Honoring and Remembering our Fallen Law Enforcement Officers

Again this year, communities across the United States will honor and remember those law enforcement officers who made the ultimate sacrifice, as well as the family members, friends and fellow officers they left behind.

HISTORY

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation which designated May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date falls as Police Week. Currently, tens of thousands of law enforcement officers from around the world converge on Washington, DC to participate in a number of planned events which honor those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

The Memorial Service began in 1982 as a gathering in Senate Park of approximately 120 survivors and supporters of law enforcement. Decades later, the event, more commonly known as National Police Week, has grown to a series of events which attracts thousands of survivors and law enforcement officers to our Nation's Capital each year.

In June 1889, the Bowling Green Board of Education awarded a contract to build South School, later South Main School, to the firm of Duncomb and Brown, on a bid of $8,480.00 (about $272,150 in current dollars). It was the third largest schoolhouse in the growing city. The land was purchased after the Board of Education announced it would initiate proceedings to condemn existing structures on the property. The four-classroom school opened in 1890.

South Main School was built in the Tudor Revival style, characterized by its half-timbered gables, steeply sloped roof, and imposing arched entry door. Five classrooms were added in this same style in 1927.

In 1928, the first elementary Parent-Teachers Association of Bowling Green was organized at South School, and the first elementary school cafeteria in Bowling Green was opened there in 1929. During the last major remodeling, in 1958, a gymnasium was added and the lavatories were improved. The cost was $60,000 (about $624,580 today).

On her retirement in 1960, Bess McClish, principal and sixth-grade teacher at South Main School since 1927, told Connie Barton of the Sentinel-Tribune: “When I took over, we had six teachers here, then seven, then nine. Since the new buildings have been erected, we are back to six teachers.”

In the Center for Archival Collections at BGSU’s Jerome Library there are two files of photographs, newspaper clippings, letters, and cards celebrating Miss McClish’s four decades at the school. Letters from all over the United States and as far away as Guam reveal a close-knit school community and mutual affection between Ms. McClish and the generations of students who passed through the halls of her school.

Letter writers remembered being disciplined years or even decades earlier for infractions like shooting “baby sized sling shots” or “eating jelly beans on the sly.” Others recalled academic successes, assemblies, and performances. Robert Garrett remembered gratefully: “Besides learning the difference between the subject and predicate and the numerator and denominator, we had many memorable times.” And Moses Lane wrote: “I suppose you must have felt I was more interested in when Mr. Fluhart would ring the recess bell than in what was being discussed in class.” He assured his former teacher that she had inspired him to change his ways and become a successful college graduate....Continue Reading Historic Building