Tracy W. Osterhout Roosevelt class of 1975

Tracy W. Osterhout Roosevelt class of 1975 Tracy W. Osterhout, 52, of Burbank, WA passed away on April 11, 2010 at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland. He was born November 15, 1957 in Oahu, Hawaii to Fred and Edith Osterhout. Tracy lived in the Tri-City area for 23 years and was a Rural Route Mail Carrier for the United States Postal Service.

Having an Army Lt. Cornel as a father he lived in Germany, San Diego, CA, Virginia and Kansas before settling back in Washington State. Tracy was very active in Little League in that state of Virginia as well as in Washington. He was a self taught musician, being able to play the piano, flute, guitar and bass. Throughout the years he enjoyed performing with a variety of talented musicians.

Tracy was also a big fan of the hydroplane world from a very young age. Tracy along with his mother and father started a model remote control hydroplane business, Electric Thunder. He loved to work and build any type of hydroplane, whether it was toy size or full size, from plastic to fiberglass he could fabricate it all.

He was a very active volunteer with the Water Follies; he could hardly wait for the yearly July event.

Tracy is survived by his wife Lisa Osterhout of Burbank, WA; father, Fred Osterhout of Seattle, WA; sister, Donna (Mike)Carroll of Seattle, WA; sister, Karol Jones of Seattle, WA; and brother, Rick (Amy) Osterhout of Seattle, WA; along with several nieces and nephews and his aunts and uncles.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Edith Osterhout.

Tracy was honest, hard working, loving, caring and thoughtful of others and will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, April 16, 2010 at 10:00am at Memories Sunset Event Center, located on the beautiful grounds of Sunset Memorial Gardens in Richland, WA.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made in Tracy’s name to the Tri-City Water Follies, 201 North Edison Ste 232, Kennewick, WA 99336 (509)783-4675 and or the Hydroplane/Race Boat Museum, 5917 South 196th St., Kent, WA 98032 (206)764-9453

Drummer and Composer Aaron Alexander is a New York City based klezmer and jazz drummer, composer, bandleader and educator

Aaron grew up in Seattle, played classical violin from the ages of 4 thru 12, attended Eckstein Middle School, Nova and Roosevelt High School where the jazz band was led by the renowned Waldo King. Waldo really turned Aaron on to jazz music as a way of life and forever changed his direction. The following year Alexander began private studies with Jerry Granelli through Cornish College of the Arts. When he finished high school he attended Cornish and studied with Granelli, Jay Clayton, Julian Priester, James Knapp, and Randy Halberstadt. He attended the Banff Centre's Jazz Intensive in 1988 where he studied with Dave Holland, Marvin Smith, Anthony Davis, Muhal Richard Abrams and Pat LaBarbera. He has studied drums privately with Jerry Granelli, Sam Ulano, Gerry Hemingway, Bob Moses, Joe Morello, Victor Lewis, Woody Pierce and Mike Clark.
Alexander has appeared on over 50 CDs and his compositions have appeared on many of them, including CDs by Babkas (3 CDs on Songlines), Hasidic New Wave(4 CDs on Knitting Factory & Nottwo), Jay Clayton/Jim Knapp Collective(CDs on ITM Pacific and Sunnyside), Klezmerfest, The Kleztraphobix, Freeplay, and of course his CDs as a leader.
For the rest of the Bio, go to http://www.aaronalexander.com/shortBio.html

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis playing with Seattle's Roosevelt High School band, winner of the 2005 Essentially Ellington competition

Queen Marie of Romania and Princess Ileana and Prince Nicolas visit Seattle's Roosevelt High School on November 4, 1926.

Queen Marie of Romania and Princess Ileana and Prince Nicolas visit Seattle's Roosevelt High School on November 4, 1926.
On November 4, 1926, Queen Marie of Romania (1875-1938) and her children Princess Ileana (age 17) and Prince Nicolas (age 23) visit Roosevelt High School at the invitation of the Roosevelt Girls’ Club. Queen Marie and her children are in Seattle after dedicating the Maryhill Museum in Goldendale, Washington. The visit to Roosevelt is just one feature of a day jammed packed with motorcades and public appearances, but Queen Marie and Princess Ileana, charmed by the Roosevelt girls, insist on alighting from their car to pay their full respects.

