BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer
Michael Wilson Freehold Borough Mayor Michael Wilson and rock superstar Bruce Springsteen have a lot more in common now than just being boyhood pals in the borough – they are now both members of the Freehold High School Hall of Fame.
The Freehold Gardens hotel, Free-hold Township, hosted the first Freehold High School Hall of Fame induction ceremony on April 6. More than 200 guests came to honor the first group of inductees.
In addition to Wilson and Spring-steen, the other living inductees were Lillie Louise Ham Hendry, a community leader and retired guidance supervisor at the high school, and Jasper White, a restaurant owner and cookbook author.
Adele Springsteen accepted the honor on behalf of her son.
Honored posthumously were the Rev. George Beverly Winston, a teacher and minister; Gilday Freeman, funeral director; Harry Silvert, furniture store owner and philanthropist; and graduates who are United States military veterans.
Master of ceremonies Peter Erndl welcomed the guests and honorees. Erndl, a 1969 graduate, has been teaching at the high school for 33 years.
Lillie Hendry The hall of fame project, which initially began two years ago under the guidance of teacher Sue Schrott, moved quickly when Linda C. Jewell (class of 1968) took over as principal of the school in September.
Erndl said the inductees are Freehold graduates who have distinguished themselves in a variety of fields, have proven to be positive role models to current high school students and have given back to their community.
He introduced Borough Council members in attendance and recognized Free-hold Regional High School District Board of Education member Bunny Hammer, of the borough, and Councilman Kevin Coyne, the town’s historian.
Erndl acknowledged the contributions of the school’s three immediate past principals – Charles “Chief” H. Figg, Frank T. Penn and Dr. Carol McKee – and Jewell.
Coyne began his remarks by asking, “Why did this take so long?”
He said Freehold High School is the oldest high school in the region and it would seem logical that it would also have the oldest hall of fame.
PHOTOS BY MARK LAMHUT Inductees and honored guests at the inaugural Freehold High School Hall of Fame ceremony display state proclamations honoring them. Attending the event were state Assemblyman Michael Panter (back row, l) and state Sen. Ellen Karcher (front row, second from right). “But then when you think about it, maybe it’s not so surprising after all [not to have a hall of fame]. High schools that don’t have much history to celebrate need to celebrate what little they do have. High schools – and communities, for that matter – that do have long histories tend to take them for granted,” Coyne said.
He cited a time when social studies teacher Stan Koba took his students on “the shortest field trip ever.” Koba would lead the students out of his classroom, walk a few steps and gather around a plaque that carries the names of the school’s graduates who died in World War II, according to Coyne.
He said Koba wanted his students to understand that the people they were reading about in history were people who once sat in the same classrooms, walked the same halls and played on the same fields – that history is not just elsewhere, it was in their high school, too.
Jasper White “And that’s what this hall of fame is, a field trip into an often neglected past that’s waiting right outside the door,” he said.
The high school started in 1875 on the upper floor of the Hudson Street School and was the first free public school in the county, “a key landmark in the transformation of education from the preserve of the wealthy to the right of all,” according to Coyne.
The high school moved to a new building in 1909 on the corner of Bennett and Hudson streets. Hall of Fame inductees Winston and Freeman both attended that
school, as did Coyne’s grandfather.
“I have my grandfather’s diploma hanging in my house,” Coyne said, speaking of the class of 1924 document. “It’s a big beautiful stately looking thing, as you would expect of a document that meant as much then as a college degree means now.”
Adele Springsteen
Borough education officials eventually decided that a bigger, more modern building was needed. A new high school was built on Broadway on a tract of land on which a large farm had previously been located. The new school opened in 1926. That building – with plenty of additions made over the years – continues to be the place where new generations of young adults are educated.
Coyne said he hoped the evening’s ceremony was the first of many such events, “a ritual in which we will regularly step outside the door of today’s room and look back into yesterday’s.”
Jewell introduced teachers and staff members who have been part of the high school for 25 years and who have been dubbed the Quarter Century Club. Jewell said 10 staff members were inducted into the club. They are Peter B. Erndl, James P. Gill, Stanley Koba, Julia Kostbar, Michael Kushner, Harold “Heshy” Moses, Earl “Spike” Ownes, Stan Parker, Tracey L. Reason and Thomas Vona.
Erndl had the honor of inducting the hall of fame alumni.
The Freehold High School Hall of Fame ceremony included recognition of teachers and staff members who have been a part of the school for 25 years. The group has been dubbed the Quarter Century Club. Hendry, who graduated in 1947, said she felt she was truly an example of the maxim that no individual is an island.
“No one does it alone,” she said.
Hendry’s career includes teaching in Hamilton Township in 1951, then being chosen as an exchange teacher from Mid-dlesex County to go to England in 1956 as part of an international exchange program. Hendry continued her formal education at the University of London and was presented to the Queen Mother.
She returned to Freehold in 1960 and developed an innovative guidance program for children in the intermediate grades. In 1971 she returned to Freehold High School and stayed for 21 years, retiring as guidance supervisor.
Hendry still does not know what retirement means, according to Erndl, who said she is a “local fixture, tireless, and a catalyst for helping people.”
