CD brings academy's history to life
By
DAVE WHALEY
ALTON — The cadets once marched in lockstep up Seminary Street. Now, they can come to life again on computer.
A scrapbook of Western Military Academy history has been transformed into CD form and is on sale at the Alton Museum of History and Art. Richard Rook and Chuck Walker, 1949 graduates of the school that closed its doors in 1971, raised $15,000 for the project.
"Bob and Vivian Keith presented the scrapbook to the museum two years ago," said Rook, who lives in Alton. "But it was here in the museum and was only brought out for special occasions. Our class decided to preserve the book in a different manner."
Rook turned to Bob Lyner of Digital Preservation in Chesterfield to photograph each of the original scrapbook's 124 pages, plus 11 more pages of memories donated by Don Huber, the Alton Township supervisor and one of the area's leading history buffs.
"We raised the money through the alumni association," Rook said. "The photography of everything was by far the biggest expense. It took Bob the better part of a week to do all of that."
Lyner went to an art studio, where it took up to six minutes to photograph each page in order to transfer it to disc. Jeff Florida of ZeroLevity Inc in St. Louis then did all of the other technical work, linking everything together and designing the CD format.
The Keiths, who live in St. Petersburg, Fla., are the editors of the Western Military Academy alumni newsletter. Bob Keith is a 1936 academy graduate. The Keiths donated the scrapbook — each page is 18-inches-by-24-inches — to the museum in the fall of 2000, when fellow alumnus Lt. Col Paul Tibbets, the pilot who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, to effectively end World War II, visited Alton.
"It's just marvelous," said Ruth Jackson, the widow of former academy president Ralph Jackson.
Ruth Jackson and Jane Jackson, the wife of Ralph's brother, Chuck Jackson, were presented free copies of the CD on Wednesday at the Alton Museum. Richard and Barbara Rook also presented the Jacksons with a framed copy of a painting done by John Herendeen, another 1949 academy graduate. The painting shows the old buildings of the academy, where Mississippi Valley Christian School now stands.
Formerly the Wyman Institute, beginning in 1879, the school became Western Military Academy in 1895.
Besides Tibbets, other famous graduates include veteran television journalist Sander Vanocur, who also visited Alton when Tibbets spoke in 2000. William Paley, a 1918 graduate, became president of CBS in 1928. Butch O'Hare, a 1932 graduate, was a Medal of Honor recipient and one of the first air aces of World War II before being confirmed missing in action over the South Pacific in 1943. O'Hare International Field in Chicago is named after him.
A total of 42 academy graduates were known to have been killed in wars, with another five declared missing in action.
The CD costs $25 and is available at the Alton Museum, 2809 College Ave. The CD also will be available for order soon at www.altonmuseum.com and www.haynerlibrary.org. Proceeds from the sale will be split between the museum and the alumni association.
For more information call the museum at 462-2763.
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