KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Alumni from the former Rosedale High School took a trip down memory lane Saturday night as it inducted a number of its former students to the school’s hall of fame.
Countless students have walked these halls. Some of which have become so successful in their own right like Pulitzer Prize winners, to Major League Baseball players and even a KU basketball coach.
“Memories just flood,” said Theresa Van Goethem, a Rosedale High School alum from 1970.
The hallways and stairways are loaded with stories.
“Since I bleed green, you can imagine how I feel,” said Bill Todd, the last principal of Rosedale High School.
The last graduating class of Rosedale High was in 1973. It merged with Argentine High School and became the J.C. Harmon High School.
But today was a trip down memory lane as a group of alumni were inducted into the inaugural Rosedale High School hall of fame.
“We wanted to share stories of successes that we can share with the current students who are here at Rosedale Middle School,” said Luis Mendez, the Rosedale High School Alumni Association president.
The resume of success stories to come out this building are remarkable. For instance, a former governor of Kansas, to a 1964 Olympian to a senior executive at a Fortune 500 company and even a student who changed bylaws in the KCK school district to allow more inclusion.
“She had the personal courage to take on what seems to be trying out for a cheerleader and made it into a success story,” Mendez said.
Those inducted into the hall of fame feel proud to be among an impressive group.
“Just walking, you can just, you can just look back at what the impact was from the teachers that were her,” Van Goethem said.
“I feel so humbled. I didn’t get into education for this but to be recognized feels so good,” Todd said.
And now the pictures of the hall of fame inductees line the hallway.
A reminder to the current Rosedale Middle School students that anything is possible.
“There are opportunities and possibilities to dream big,” Mendez said.