Fall 2024 Ask Letter - Give to Support Immediate Needs and Scholarships for Current Quaker Students
Quaker pride runs deep for alumni, and for good reason! Franklin High School has helped shape leaders in politics, music, sports, advocacy, business, medicine, human services, and nearly every sector you can imagine. Our high school experience, grounded in social justice and enriched by music, sports, academic excellence, and arts, has created generations of changemakers. And as alums, we have been showing up in force to support and enrich the lives of the next generation of changemakers.
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Letter from the Board President
Thank you for continuing to support the Alumni Association efforts to support the students at Franklin.
This year we have defined our mission as the “Year of Engagement”—to be more visible and hands-on, attending activities that the students and faculty create. We are also developing a strong relationship with the PTSA. Through these activities we feel we can get a better understanding of what the school needs and build relationships with faculty and staff, all in the service of the students.
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Letter From The Principal
I hope you are doing well! This is Principal Weiss and it is a great time to be a Quaker. Things in the building are going strong this year and we are excited for what is still to come.
By the time you read this, we will have had our Homecoming game—hopefully we saw you there—and for the first time in years we were able to run a Spirit bus to help students get to the game. Thanks to the alumni association for helping to support this! Check out the article by our new athletics and activities coordinator Ms. Barrett (See page _) for more information on our programs here at the building.
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Digital Music and Composition at Franklin
This was a banner year for the FHS student group, Digital Music and Composition (DMC). Two years ago, the group converted two music practice rooms in the lower basement into a small recording studio, but were hampered by the lack of sufficient equipment and a vision for the future.
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Delbert Richardson, ’73: Founder and Curator of the American History Traveling Museum: The Unspoken Truths
Born in 1954 in Detroit, MI., during the year of Brown v Board of Education, when it was still legal to segregate, Delbert moved to Seattle in 1962. He attended Colman Elementary (now Seattle’s African American Museum), Washington Junior High, and Franklin High School. He was one of the few black athletes who qualified for an academic scholarship to the University of Chicago. Eventually he attended the University of Washington, where he started, with other incoming freshman students, to use the term “Black” with one another. While attending an African American studies class, he learned about the positive aspects of African culture, including concepts that were new to him. Previously he viewed the continent of Africa as a place a Black person would disassociate from.
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Joan Houston, ’66, Sings in Ballard
Singer and actor Joan Houston has a message for anyone who didn’t make the Franklin High School choir -- “I auditioned for the Franklin choir and didn’t get in,” recalls Joan, Class of ’66. (On the other hand, she happily recalls being selected her class’s Most Popular Girl.) Despite not getting into the Bel Canto Choir, Joan kept singing.
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From our readers Vol. 30 Spring 2024
Dear Quaker friends,
We invite you to write about your experiences at Franklin, particularly how they shaped you and informed your life. Send to quakertimes@franklinalumni.net. We welcome your feedback, suggestions and ideas.
Mary Duryee, ‘67, Editor
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Cheryl Chow, ’64 is remembered in a street sign…
“They say we die twice. Once when they bury us in the grave and the second time is the last time someone mentions our name.” This quote, adapted from a Macklemore song, resonates with me as we prepare to induct the newest members of the Hall of Fame this May. While the 2024 group is thankfully all still with us in body and spirit, this time of year always makes me think of all of those who have left us since that first induction in 1992. When we stop voicing our collective and shared histories, we risk losing a part of our story. In this way, the last six months have been wonderful when it comes to honoring the life and work of Cheryl Chow, class of 1964.
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Willie McIntyre, ‘22 Artist: following up with a 2022 Franklin ‘Big Will’ scholarship recipient
Our first encounter with Willie McIntrye was during our first career and scholarship fair, Rising Tide, in February 2022. A shy young man with his head bowed approached our table. He was wearing overalls and covered with paint. Asked about the paint, he explained he was “free-handing” a mural in the Kingmakers room. Intrigued, we traveled upstairs and were rewarded with our first view of Willie’s incredible art. We all wanted to get to know this quiet, talented young man better. Not long after, Willie and his story and art would be shared with FAAF board and committee members.
