A Friend Indeed

Many of us may recall a teacher by the name of Leon Friend. Perhaps he even taught some of us.   He first came to Brookings in the fall of 1964, and according to the 1965 yearbook, taught chemistry and English II.  In the 1966 and 1967 yearbooks, he is listed as teaching chemistry and Algebra II, in addition to being a senior advisor (could there have been a misprint in the previous annual, English II instead of Algebra II?).  At the new high school in 1967-8, he taught chemistry and Algebra I.  In 1968-69, intramurals were added to his classroom duties.  He continued to teach in Brookings for a couple of more years before moving on (Lake Benton?).   He is listed in the 1971 annual, but not in the 1973 yearbook.  The library is missing the 1972 edition of The Bobcat, so I was unable to note the year he left Brookings.  The Brookings County Museum likely has that edition of The Bobcat, so when it reopens next Memorial Day, we will check it out. 

I recently learned of Mr. Friend's passing when a  follower of this blog sent me a link to his obituary (http://www.isburgfuneralchapels.com/obituary/leon-friend).  A number of items in that obituary were rather stunning.  It appears that Mr. Friend taught at Igloo, SD, just before coming to Brookings.  Igloo is located in the far southwest corner of the state.  It was known in the 1940's through the early 1960's as the home to the Black Hills Ordnance Depot (BHOD), and "... provided livelihoods for thousands of workers and their families here — as well as a sense of community, and solidarity of purpose, unlike anything that many Igloo alums feel they’ve ever seen since." (as quoted in http://www.sdpb.org/blogs/arts-and-culture/igloo-south-dakota-the-utopia-that-war-built/).  This article, although somewhat long, tells the history of the rise and demise of  Igloo, SD. 

The connections to Igloo concern our Teener baseball team that earned a berth in the National  Tournament in Hershey in the summer of 1965.  To qualify for the Hershey trip, we had to first win our district tournament (the other teams were Milbank, Watertown, and Sisseton) held in Brookings that year.  After beating Watertown for the district championship, we played in the state tournament at Madison.  We won that, so we earned a trip to the area tournament that would be held in Igloo.  Since only a few nearby area states had teener baseball, the only other teams there were from Miller, SD, and Chadron, NB (I think it was Chadron anyway).  Little did we realize that in a few years, Igloo as a town would cease to exist.  Perhaps Mr. Friend was wise enough to see the writing on the wall, and realize that there was no reason to remain in that desolate section of the state.  My vague recollections are that we stayed in a barracks-like structure.  Perhaps this is why Igloo was host.  Since the people were moving out, there were some barracks that could house the teams at very little cost.  The article above mentions some of the entertainment venues in Igloo.  The swimming pool is about the only one I remember.  Anyway, we had success out there, and thus earned the trip to Hershey. 

The guest book entries for Mr. Friend were also intriguing.  Of the eight responses, five were from  his former students at Brookings, while one was from a former colleague.  Anita Sloat Parkin,  Jim Steen, Wayne Tanke, and John Wood graduated in 1967, while Pam Vockrodt Diaz graduated in 1971.   Anita and Jim had sisters in our class, Donna and Susan respectively.
The teacher was Mrs. Schaak, who, along with Nancy Webbbenhurst's sister Joan Donaldson, was one of our sophomore English teachers.  Incidentally, Nancy's brother Bob was one of our teener baseball coaches the year we went to Hershey.  He also coached us again the next year. 

Our belated condolences to Mrs. Nancy Friend, her son Edwin, and her granddaughter Ellise.