His is the last name to make the lengthy, A-to-Z list of “100 Heroes” drawn up to highlight 100 years of Battle Ground school district history.
But Ted Zeller was a “hero” who nearly didn’t make the cut — just one fascinating story among those sure to breathe new life at today’s centennial bash.
In fact, the Battle Ground High School principal and teacher was nearly banished in the spring of 1937, along with a few teaching colleagues, before aggrieved parents urged the student body president to lead a mass strike that lasted for weeks.
Enter Jim Curtin, then 18, a 6-foot, 1-inch senior who had quarterbacked the school’s football squad and, as president, held sway over his peers.
o What: Battle Ground Public Schools Centennial Celebration. Half-hour tribute begins 11:30 a.m.; scavenger hunt for children ends with 2:30 p.m. drawing. Battle Ground High choral and instrumental groups will perform.
o When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today.
o Where: Battle Ground High School, 300 W. Main St.
o Cost: Free admission (and birthday cake). Also available, $3 lunch with choice of spaghetti, pizza or hot dog. Centennial T-shirts for $8.
o Details: http://www.bgsd.k12.wa.us.
“Those were turbulent days,” said Curtin, now 91 and living in Proebstel with Barbara, his wife, also a ’37 Tiger alum. “It got to be a nasty thing.”
It seems the Battle Ground school superintendent, Rudolph Geiser, planned to promote a younger junior high principal to the top job, pushing A.C. Zeller from his perch. Also endangered were athletic instructor Ward Holloway, agricultural teacher William Perry and public affairs instructor Bea Sbedico.
As the school board punted, parent-teacher leaders plotted a backlash. A contingent came to the Curtin clan’s dairy cattle spread (Curtin Creek was named for his homesteading ancestors) and asked Jim Curtin for help.
It didn’t take much to convince him.
“(Zeller) was a very much beloved teacher,” Curtin said. “He was a mentor for every kid in the school system,” a strong disciplinarian but also fair and respected, he said.
“He listened to students. When you were right, he went with you, all the way.
“If you weren’t, the wrath of God come down on you,” Curtin said with a chuckle Friday, as he flipped through yellowed newspaper stories tucked into his scrapbook.
By April 19, 1937, Curtin had called a school assembly and told students to check in each morning, but then boycott classes all day, to press for Zeller and the others.
At least 200 of 235 students complied, The Columbian reported. Some passed the time in study hall, while Curtin and others hiked two miles to Battle Ground Lake to kill time, more than once, he said.
The superintendent was not amused, he said: “Geiser told me if I rang the assembly bell one more time, he’d see me in Monroe” — Washington’s correctional school.
o What: Battle Ground Public Schools Centennial Celebration. Half-hour tribute begins 11:30 a.m.; scavenger hunt for children ends with 2:30 p.m. drawing. Battle Ground High choral and instrumental groups will perform.
o When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today.
o Where: Battle Ground High School, 300 W. Main St.
o Cost: Free admission (and birthday cake). Also available, $3 lunch with choice of spaghetti, pizza or hot dog. Centennial T-shirts for $8.
o Details: http://www.bgsd.k12.wa.us.
The walkout continued, in fits and starts. Eugene Cushing, the county’s district attorney, got involved. Curtin helped lure state school chief Stanley Atwood from Olympia to intervene.
Soon, Geiser was the one who departed; two school board members had resigned, the rest coming around to student and parent demands. Zeller and his colleagues were reinstated; and Jim, Barbara and the rest of the seniors would be graduated on time.
Curtin, who had won a football scholarship to Gonzaga University, exuded calm throughout.
“It wasn’t a rebellious thing. We kept our heads. We tried to act as adults,” he said. News photos show him wearing a coat and necktie. More important, he said, “We had the weight of the parents behind us. We knew we were in the right.”
Zeller would serve 30 more years before retiring. “That’s kind of a nail in the coffin, isn’t it?” Curtin said, laughing.
Today, Zeller, who died at age 95 in February 2001, is regarded as a district pillar — yet, also is a reminder of Battle Ground’s often-stormy school history.
Said Curtin, “It wasn’t without controversy.”
Curtin wouldn’t want to inspire any new uprising. After all, a son, James Patrick, was a Fort Vancouver High School counselor and his daughter, Colleen Torrens, has taught more than 30 years at Sifton Elementary, mostly in kindergarten.
Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.