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Rod Guevara — Improvisations in Color
Rod is probably best remembered by his FHS ’67 classmates for his sense of humor and shooting the basketball. Following his fragmented time at UW, finally getting degrees in English (Writing) and Sociology, he settled in near North Seattle. He spent many years coaching kids, starting with his own, and adults in basketball and baseball. In fact, he has been an assistant coach/video coordinator/advance scout with Franklin boys’ basketball for more than ten years. Some of us had him pegged as an athlete. It came as some surprise then, when Rod produced his latest paintings at our 2018 class reunion picnic. They were bold experiments in color, labeled with curious names like Sunrise on Enceladus or Then There Was a Moth.
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Stalcup Grant Supports Basic Needs of Franklin Students
Agnes Leapai, the Student and Family Advocate for Franklin High School, greets everyone with an enormous smile and a welcoming demeanor. Her program does its best to assist with food, clothing, occasional utility assistance, and those situations that call for an emergency motel stay. Food and housing insecurity is very real among the students at Franklin. The poverty rate for the school is higher than the Seattle School District average, and hovers in the low-to-mid-60 percent of the student body of 1,241. In the first month of school alone, more than thirty families had sought assistance. During the 2022-2023 school year, approximately 250 families were helped.
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Ron Chew’s (’71) My Unforgotten Seattle
Ron Chew, a Franklin graduate and honoree in our Hall of Fame, published an extensive autobiography in 2020. This book speaks to his roots in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood as well as to his lifelong connection to the Chinatown-International District. Chew covers key moments in his life as a journalist during the early years of the Asian American movement, as editor of the International Examiner, and executive director of The Wing, as he helped create our community-based exhibition model to spotlight community stories. Includes 56 pages of color photos.
With his blessing we are pleased to reprint a portion of it here.
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2024 Hall of Fame Inductees Announced
The Franklin Alumni Association & Foundation is pleased to announce the 2024 Hall of Fame inductees. The Franklin Hall of Fame was established in 1992. Additional inductions took place in 1998, 2001, 2004. Since 2013 they have taken place at the spring annual meeting and Hall of Fame Celebration. More information on the Hall of Fame here.
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Fall Ask Letter 2023 - Franklin Alumni Association & Foundation
We have huge ambitions for the future of our scholarship funds and school support funds, and we need your help. Some of these big ambitions include increasing our endowment so that every graduating student who applies for a scholarship receives one. Supporting the athletics department by purchasing uniforms more frequently than every three years. Adding a family resource center with a food pantry for families in need of an extra lift. Supporting the school community by paying for an additional full-time teacher each year. We need your support to make that possible.
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A New Principal at Franklin
I began my teaching career twenty years ago at Highline High School where I taught English and Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) for eleven years. After graduating from the UW's Danforth Educational Leadership Program, I served as assistant principal at Juanita High School in the Lake Washington School District for four years. In 2018, I came to SPS where I served as an assistant principal at Chief Sealth International High School until this year.
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New event in 2023: Coming Home!
Your Alumni Association sponsored a new event—an opportunity for Franklin alumni to visit our Alma Mater—featuring a tour of the school, local food trucks from El Gran Taco and Catfish Corner, and DJ Kun Luv providing the music. The tour was an important part of the day, including the renovated Rick Nagel Mock Trial room on the third floor.
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Rainier Valley’s Demographic Odyssey
As Franklin High School students, we were fortunate to experience the multicultural wonderland that filled the school's classrooms. The diversity was not only unique within the school but also mirrored the vibrant tapestry of Rainier Valley itself. Let's take a ride on the way-back machine and travel through time to explore the valley's demographic progression.
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The Geology and Early History of Rainier Valley
Dodging traffic, watching for pedestrians and bikers, and stopping at too many stoplights while admiring the Mt. Rainier view, can make a trip down Rainier Avenue perilous and not leave us time to think about the geology of the area. What formed the valley over the millennia?
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From our readers…
In our last issue, we invited alumni to share experiences, in any form or length, addressing the questions: what was your experience of Franklin’s diversity? Did it matter to you? If so, how? If not, why? How has your education at Franklin informed you, your decisions, your choices since leaving high school?
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2023 Scholarship Award Ceremony
The Scholarship Committee continues to expand the recognition of a variety of nontraditional “ships”: resiliency-ships, recognize our students who in spite of their many, many challenges are moving forward; thank-god-I-made-it-ships, for those students often overwhelmed by life who exhibit trust that their tomorrow will be better; affirmation-ships, acknowledging students who are doing everything right and who just need a win; and, of course, our legacy scholarships, honoring academic excellence that flourishes at Franklin.
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