Courting the Queen

The Roosevelt Girls’ Club first courted Queen Marie in the spring of 1926 by writing to her and inviting her to visit their school if her long-rumored trip to Washington ever came to be. They also requested her photograph to use in a booklet of her sayings that they had been collecting. They sent along a copy of the Roosevelt “R” Book, a 3 x 6 inch, green student handbook emblazoned with a golden “R." The book outlined all of Roosevelt’s rules and regulations, school songs and creeds, and the constitution of the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs.

Queen Marie’s participation in the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and her 1924 appearance on the cover of Time magazine, as well as her published articles and fairytales, made her a role model for many women and girls.

Excited Preparations

The Roosevelt News reported the student body’s excited preparations for the royal visit:

“In honor of the royal party the Roumanian flag will fly immediately below the flag of the United States; the band will stand at the right of the flagstaff and play the Roumanian national air as the Queen alights from her automobile ... the Rough Riders are to form a guard of honor on both sides of the front steps while the Aurora Guards will line up in front of the entrance ... the stage will be decorated with the American and Roumanian colors” (November 4, 1926).
The Aurora Guards were a group of female students with red hair who greeted visitors to the school and helped new students acclimate. The group's founder was Roosevelt High School's girls guidance counselor, Rose Glass (1880-ca.1965), a flamboyant redhead, who may have met Queen Marie while performing volunteer service with the YMCA in France during or just after World War I.
Queen Marie noted in her diary, “I stopped my motor and the chief-girl came out with flowers and told me that they had been awaiting me with intensest (sic) eagerness because they were the school that had corresponded with me this spring and I had answered sending them my picture. I then suddenly remembered the name Roosevelt High School Seattle and how they had sent me a little book with the ‘statutes’ of their school and how they classed all the red-haired girls for certain charges of duties, and there indeed stood up in a special row were about two dozen girls every one of them with red hair. It was like a dream to be really there” (America Seen By A Queen, p. 102).

A Fine Lot of Young People

Queen Marie’s American hostess, Constance Lily Morris, remembered the Roosevelt students:

“A fine lot of young people crowded the high flight of steps leading to the front door -- boys and girls looking the picture of health. A few of them ushered the Queen up the front steps while the rest of the assembled crowd shouted ‘M-A-R-I-E’ in unison a number of times, ending with a loud war-whoop. When the Queen reached the top of the landing, she saw a row of red-headed girls, and she immediately remembered that she had been corresponding with these girls for some time as they had sent their pictures to Roumania, and called themselves ‘The Red-Headed Band.’ They seemed like old friends, she said. It was a unique demonstration, and she enjoyed it thoroughly, and often laughed about it afterwards” (On Tour With Queen Marie, p. 135).
The crowd gathered on the Roosevelt lawn was 2,000-strong. Roosevelt was the only spot on Queen Marie’s long motorcade where the royal party alighted from their Lincoln limousines. The Roosevelt News quoted Queen Marie as saying “I cannot disappoint them -- I must get out” (“Assembled Students Cheer Heartily ..."). Roosevelt Girls’ Club president June Voss welcomed the royal party and led them up the steep, broad stairway to a specially erected dais.

The Seattle Star noted, “Cameramen and motion picture operators almost spoiled this event by boring inside the lines of students and arranging themselves in a row in front of the dais where the queen and her two children stood. Marie, seeing nothing but clicking shutters in front of her, turned a haughty, royal back on the cameramen” (November 5, 1926). According to The Roosevelt News, Princess Ileana told the girls around her, “This is the first school we have visited and I’m glad it could be this one. I have wanted to visit your school ever since I have read your creed” (“Queen Marie Visits”).

The Girls’ Club presented Queen Marie and Princess Ileana with bouquets of pink Ophelia roses. Prince Nicolas was given a felt Roosevelt banner. Loud cheers for each member of the royal family, led by cheerleader Kenneth Wilcox, followed.

A Handsome Prince

“The immaculate young prince wore a delighted grin as he heard the students’ voices echo his name with real fervor,” reported the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “An irrepressible little minx, standing on the sidelines, just couldn’t resist the temptation and, as Prince Nicolas passed, she reached out and plucked at his arm. ‘Oh, you sheik!’ she cried -- and if there wasn’t pure adoration in her smile there’s no such thing in all the world. Prince Nicolas seemed just a bit put out at first, but her smile was too much for him” (“Marie Rushed Hither, Yon ...").

Young women of the 1920s used the term “sheik” as a high compliment referencing silent film star Rudolph Valentino’s 1921 movie The Sheik.

