Lindsay Place High School celebrates 50th anniversary

By Ian Howarth, September 26th, 2012

With its full frontal $700,000-plus rejuvenation almost complete - along with a newly refitted auditorium - Lindsay Place High School is all primped up and prepared to host a 50th all-year reunion on Thanksgiving weekend (Oct. 5-7). The Pointe Claire school, named after a former school commissioner and judge, is in the final stages of a tune-up that includes a new roof, fortified concrete columns, energy efficient windows and spiffy new auditorium seating.
A coincidence of timing perhaps, but Lester B. Pearson School Board chair Suanne Stein Day said LPHS was due for some renos anyway. “The building was overdue for some new facing,” said Stein Day. “The 50th anniversary may have been a bit of an impetus but other high schools have been similarly upgraded.” It's all good news to the LPHS reunion committee, which has been laying plans for the anniversary reunion for almost a year and a half. “The school is looking good from the outside,” said LPHS reunion committee chair Peter Bolle, who graduated in 1980. “But the warmth will be created by the grads inside the building.”  Bolle is hoping for the same kind of response the previous all-year LPHS reunion had in 1987 when the school celebrated its 25th anniversary when well over  1,000 grads turned out for a full weekend of events. “We've got something for everyone,” said Bolle, a 49-year-old Air Canada general manager. “Decade classes will be set up and we have had great support from current LPHS teachers and students who have been helping us prepare. And so far we have 30 former LPHS teachers who have confirmed they will attend.”
Former LPHS teacher Bill Holt is one of 10 committee members and has been working behind the scenes prodding the LPHS network of 1,400 listed alumni to register on-line. Holt taught and coached at LPHS for 33 years before retiring in 2004. “We're using our current alumni contacts as a solid base on which to build. Hopefully, those we manage to contact will spread the word about the reunion.” Holt, along with other organizers, is hoping that registration picks up in the two weeks before Thanksgiving. “We may wind up having a large walk-up to register,” said Holt. “But we're ready for any eventuality.”
The LPHS 50th will be especially poignant for the Steiches of years gone by. Brothers Sieg, Peter and Dieter, along with father Herbert, have some major collective history at the school. All three brothers are LPHS grads and two of them — Sieg and Peter, along with Herbert — taught at LPHS. “I remember once when Mr. Steiche was called down to the office all three of us showed up. The school secretary was more specific next time,” said Sieg, who retired from LPHS in 2002. “My dad was a technical vocational teacher until 1976 before he transferred to Massey-Vanier on the South Shore,” Sieg said. “Funny, I remember he had all sorts of patience with the students but not much left over for us.” His father also had a bit of a sideline going on in his tech-voc classes taking in a multitude of broken TVs, which he used in his classes as teaching tools. “When the final game of the Soviet-Canada 1972 hockey game was played, everyone in the school was watching the game on the TVs my father and his students had repaired,” recalled Sieg. “In those days there weren't many TV sets in the school.” Today, you can find Sieg on the golf course or maybe cruising the Mediterranean with his brother Dieter. “Those were some great times, both as a student and as a teacher,” said Sieg, who graduated in 1963 when LPHS had a grade 12, the only West Island school offering that program at the time.
Retired teacher and former LPHS student Tricia Roet's memories of the school go back to the first year it opened in 1962. The school's circular architecture, which earned it the nickname of 'Banjo High,' was considered cutting edge for a school at the time. “I was disappointed at first when I learned I was going to LPHS,” said Roet, who is a member of the 50th anniversary organizing committee. “I was hoping to go to John Rennie High School where my friends were. But once there, it was so new and beautiful I forgot about John Rennie. It was a different kind of building.” Roet describes her time at LPHS as “the golden years.” “I enjoyed every bit of my time there.”

For more information on the Lindsay Place High School 50th anniversary reunion visit their web site: www.lphsgrads.org