Sophomore Honor Medal

From 1936-1939 Katherine Fleischhacker (1922-2018) attended Central High School in St. Paul, Minnesota. She studied diligently and received excellent grades. Her high school academic achievements are to be remembered as an example to all.

September 1936

The Joseph Fleischhacker family moved from a small township outside of Tony, Wisconsin to the big city of St. Paul, Minnesota. Mama Kate wanted her eldest daughter to attend St. Agnes School. However, at that time, St. Agnes’s High School only went up through the tenth grade.

The parish priest recommended that young Katherine not start at St. Agnes only to be forced to transfer to Central High School for eleventh and twelfth grades.  Because the school year had already started, Katherine was two weeks behind her fellow tenth graders.

Central High School

As Katherine walked the one and a half miles to school, she wondered how she would fit in. At first, she worried about fitting in socially, but quickly she knew that she needed to fit in the classrooms literally.

St. Paul Central High School, circa 1940. Courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society. ¹Northwestern Photographic Studio. Postcard. Central High School, 255 North Lexington Parkway, St. Paul. Minnesota Historical Society Collection MR2.9 SP5.2 r181.

In the fall of 1936, Central was one of ten high schools in St. Paul, MN and was crowded with 1210 sophomores.²“Class History; Days Gone But Not Forgotten.” Central High Times (newspaper), St. Paul, Minnesota, June 2, 1939, page 1. “In the fall of 1936, 1210 sophomores entered the doors of Central to begin their high school careers.” Because there were not enough chairs for each of the pupils, Katherine determined to get to class as early as possible in order to have a chair to sit upon.

She felt the culture shock coming from the Tony High School where the total school population for grades nine through twelve had been 79 students.³“Tony School News.” Ladysmith (WI) News. October 3, 1935, page 3 and November 8, 1935, page 4. In October the total enrollment at the Tony high school was 78. One more student enrolled in November, bringing the total enrollment to 79.

Since Katherine had been a straight-A student at her previous school, the St. Paul school administrators enrolled her in challenging classes with demanding teachers. The coursework was rigorous.

For the first few weeks, Katherine came home crying. She feverishly tried to make up the first two weeks of class.  As a teenager, she missed her friends at her school in Tony. Mama Kate suggested that she drop out of school, but Katherine persevered.⁴Interview with Katherine Blees by Nathan Blees and Karrie Blees. White Bear Lake MN, May 2007.

Each day, Katherine continued to pursue her education. There was a shortage of texts, too. Katherine’s father purchased a set of used books so that she could catch up to her classmates. When she realized that all of her classes were full of students who truly wanted to learn, she found camaraderie.

At the end of Katherine’s first year at Central, she received a Sophomore Honor Medal. The Student Council awarded all students who, in their Sophomore year, maintained a straight “A” or 90 average in each subject taken.⁵Cehisean. St. Paul Central High School Yearbook, 1938, page 35.

Sophomore Honor Medal Winners, 1937⁶Photograph of Sophomore Medal Winners. Cehisean. St. Paul Central High School Yearbook, 1938, page 35.
clockwise from top left: Katherine Fleischhacker, Norman Albrecht, Jeanette Amos,
Margaret Kueffner, Patricia Nichols, Elsabe Luedke, Myra Bloom