As the saying goes, everything comes around again including smaller student enrollments. Wiscasset Middle High School graduated fewer than a dozen and a half seniors this year and, if my sources are correct, you’d have to go all the way back to the 1950s to find a smaller graduating class. Wiscasset Academy’s Class of 1953 had 13 graduates, while the Class of 1946 numbered just 10 students.

Just for fun let’s have a look inside the “The Red and Black” – the 1946 yearbook for Wiscasset Academy that was produced by the students. (Red and black were then, and continue to be, the school’s colors.) The senior class dedicated its yearbook to alumni who lost their lives during World War II, including Clayson Lewis, Robert Morang and F. William Grant. 

Francis William Grant known as “Bill” to his friends had been a member of Wiscasset Academy’s Class of 1941. A good looking young man he was a standout on the school’s baseball team and one of the most popular guys in school. He’d just started working at Bath Iron Works when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. In the fall of 1942 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Seaman Grant was among 130 sailors killed Jan. 3, 1944 when the USS Turner sank while it was anchored off Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The destroyer’s sinking, which still remains a mystery, resulted from a series of unexplained explosions below decks. According to U.S. Naval records, the Turner took part in several Naval convoys escorting allied ships, both American and British, across the Atlantic Ocean. Bill Grant was Wiscasset’s first casualty of WWII; his body along with many of his shipmates was never recovered. Seaman Grant’s memorial stone can be found at Wiscasset’s Woodlawn Cemetery. He was a few days short of his 20th birthday when he died.

Thanks to my old friend Steve Christiansen of Wiscasset, I’m able to share a few facts about the other servicemembers the Class of 1946 dedicated its yearbook to. Steve remembered the Town of Wiscasset had dedicated its 1945 Annual Town Report to Bill Grant, Clyson Lewis and Robert Cowley Morang including photographs and brief biographies of each of them. Following his graduation, Clayson Lewis had married Dorothy Boyd of Boothbay in July 1940. The young couple had two children, Sandra, 3, and Jesse, 1. Clayson was working at Bath Iron Works at the time of his induction in the U.S. Army on June 27, 1944 receiving his basic training at Camp Croft in Spartanburg, South Carolina. PFC Lewis was reported killed in action in Belgium, Jan. 18, 1945 at what came to be called the “Battle of the Bulge." He’s buried in Dodge Cemetery in Edgecomb.

Robert Morang moved to Wiscasset with his parents at age 2. He graduated from Wiscasset Academy in 1934 having been the class Valedictorian. The Town Report states after graduation he attended the University of Maine, and later worked for Central Maine Power Company at the Mason Station power plant on Birch Point. He entered the Army in December 1942; PFC Morang died April 28, 1944 while training on the coast of England for the Normandy invasion. He’s buried at Greenlawn Cemetery. 

The 1946 edition of “The Red and Black” can be found in the Archives Room of Wiscasset Public Library on High Street. All 10 graduates are pictured within it and include: Robert Adams, Keith Bachelder, Valeria Bean, Eva Gorham, Ronald Hodgdon, Billie Ingram, Aurolyn Rines, Bertha Wakefield, Don Munsey and brother Elliot Munsey. The only one I knew personally was Billie Ingram who was married to Charlie Barnes. They resided for many years on Gardiner Road a few miles north of present-day Wiscasset Middle High School. Billie, a very kind woman, was a registered nurse and at one time worked for Dr. Russell Mack in Damariscotta. Later in life she changed careers and worked for Roy Farmer Real Estate Agency on Main Street. I vaguely remember Elliot Munsey who I think resided with his wife on Old Bath Road. His mother, Flora Munsey, lived across the road from me on Gardiner Road.

Steve Christiansen shared what he knew about the others making up Wiscasset Academy’s Class of ’46. “Keith Bachelder worked with my father at the Mason Station. He was married to Beatrice Jackson who was known as ‘Polly.' Their home was on Route 27 in Edgecomb not far from where the firehouse is,” he recalled.  Ronald “Ronny” Hodgdon was a son of Percival “Pert” Hodgdon of Wiscasset. Pert is remembered for having an apple orchard of over a hundred trees on Birch Point Road. “Ron’s home was across the road from the family farm,” said Steve who turned up other information from yearbooks his mother had saved. 

Returning to the 1946 edition of “The Red and Black” we learn the academy’s principal was James Stonier who resided in Wiscasset. He must have been pretty athletic because he also coached both the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams and the baseball team. The girls’ basketball team that year finished with a record of one win, 10 losses and a tie. The tie was against Litchfield the game having ended in a 10-10 deadlock. The boys’ team had a better record finishing with six wins and 10 losses. Billy Townsend led the basketball team in scoring during the season with 85 points. 

Principal Stonier was a veteran of World War I and served overseas in France as part of the Army Artillery Force. Following the war he’d furthered his education at Bates College in Lewiston graduating in 1921. He came to Wiscasset in 1945 and was principal here for three years. The yearbook contained a brief message to parents from Mr. Stonier and the Trustees of Wiscasset Academy announcing plans to increase the school faculty to seven teachers, along with adding two new courses, Home Economics for the girls and Manual Training for the boys. Wiscasset Academy ended the 1946 school year with 52 students including 14 juniors, nine sophomores and 19 freshmen.

Advertisers in the yearbook included Flood’s Hardware, Leon G. Flood proprietor, selling “Everything in Hardware." Flood’s was in the building that’s now home to Jodi’s Café and Bakery on the corner of Main and Water streets. Another financial supporter, a name you’ll recognize, was the Carl M.P. Larrabee Insurance Agency at 152 Main St., Wiscasset. By the way, to reach a business by telephone in those days you only needed to dial two numbers! “The Red and Black” was printed locally by H. A. Beals who owned and operated a small printing shop downtown. He printed the booklet in black and white using offset lithography.  Unfortunately, the photographs within it aren’t the best quality.

Smaller class numbers by no means lessens the importance of high school graduation which remains a milestone in class members' lives. Congratulations to the Class of 2026!

Phil Di Vece earned a B.A. in journalism studies from Colorado State University and an M.A. in journalism at the University of South Florida. He is the author of three Wiscasset books and is a frequent news contributor to the Boothbay Register/Wiscasset Newspaper. He resides in Wiscasset and be contacted at news@wiscassetnewspaper.com