1929 - 30
The Year
Cathedral High became a diocesan school and the name was changed to Judge Memorial. The school received accreditation from the Northwest Association of Secondary Schools.
There were 14 graduates, 10 boys and 4 girls, on June 2 at the Ladies Literary Club, followed by a reception in Memory Grove. Bishop John Mitty presided. General Excellence Award: Ellen Cobb. Medal for Christian Doctrine: Virginia Peterson. Fellow graduates: Helen Pruss, who later was 1984 “Parish Mother of the Year” at St. Ambrose and died in 2008 at St. Joseph’s Villa; Paul Mancena, John Vaughan, Kenneth Hadley, O’Brien Hyland, William McKeague, J. Milton Kelly, George Phillips, Woodrow Cook, Ancilla Giovannoni, Myron O’Donnell, Margaret Worel and John Capitolo.
Charles Paddock wrote a poem for the graduates, 26 stanzas starting with letters from A to Z, concluding “Z is for zest, Oh give it right free, Gladsome and gay the Bulldogs will be.”
St. Mary’s-of-the-Wasatch graduate Edythe Brown (later Smith) went on to help found the Girl Scout program in Utah and was an independent businesswoman. She opened a grocery store on State Street in 1936, ran a Ben Franklin’s store in Sugarhouse during World War II and in 1945 bought a restaurant in Cottonwood Heights that became “The Heather” and, later, “Tuscany.” She died in 1998 at age 87.
In a 2004 special history edition of the Bulldog Press, Helen Pruss (Halfhill by marriage) met with members of the Judge Class of 2007 at St. Joseph’s Villa. She told reporter Christina Pazzi that she started at Cathedral Elementary School and remembered picking flowers from the springfed-wet hillside where the gym was later built. In her day, Judge students did not wear uniforms but were expected to dress modestly. Girls could not wear slacks. Pruss played on a girls basketball team, wearing Judge’s then colors – green and gold. She graduated at age 16, having skipped eighth grade. “Get the best education you can,” she advised. “No one can take that away from you.”
Ben Lingenfelter became the fifth football coach. A native of Des Moines, Iowa, Lingenfelter won All-America honors at Drake University in 1924. He had been an assistant at the University of Utah for one year, and an assistant at East High School for two years before coming to Judge. He later became a Salt Lake City commissioner. The team went 2-3-1, but beat rival Park City, 12-8. Woodrow Cook was a captain for a second year, joined by Myron O’Donnell. The squad had expanded to 34 members.
