Remembering 'Spike' Irving's math class (Updated)

Around Sault Collegiate Institute during the closing years of the war, everyone referred to her as 'Spike' Irving.

But never to her face.

Miss Jessie Irving had a temperament as severe as the gray dress and gun-metal coloured stockings that she wore to school seemingly every day.

But the math teacher's strict demeanour was combined with a fairness that won over young students like Don Fyfe.

"She commended respect," Fyfe recalls.

"She also had a cute ass," interjects classmate Merlin McCracken.

Yes, the SCI Class of '43 is back in town.

Ever since their 50th Anniversary Graduation Reunion in 1993, Simpson Hollingsworth (shown above) has been organizing an annual get-together.

Most years, it's just the 16 or so alumni still living in the Sault who come.

But the 55th anniversary in 1998 drew some out-of-towners.

And this year's 60th Anniversary is a biggie, attracting almost as many out-of-towners as locals, Hollingsworth tells SooToday.com.

In all, 30 Class of '43 members are attending this year's reunion.

Fyfe, for example, is a retired school principal now living in Kimberly, Wisconsin.

Reception at Collegiate Heights

Speaking to SooToday.com at a reception at the brand-new Collegiate Heights Retirement Home (at the top of the hill, right where the old school used to sit) Fyfe is telling how Miss Irving turned out to be a major influence on his own teaching and leadership styles.

Less of an influence, however, was Miss McDowell of SCI's history department.

To McDowell, the British people stood alone at the pinnacle of Western Civilization.

In her view of the universe, Irish, Americans, or people of any other nationality usually were severely deficient in those qualities that made the Brits great.

Kicked out of history class for being right

Fyfe was an American studying in Sault Ste. Marie, and found all this a little hard to swallow.

So too, did classmate Terry Murchy, whose unwillingness to buy into the McDowell dogma got him and Fyfe kicked out of her history classes.

Murchy went on to become a Sudbury-based judge in the Supreme Court of Ontario (General Division).

Miss Irving wasn't the only member of the SCI staff with a nickname that students dared not utter.

'Buck' Hodgson's soft centre

Merlin McCracken remembers 'Buck' Hodgson as another stern disciplinarian with a soft centre.

"He had me in his office five or six times trying to talk me out of joining the Air Force," McCracken tells SooToday.com.

Large numbers of recruits were dying in the Air Force, so Hodgson was trying to get them to go Army instead.

"We had a good chance of being killed if we went overseas," McCracken recalls. "He was trying to save our lives."

'Ducky' Dengate's neckline

Of course, not all of the SCI staff were cast in the same mould.

The SCI alumni remember 'Ducky' Dengate for her plunging necklines, her Sunday-night visits to the Michigan Soo, and her dishevelled appearance on Monday morning.

For reasons never made clear, Miss Dengate left SCI in the middle of the school year.

Linda Linklater and Tom Tipton

And then there was Linda Linklater, who, in eyes of some alumni, seemed to surround herself with a disproportional number of attractive, athletic male students during detentions.

This was a concern to Tom Tipton, legendary coach of the Collegiate Wildcats, who often dropped down to her home room for negotiations aimed at freeing his boys to come out and play football.

A note from the editor

Much as we'd like to believe the tale told above by Don Fyfe and Terry Murchy about why Miss McDowell kicked a future educator and jurist out of her history class, we think you need to know that another notable SCI grad, Morley Torgov, thinks the world of her.

To read what Torgov said about Miss McDowell at last year's SCI 100th Anniversary celebrations, please click here.

SooToday.com photo coverage

To check out our special Big Picture portrait of the Class of 43, taken Thursday night at Collegiate Heights Retirement Home, just click here. Be sure to use your browser's scroll buttons to view the entire image.

If you have a dial-up connection or an older computer, you might prefer to look at a small version of this image. Click here.

*********************** Meet the Class of 1943

The following are members of Sault Collegiate Institute's Class of 43 who attended this week's 60th Anniversary Reunion:

Josie Barbett Frank Bruni Miriam Buchanan Dorothy Burke Irving Cohen Mary Crawford (Harry) Gordon Cunningham Russ Disano Pat Edmonds Audrey Franz Wilda Fraser (McLeod) Don Fyfe Fred Fyfe Frances Hearne Dora Hocken Bill Hollingsworth Simpson Hollingsworth Jim Huckson Joyce Huffman Eleanor MacLeod (Darou) Jean MacLeod Leno Marcon Merlin McCracken Terry Murphy Don Nixon Fern Payne Mildred Powell Dorothy Weir Gordon White Fred Griffth

Regrets

Arnold Hackett and Jane Cook (Berlangette) were originally scheduled to attend this week's reunion but were forced to send regrets.

100th Anniversary Reunion

To read SooToday.com's coverage of last year's SCI 100th Anniversary Celebrations, please click on the links below:

SCI alumni rock the waterfront Two poems by Irv Cohen, Class of '43 Her name was Miss McDowell (a speech by Morley Torgov)