE in 1953, when it was De La SALLE Military Academy. He was one of five African-Americans in his class. (The previous year in 1952, the first two African-Americans entered De La SALLE. One of those individuals was Jasper Harris, who later eanred two doctorates and who served as interim superintendent for the Knsas City School District in 1986.)

Earl Baker graduated in 1957. He's promised to tell me more of his experiences in the integration of that institution and I will make sure to update this blog when we talk more.

On Friday, November 20, 2009, we honored another African-American graduate of the old De La SALLE, the Honorable Phil Curls. Phil was one of the founders of Freedom Inc, and was a Missouri State Senator for many years. Phil died in 2008. An international company, GTECH Corp, funded a brand new computer lab at DeLaSalle in Phil's memory. Phil's wife, Councilwoman Melba Curls (a current DeLaSalle Board member), attended Friday's dedication, along with her daughter, Monica, and Phil's neice, Missouri State Representative Kikki Curls. We were blessed to have this computer lab established at DeLaSalle in Phil's memory, and to have had Phil's family with us that day.