How the Hall of Honor Began
The Austin High Lakefront Campus was opened in August 1975 . The Seniors and Juniors that year - AHS classes of 76 and 77 - had spent at least one year at the old Rio Grande campus , where Austin High School had operated since 1925 . Some of these students - now at the Lakefront - were nostalgic for the " Old Campus ".
Beginning in August 1975 , they attended school in a new building . Everything around them was new . There were carpeted haJls and many more lockers than had been available before . Science labs were provided with brand-new equipment and the total number of audiovisual machines for teacher use was doubled . It was a beautiful campus . The Lakeside campus even received a 1975 award from the American Institute of Architects - their national " School Bell Award " for outstanding school design .
But the nostalgia still lingered . |
Their feelings ofloss |
came to a sharp point in the Spring Semester of 1977 . |
The 1977 class was the |
last to have spent a year or more at the " Old Campus ". |
Conversations |
over a lunch table hardened |
a resolve to " not lose our ties to |
the past !" |
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John Schneider , Jr ., Rudy Garza , Jr ., and Francis Doyle were Senior Class and Student Council officers . |
Teacher Brian Schenk regularly |
had lunch in the cafeteria with these leaders , since he was serving as Student Council Advisor |
at the time . |
It was not uncommon |
- in those years - for teachers and students to share a lunch table . |
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" This place is sorry ," Schneider said one day . " It ' s got blue carpet and blue lockers and it smells like a hospital . It just lacks the rustic charm of the old school ."
The other students agreed . Conversations that week began to focus on how to tie the new school to the old . The students discussed a recognition program for Distinguished Alumni , to recognize the graduates who used Austin High as a springboard to success in life . Schenk suggested recognition of " Great Teachers " of the past - and they knew MANY . Teacher Maurice Price ( Language Arts ) agreed that an " Honored Faculty " recognition would preserve ties to the past and would be attractive to our Alumni . Then they added a recognition program for " students of today " called the Maroon Society .
They developed the idea of a PLACE to honor these alumni , former faculty and students of today . The place would be called a " Hall of Honor ".
Student Council President John Schneider appointed a " Hall of Honor Student Steering Committee " for the Spring Term of 1977 . This Student Council Committee came up with a preliminary plan , which was presented to Principal Jacquelyn McGee in 1978 . McGee was a 1946 graduate of the school . She not only agreed to the concept , she offered an llx66- foot area of a hallway along the balcony next to the school office .
Another year was spent in fine-tuning the plan . The first inductions - four - were made during Homecoming , 1980 , and another induction was held on Dedication Day , 1981 , at the end of the school ' s centennial year . In the fall of 1981 , the Steering Committee became an independent organization .
Margaret Cadallader ' s induction into the HOH , 1981
As of 2006 , more than sixty Distinguished Alumni and fifty Honored Faculty are recognized in the new Hall of Honor , dedicated in 2001 , and located in the Performing Arts Center near the east entrance . Each year our inductions into the Hall of Honor are held on Dedication Day on the Friday closest to the 2nd of May , the anniversary of the school ' s " dedication as a public school " in 1976 . Brian Schenk in Hall of Honor located in the PAC .
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