Stories Wanted from Past Students and Teachers for Putnam City History BookPutnam City Schools will celebrate its centennial in 2014, and a group of alumni is working with the school district to create a printed history that will detail the district’s growth from a small country school in 1914 to the sprawling school district it is today.
To make the book a true history of the school, the book committee is asking former students, teachers, patrons and others to write their own memories of their days at Putnam City, says Gloria Quaid, a 1963 Putnam City High School graduate and chair of the book committee.
“The Putnam City story is unique among Oklahoma schools,” Quaid says. “It is probably the only school in America that was once seriously considered as a site of a state capitol building. We are asking all those with connections to the district to submit their own personal reminiscences for use in the book.”
Quaid said the book will cover the entire history of the district from 1914, when I. M. Putnam, who had developed a plot of land in northwest Oklahoma County to be used as a state capitol site, donated the property to the patrons of four small rural schools to create a new consolidated school. Putnam City eventually grew to become a district with 18 elementary schools, five middle schools, three traditional high schools and one alternative high school serving more than 19,000 students.
“We want stories recounting any memories people have of their days at Putnam City,” Quaid says. “The first day moving to a new school, sporting events, the day you got in trouble and got sent to the principal’s office, favorite teachers – whatever people want to write about.”
Quaid says the personal stories will be included in the book along with a narrative history spanning the district’s first 100 years.
Quaid says the book committee would also love to borrow photos people may have, noting that the Putnam City Schools Museum, which will benefit from all book sale proceeds, has already provided hundreds of historic photos and artifacts.
The book committee is an outgrowth of the museum, which opened in 2009 at N.W. 40th St. and Grove Avenue. Among items in the museum collection are copies of the first Putnam City yearbook from 1924, historic photos, school newspapers dating to the 1920s and items like letter jackets and scrapbooks donated by former students and teachers.
Quaid says the book is expected to be published in 2013 as Putnam City begins its centennial celebration. Advance sales will begin later this year.
In addition to the written history and personal stories, the book will feature prominent graduates of Putnam City schools like Sam Bradford, Kenneth Cooper and others. The bulk of the stories, though, will come from ordinary former students and teachers who “will remind us of the thousands of people whose lives have been touched by Putnam City through the decades,” Quaid says.
To submit a story or other items for the book, members of the Putnam City community can email putnamcitymuseum@att.net or mail written stories to the Putnam City Schools Museum at P. O. Box 561, Bethany, OK, 73008. Quaid can be contacted at 787-3222.
|