Harl Aldrich, Sr.

Lucy and Harl Aldrich wedding in 1915

Harl Aldrich, Sr. was born in 1890 in Indiana. He graduated from Purdue University in 1914 with Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. Although he had a job offer to work at Westinghouse, his father persuaded him to go into teaching. He looked to the west and took a job at Reardan as a manual training [wood shop] teacher and athletic coach. A year later he was married to his home town girl. During the summers he worked harvest as a sacker on a horse drawn combined thresher.

Harl Aldrich family around 1930 as they were at Reardan, Clare Elise, Lynn, Harl, Jr.

In 1916 they moved to Pasco where he was a warehouse foreman and electrician at a flour mill. In 1921 he went to the Cheney Normal School to renew his teaching certificate. In 1922 he accepted a job in Davenport as the principal of the school. A year later he was called back to Reardan, this time as superintendent of schools for 11 years until 1934. In 1930, just months after the stock market crashed, he shepherded the passing of a bond issue to build new grade school to accommodate the students of a rapidly consolidating district.

The family moved to Spokane where he worked for the WERA for a year and then taught in Spokane grade schools for six years. Between 1942 and 1956, Harl taught math at Lewis and Clark High School. After that he was a bailiff for the Spokane County Superior Court for ten years.

Davenport Times: 10 July -1984:

Memorial services for Harl P. Aldrich, 93, a former Reardan School Supt., take place Monday, July 23 at the Westminster Congregational Church, Spokane. Aldrich died at the Madison South Nursing Home in Spokane after a six month illness. He first came to Reardan in 1914 as a coach and a manual training teacher. He left in 1916 but returned in 1923 to fill the Supt. position. Aldrich organized and coached Reardan’s first girls’ basketball team in 1923, as well as the first football team in 1926. Aldrich left Reardan in 1934 and would have observed his 94th birthday. He and his wife, Lucy, celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary May 29. Survivors include his wife, Lucy, at their Spokane home; one daughter, Elsie Towner of Veradale; two sons, Harl Aldrich, Jr., of Concord, Mass, and Lynn Aldrich of Prescott Valley, AZ; 10 grandchildren and ten great grandchildren.”

Most of the information and photographs for this article was taken from A branch of the Aldrich family in America: In the footsteps of a line of descent from George Aldrich, from Massachusetts to Rhode Island, New York, the Midwest and Washington State, January 1, 1996, Harl P. Aldrich [Jr.]

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  1915 touring car on 1926 Aldrich family cross country camping trip at camp site. They usually stopped at schools because they had a place to park, water, and an outhouse.

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  1915 Touring car on 1926 Aldrich family cross Country camping trip ready to go.

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  Yearbook photo from Lewis and Clark high school in Spokane.

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  Aldrich home in Reardan between 1923 and 1934 (taken in 1988) [believe this is 115 W Summit Ave.]

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  Harl Aldrich Sr. coaching Reardan's first football team.

Why my fascination with the Aldrich family?

When I went to MIT, I was told by my Aunt Evelyn Plaster Bafus and Grandmother Plaster to look up Harl Aldrich, Jr., when I was there. I could not really understand their interest in him. They had said that the Ekins had kept up with them, but at least to me in the 1970s, I didn’t understand the Ekins relationship to Reardan. Evelyn graduated in 1936, just two years after Elise, so it is obvious that they knew each other. Lynn should have been in my mother and aunt Doris' class. When I met with Lynn, he could not remember the Plaster twins and I cannot remember my mother ever mentioning Lynn. Part of that is because the Aldrichs left Reardan when they were in the seventh grade, so the not remember part is not too difficult to fathom. But the point was that I should stop by the firm and look up Harl Aldrich. I was having trouble understanding why since he left Reardan 40 years before.

The headquarters for Haley & Aldrich at the time occupied a three story brick building in Kendall Square just off the MIT campus and across the street from the subway stop used by MIT. It was an imposing structure and a bit intimidating to a shy college student. Eventually I worked up enough courage for a visit. The day that I was there I met with Lynn, who was the office manager at the time. Harl was not available. It was surprising to me that he said that he knew that I was at MIT and he had fond memories. My guess is the memories of Reardan run deep.

When the Reardan class of 1925 had their 50th reunion, Harl Sr. and Lucy came out to the Community day celebration.

When my father died in 1985, one of the sympathy cards came from Lucy Aldrich and Elise Towner. They knew and remembered my mother.