Yesterday’s heroes of the chalkboard

JERRY PERSON

Before we begin our look back this week, I would like to thank former

City Atty. Charles Bauer for his note about Dale Dunn being named

grand marshal to this year’s Fourth of July parade.

It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, even though I was backing

Huntington Beach resident Arline Howard.

This week, we will again look back at some of those individuals

who gave the knowledge to those who ran our government, our churches,

homes and businesses. Yes, there were such individuals of greatness,

and we call them teachers.

Huntington Beach High School can be justly proud to have had many

fine heroes of the chalkboard. As students, we don’t think of these

individuals as having a life of their own, just someone to assign

homework to do when we’d rather be out doing something that was more

fun.

Having an electrifying personality helped Robert Ankerman teach

his students electrical and mechanical drawing. Having come from

Piqua, Ohio, where he graduated from Central High of that city,

Ankerman would then travel to Southern California to attend UC Santa

Barbara and then south to Long Beach, where he received his master’s

degree at Cal State Long Beach.

Before coming to Huntington High, Ankerman served his country with

the 328th Fighter Squadron. Ankerman and his wife Ann were the proud

parents of two children, Walter and Lucia.

Having a good grasp of the English language is a necessity in the

business world, and it was William Brooks who would prepare his

students for that day. Brooks received his early education at St.

Anthony High School in Long Beach before attending UCLA and like

Ankerman, he too received his master’s degree at Cal State Long

Beach.

Brooks taught for a short time at Franklin Junior High in Long

Beach. He met his wife Edith while on active duty serving with the

Army Signal Corps in Salzburg, Austria, and it was in 1952 that their

daughter Edina was born. When not at his post in the classroom,

Brooks could be found surfing for the perfect wave.

Libraries are a vast storehouse of knowledge, and to administer

the library, who better to run it then Beth Brown. Brown grew up in

Garden Grove, and after completing high school there, she attended

San Diego State, where she earned her bachelor’s degree, and at USC

she earned her master’s degree. Before coming to Huntington High,

Brown served in the Civilian Library War Department in Japan. When

not in the library, Beth and her husband Giles were touring the

world.

Being able to type a neat business letter fell to Helen Carey and

her students in typing class. Carey grew up in Fonda, Iowa, where she

attended the University of Iowa, pursuing her hobbies of swimming,

tennis and photography. Helen joined the Waves and was stationed in

San Francisco. She attended Cal State Long Beach and taught school in

Redlands before coming here to teach.

Keeping her girls in good physical condition came to Meryle Caro.

Caro spent her educational youth at Woodrow Wilson High in Long Beach

and after graduating, she attended both Long Beach City College and

Cal State Long Beach.

A name familiar to Huntington High students is that of legendary

coach Elmer Combs. Our beloved basketball legend was a product of our

town’s fine educational institutions. During his days at Huntington

High, Combs played on some of the finest teams under the direction of

coach Lee Mosteller. Combs went on to attend USC on a basketball

scholarship and it was there that he gained his degree.

With this in hand, Combs taught school in La Habra and in Vista,

Calif., before coming to Huntington High to coach basketball. His

teams would further the school’s reputation as a basketball school.

Combs and his wife, Carolyn, and children Randy, Jennie and Terri,

resided in Westminster.

Our last teacher for this week held a master’s degree from

Columbia University in New York. Arts and crafts teacher Floyd

Cornaby had been lucky to have had a good Mormon education, having

attended Spanish Fork High in his youth in Utah and later at Brigham

Young University.

After spending 4 1/2 years in the Army, Cornaby traveled south to

Mexico to study that country’s arts and archeology. He spent a couple

of years in Washington, D.C. as a medical rehabilitation consultant

for the Veterans Administration.

Some of you may remember the posters around campus that he

designed. In his off-hours, Cornaby painted pictures in watercolor

and several of these works of art were exhibited throughout the

United States and Mexico. He may have even painted a picture of his

wife Myrtle and their children Camille, Diana, Candis, Valerie and

Paula.

Next week, we’ll look at more of our heroes of the classroom.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.