by Dave Blocksom ’68
Repairs to Clock Tower and Bridge Complete
The copper roof is completely installed on the balcony level of the clock tower, and after years of water infiltration, we now have a dry interior in the tower. The concrete structural repair work on the bridge is also complete, and the bridge looks beautiful again. During the project, additional structural defects were uncovered, and Cincinnati Public Schools Facilities agreed to pay the $23,143 cost to make those repairs. Hummel Restoration did the work, and they did an outstanding job. Hummel was the masonry contractor on the original construction of Withrow and the clock tower in 1919. They built many of the old CPS schools as well as City Hall and the Art Museum. They just happened to be the low bidder on our project; low bidder and most qualified bidder are usually not synonymous. The total project cost was $128,000 and CPS picked up 86% of the cost. Withrow Alumni paid for the structural engineering work ($6,763), the City of Cincinnati building permits ($1,672) and the restoration cosmetic work ($9,200). Thank you, generous alumni who made the above repairs possible.
Principals Who Shaped Our School
In a continuing series of articles about the rich History of Withrow, Bob Linnenberg ’63 has authored Withrow-the first 50 years of Principals Who Shaped Our School. You can read this article by clicking HERE.
Urban Youth Tennis Academy
As a start to establishing an Urban Youth Tennis Academy, the Ciucinnati Tennis Foundation raised about $100,000 to resurface the tennis courts behind Withrow and add accessible ramps for wheelchair and adaptive players to better utilize the space. This new central location will create opportunities for both Withrow students and youth across the city. The Foundation ran a tennis program last summer. To read more about this program, click HERE.
Regina Williams ’84 New Withrow Athletic Director
I am so proud to inform you that our own alumna Regina Williams ’84 has been elevated from interim to permanent Athletic Director at Withrow. She is the first female African American AD in Cincinnati Public Schools history. While a student at Withrow, Regina was a basketball All-American and went on to play basketball at UC. She is in our Athletic Hall of Fame as well as the CPS Athletic Hall of Fame. She has been working at Withrow for the past 10 years as Assistant Athletic Director and in-school intervention specialist. Regina is diligently working on restoring the tradition of athletic excellence at Withrow again. Speaking of our Athletic Department, the alumni are funding game day team meals for all our student athletes. This is the third year that we have had this program; we have budgeted $21,000 for those meals.
Cincinnati Public Library Puts Withrow Annuals Online
Bob Linnenberg ’63 has contacted the Cincinnati Public Library about their program to digitalize school yearbooks and they have agreed to digitalize all of our yearbooks. We have given them extra copies that we had of the yearbooks that they were missing in their collection. It will be a long process that probably won’t be complete until next spring but you can see the first three years online now at this link: https://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll3/search/searchterm/Withrow%20annual/field/title/mode/exact/conn/and/order/title/ad/
I am sad to inform you that long time Withrow teacher Miriam Stefanik has passed away. She was 95 years old. She ended her 29-year teaching career at Withrow High School from 1974 to 1986. Miriam taught a variety of classes at Withrow including English, speech and drama, journalism, and public speaking. She was an advisor for the drama club and director of student plays.
Help Us Keep Up the Good Work
Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask for donations to help support all our efforts to maintain our beautiful campus and support our students and staff. If you are taking taxable IRA distributions, don’t forget about using tax-free qualified charitable distributions instead. We sincerely appreciate any donation you can make by clicking HERE.
