hawthorn@zelacom.com . . . . Sun, Nov 16, 1997 3:15PM EST (-0500 GMT).
I'm looking for information about Bill Cruise (1903-1980), who was a principal in the Passaic school district for many years and also, I believe, chaired the city council for a period. (I'm hoping to get more detail on this.) In 1985, a public school in the City of Passaic was named after him, the "William B. Cruise Memorial School No. 11." He was my great uncle. I'm putting a text of a December 1979
interview which I conducted with him, as well as some reminiscences which he wrote to his sister about his life, onto the web, and would be pleased to be able to add any additional historical facts, details, or links which anyone might be able to add. Thanks.
WebWeaver@.idt.net . . . . Sun, Nov 16, 1997, 5:13PM EST (-0500 GMT).
Well, 1980 was a long time ago, and the area around the school is currently a high-crime neighborhood with lots of drug busts. But I found this, for what it's worth:
MEMORIAL SCHOOL HAS COME FULL CIRCLE --- REINCARNATIONS FOR PASSAIC FIXTURE
Kerrie Beckner, Record Staff Writer
July 1, 1990
THEN AND NOW
Passaic's Memorial School 11 was erected on a Gregory Avenue lot adjacent to the Second Ward Park. The foundation was laid in 1922, and the building was completed in 1923.
In 1946, following a fire which destroyed the original Grant School 7 at Myrtle Avenue and Summer Street, School 11 housed students from both schools until the end of the term.
To accomodate approximately 420 students from School 7 and 1,280 students from School 11, 16 classrooms were put on a part-time schedule.
The first classes met from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and a second set of classes used the rooms from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. To fulfill state requirements for a minimum school day, recess was cut back and the number of physical education classes were reduced.
Claire Donahue was principal at Grant School at the time of the fire. She was commended for her quick action in evacuating the school as soon as the fire was discovered. She later became principal of School 11.
In September of 1984, Councilman Herb Sorkin recommended renaming Memorial School to honor William B. Cruise, a Passaic Park resident of 60 years who had died two months earlier.
Cruise had served the Passaic school system for more than 44 years in various capacities. His first administrative post was vice principal of Memorial School 11.
The council resolution passed, and although the engraving above the doors that look out over Second Ward park still reads "Memorial School," the school is now named after Cruise.
School 11 did have a predecessor, though the building is not generally remembered as such. In 1884, the Board of Education recommended that the City Council purchase land at Lafayette and Bloomfield avenues -- Bloomfield is now known as Broadway -- where the city could buy a plot of 20 lots for $5,000. The council agreed, and set a price of $32,572 to erect a new building. The foundation was laid in January 1886.
The building, now a junior high school, was first used as a high school in 1887. When a new high school was built across the street in about 1910, the old building was used as a grammar school known as School 11 until the early 1920s.
Then the high school again took over the building and used it as an annex.
WebWeaver@ppp.rck.idt.net . . . . Sun, Nov 16, 5:26PM EST (-0500 GMT) That's all I could find about your great-uncle and his school except for drug-bust stories. (Lots of crack on the playground there for the past 11 years.)
But The Record's digital archive goes back only 13 years, to 1984. You can call the paper's morgue at 201-646-4542 from noon to 5 p.m. EST, Tuesdays through Fridays, and they'll search the clippings for you, and snail-mail you copies for $3 a pop. They probably have an entire file on your great-uncle.
