Amelia Earhart flew solo across the Atlantic, Bugs Bunny made his initial debut, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, Martin Luther King, Jr. led the March on Washington, the Berlin Wall fell, and Facebook became the dominating form of social media.
At the same time these incidents were occurring, Mansfield City Schools was also experiencing noteworthy changes. And graduates through the years remembered the way things were when they returned recently. Dr. Jim Curry, Jim Goode, and Brian Garverick remember the schools that they attended.
After attending his 70th class reunion, Dr. Jim Curry nostalgically spoke of some of these changes, one of the most evident is that most of the Mansfield Schools he attended are no longer standing or have been remodeled.
The Rebecca Grubaugh School, formerly known as the Western Avenue School, which he attended in 1931, closed in 1978 and later became the Western Avenue Apartments. Carpenter Elementary School, his next school setting, also got a new look, as it now houses MedCentral Agencies.
“After being gone from Mansfield and then coming back to town, one of the most surprising things I had noticed was that Johnny Appleseed Middle School had been torn down. It was a brand new school when I was there in 1940,” stated Curry.
Lastly on his list of schools that are now a mere memory is Mansfield Senior, which had been built in 1927 and demolished in 2004.
Curry was able to witness the new high school last year when he presented a scholarship from the Korean War Veterans to a student. He noted, “I was pretty impressed. That’s a beautiful school with a really nice auditorium.”
Fast forward to the next generation of the class of 1963, there were 500 seniors in the graduating Mansfield Senior class. Among those graduates was class president Jim Goode.
Like Curry, Goode also grew up in the Mansfield City Schools’ system and has fond memories of the school.
He began his relationship with Mansfield City Schools in kindergarten when he attended Brinkerhoff Elementary. Then he attended Woodland, followed by Johnny Appleseed, and finally Mansfield Senior.
Because of large enrollment numbers, Mansfield Senior operated under split sessions. The juniors and seniors attended from 7 a.m. – 12 p.m., and then the freshmen and sophomores attended from 12:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. The half hour in-between was allotted for club meetings.
Goode sported the red and white colors proudly, as those were the original Mansfield Senior colors. He enjoyed participating in sports, even those that caused him to face off with fellow Mansfield students.
“Appleseed and Simpson was a big rivalry,” he stated. “And even though there was a rivalry, we all came together at Senior High. Those I played basketball against at Simpson became my teammates, and it was really kind of neat. We banged heads against one another long enough that we came to respect one another.”
Goode became the Lexington Assistant Principal/Athletic Director in 1987. “Probably the toughest thing for me was in my early years at Lexington and we’d play Mansfield Senior. The colors at that time were still red and white, but when they switched the colors to brown and orange, then in my mind, Lexington was playing Malabar, so that became a little different. I was for the Tygers in every game except when they played Lexington,” he said with a smile.
Fast forward again, this time to the year 1976. A recognizable face that is now often associated with Mansfield City Schools was finishing up his senior year at Senior High, Superintendent Brian Garverick.
In accordance with those who had gone before him, (both Curry and Goode) Garverick, too, grew up in the school system. He went to Brinkerhoff Elementary, then Johnny Appleseed, and graduated from Mansfield Senior.
After graduation, he didn’t stay away from the school for long, however. For nine and a half years, he worked for Empire Detroit Steel, while also serving as the middle school football coach and substitute teacher. Soon, that teaching position became fulltime when he was appointed the special education teacher. He kept moving up the ranks at the school, ultimately becoming the superintendent in 2013.
“When I attended Senior High, we were starting to see a downturn in the economy. But it really didn’t have much of an impact. We were still going strong in the Mansfield City Schools. We still had all of the opportunities afforded to the generations prior to us,” Garverick recollected.
Having been part of the Mansfield City Schools tradition for over 40 years now, Garverick has witnessed many significant transformations—one of those being the incorporation of technology. He explained that technology has shifted the way the students learn. “I never used a computer in high school; and my smart phone right now, I’d be lost without it,” he said.
Admiring stories from his predecessors and his personal experiences, Garverick looks ahead and has high hopes for the future generations. He stated, “I love Mansfield. I love Richland County. This is home. I want the Mansfield City Schools and the City of Mansfield to create opportunities for kids to learn to and grow and give them hope for future like I had.”
“When I attended Senior High, we were starting to see a downturn in the economy. But it really didn’t have much of an impact. We were still going strong in the Mansfield City Schools. We still had all of the opportunities afforded to the generations prior to us,” Brian Garverick recalled.