Roosevelt High School received a thank you letter written by Queen Marie’s personal secretary, Robert Papworth, from her train, The Royal Roumanian. A few weeks later The Roosevelt News reported that the Girls’ Club was sending Queen Marie and Princess Ileana a Christmas gift: “To Queen Marie will go the creed of Seattle and the Girls’ Club creed printed in poster form and Princess Ileana will receive the Roosevelt creed ... Nothing will be sent to the Prince Nicolas unless the Boys’ Club should decide to send something” (“Girls Send Gifts To Queen And Princess”). Queen Marie’s response to these gifts, if any, does not appear to have survived.

Gentle Ben, Snowden retireing from Roosevelt High School

by Craig Smith
Seattle Times staff reporter

The teacher and coach they called "Gentle Ben" at Roosevelt High School is retiring after a 41-year career.

Ben Snowden, best known as coach of the Roughrider state-championship boys basketball teams of 1973 and '82, also had an impact on thousands of students as a physical education teacher and track and cross-country coach.

"You don't realize how much you touch kids' lives until they tell you," he said last week at Roosevelt. "Often, it's just the little things that touch someone's life. To them it's a big thing, but to you it's just something (a small kindness) that should be done."

Snowden has been hearing a lot of nice things as his final day at Roosevelt approaches. He was honored at a reception last week attended by more than 150 people.

"It was overwhelming," he said.

Many former players attended, including four starters from the 1973 title team, among them James Edwards, who had been cut in junior high school and had to be coaxed to try high-school basketball by Snowden and his assistant, Larry Whitney.

Edwards went on to star at the University of Washington and play 19 years in the NBA, winning three championship rings.

One thing Snowden doesn't miss about coaching is dealing with pushy parents who have an inflated opinion of their child's ability.

"I won't miss the parent issues," he said. "I don't miss the parents who would say, `Why isn't he playing? He's going to be an All-American.' But on the other hand, I also dealt with some wonderful, wonderful parents."

Asked to compare modern students with those of previous decades, Snowden said, "They aren't as respectful. I think they are much more casual than they were before. . . . In lots of ways, kids are still kids. That's why I like them. I think the thing I like most is seeing them come in as a ninth-grader and seeing the changes when they are seniors. I don't mean physically maturing. I mean upstairs. All of a sudden, they grow up and they are young adults. That's been one of the things I like the most about teaching school."

Snowden grew up in Mount Vernon and was cut from the basketball team as a sophomore. His best prep sport was boxing and he was state lightweight champion when boxing was an interscholastic sport.

"Boxing taught me a great deal," he said. "How to defend myself and how to think on my feet and make decisions when you had to and not get mad. You had to stay cool."

Another influence on Snowden's style was the man he succeeded at Roosevelt, John Fuller.

"He wasn't a yeller or a screamer," said Snowden, who figures it rubbed off on him.

"If you're excited when the kids come off the floor, then you don't get much accomplished."

The nickname "Gentle Ben" connotes calmness, and it came from a 1960s TV show about a friendly bear.

Ex-Roughriders liked playing for Snowden.

Jay Nemitz, who played for Snowden in 1992 and 1993, said, "You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who has anything negative to say about him as a person or a coach.

"He was so approachable and just a good guy," Nemitz said. "I enjoyed having the chance to be around him."

Snowden began coaching the Roosevelt varsity in 1967 and retired in 1995 with a 337-265 career record and the two state titles. The Roughriders appeared in a third state-championship game, in 1987, when they lost to city rival Garfield, 63-60.

One of his most memorable victories was over Mount Rainier in the 1982 playoffs when the Roughriders trailed by six points with 52 seconds to play and didn't have the ball. Making a withdrawal from the miracle bank, they won. Two steals and layups by Peter Nielsen were pivotal in the victory.

Memorable players? In addition to Nielsen and Edwards, they include Craig Nichols '71, Will Brantley '87 (Oregon State) and Peter Dukes '88 (Stanford), Gary Gardner '82, Randy Sheriff '71 and Craig Jackson '82.

In girls track, two of his best were sprinters Debbie Adams '77 (considered one of the best athletes in state history) and Asa Pennington '79.

Snowden quit coaching track and cross-country two years ago. Last year, he had a knee replaced and the post-operation months haven't been trouble-free. Next Wednesday, he officially retires from teaching and his position as head of the physical education department.

Snowden, 65, and his wife, Venette, have three adult children and seven grandchildren. His retirement plans include travel and bird hunting.

It will be strange for him to walk out of Roosevelt a final time, but he said, "I'm ready. It's time."

Ruth Granen Roosevelt class of 72

Robin Swanson class of 73