Hendry’s involvement includes the restoration of the Court Street School into a community education center. She is the recipient of the Russ Berrie Foun-dation Make a Difference Award. She is member of many boards, including the Freehold Borough Planning Board, the Brookdale Community College Advisory Board, a charter member of the Centra-State Medical Center Board of Trustees and an active member of the Bethel A.M.E. Church in Freehold Township. According to the event program, Hendry is a “living aunt to a plethora of family members and a mother hen to a limitless number of Freehold residents.”
White, who graduated from the high school in 1972, began his cooking career in 1973 after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America.
His restaurant experience began when he and his wife, Nancy, opened Jasper’s Restaurant in Boston in 1983. In 2000, he opened Jasper White’s Summer Shack. Where the original Jasper’s Restaurant is elegant and formal, the Summer Shack is an energetic dining hall that seats more than 300 people. Seafood is the specialty. White has since opened a Summer Shack at Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino in Connecticut, in Boston’s Back Bay and at Logan Interna-tional Airport in Boston. The Summer Shack received enthusiastic reviews from local and national press and won the 2001 James Beard Award Nomination for Best New Restaurant.
White said it was a tremendous honor to be inducted into the school’s hall of fame. Calling the time he attended high school “tumultuous,” he said there were many good times. He gave the audience members a chuckle when he said he spent a great deal of time in Figg’s office during his sophomore year.
“He was an imposing character,” White said of the principal, “but a very elegant man and somehow he got through to me.”
He also mentioned Springsteen, saying, “he was always an inspiration to me and he showed me what real passion was.”
Wilson, who graduated in 1968, told the audience the most memorable events he shared as the mayor of his hometown were the arrival of President Bill Clinton for a speech in the borough in 1996 and a benefit concert Springsteen performed at the St. Rose of Lima School that same year.
“This is now the third most memorable event as mayor,” he said.
Wilson is the longest serving mayor in Freehold Borough’s history, having taken office on May 9, 1985, at the age of 34. He will soon mark his 21st consecutive year in office.
Wilson was instrumental in the renaissance of Freehold, including the Main Street promenade, and revitalizing Mechanic Street and the rug mill site.
He thanked his wife, Rita, for “standing by me all these years.”
“Without her I could not have achieved what I have achieved,” the mayor said.
Wilson became momentarily reflective when he looked back to his high school days which he said were “turbulent, but great.” He said he was able to go back in time as he watched his daughter, Ashley, graduate from Freehold High School in 2005.
Springsteen grew up in the borough and graduated from Freehold High School in 1967. He began his career in music with a popular local band, The Castiles, playing in and around Freehold under the guidance of the late Tex Vinyard.
From late 1969 through 1970, Springsteen performed in a band called Steel Mill and helped to shape what came to be known as the Sound of Asbury Park. He eventually signed a recording contract with Columbia Records and achieved widespread acclaim with the 1975 release of his album “Born to Run.”
The rocker seems to keep his roots close to his heart and continues to make unannounced visits back home to the borough.
In addition to being known for his music, which focuses on everyday people as they struggle with life’s trials, the singer-songwriter is also known for his generosity to charitable organizations.
Springsteen’s mother, Adele, accepted the hall of fame honor on her son’s behalf and delivered comments written by the singer.
Springsteen said that in looking back at his high school years, he probably would have fit the description of the person deemed least likely to succeed.
As things turned out, of course, Springsteen did succeed – as evidenced by the millions of records he has sold during a 35-year career that has taken him around the world countless times to entertain his fans.
In his comments Springsteen wrote, “My advice to teachers today is to keep your eyes on the ones who don’t fit in. Those are the ones that can think out of the box. You’ll never know where they’ll be going.”
Erndl said people from pretty much anywhere in the world can identify Freehold, or at least Asbury Park, thanks to Springsteen.
local and national press and won the 2001 James Beard Award Nomination for Best New Restaurant.
White said it was a tremendous honor to be inducted into the school’s hall of fame. Calling the time he attended high school “tumultuous,” he said there were many good times. He gave the audience members a chuckle when he said he spent a great deal of time in Figg’s office during his sophomore year.
“He was an imposing character,” White said of the principal, “but a very elegant man, and somehow he got through to me.”
He also mentioned Springsteen, saying, “He was always an inspiration to me and he showed me what real passion was.”
Wilson, who graduated in 1968, told the audience the most memorable events he shared as the mayor of his hometown were the arrival of President Bill Clinton for a speech in the borough in 1996 and a benefit concert Springsteen performed at the St. Rose of Lima School that same year.
“This is now the third most memorable event as mayor,” he said.
Wilson is the longest serving mayor in Freehold Borough’s history, having taken office on May 9, 1985, at the age of 34. He will soon mark his 21st consecutive year in office.
Wilson was instrumental in the renaissance of Freehold, including the Main Street promenade, and revitalizing Mechanic Street and the rug mill site.
He thanked his wife, Rita, for “standing by me all these years.”
“Without her I could not have achieved what I have achieved,” the mayor said.
Wilson became momentarily reflective when he looked back to his high school days which he said were “turbulent, but great.” He said he was able to go back in time as he watched his daughter, Ashley, graduate from Freehold High School in 2005.
Springsteen grew up in the borough and graduated from Freehold High School in 1967. He began his career in music with a popular local band, The Castiles, playing in and around Freehold under the guidance of the late Tex Vinyard.
From late 1969 through 1970, Springsteen performed in a band called Steel Mill and helped to shape what came to be known as the Sound of Asbury Park. He eventually signed a recording contract with Columbia Records and achieved widespread acclaim with the