In 1934, a Princeton University lawyer in Hillyard, George Elmer Brown, organized a club for boys to help them get jobs, avoid doing any criminal behavior, and be good citizens in Hillyard, a town not part of Spokane at that time. George was a White Knight kind of man, a man with no children of his own, just a good community citizen who did his best and succeeded in forming a boys club, second to Father Flanigan's Boys Town. To be a member of the club, one had to be at least 15 and agree to the Three Cardinal Principles: Clean Living; Community Service; Crime Prevention. Most of the boys lived in the Hillyard area and attended Rogers High School.
In the years of the 1950s, our Rogers years, all of us members were Rogers guys. Members in our Class of 1960, published in the Club Record of May, 1959, when we were in our junior year were: David Garnsey, Jim White, Larry Brown, Art Blum, Lonnie Connor, "Big" Jim Smith, Gary Nordby, Curtis Vaughn, Norm Cooper, Bob Cartwright,Bob Gay, Barry Robinson, Bob Martin, Jim McBride, Ken Kelling and me. Several of us served as club officers for a 6-month period or were on the Executive Committee. We learned leadership.
Bob Cartright's and Art Blum's dads were members of the club in the pre-WWII days. Bob's dad was in the military in the war. Jack Blum, Art's dad, was, "...always close-by to lend a helping hand whenever George Elmer Brown need(ed) assistance, as reported in the club annual report. Jack was one of the first members on the club football team. Later on, in his adult years, he was the club basketball coach, coached many of us in our club years. He was honored in 1958 by George at the annual Awards Banquet for "having done the most for the club in 1958". Jack was like a dad to all of us; a good thing since many of us did not have fathers in our homes. He and his wife, Lark, were the chaperons who took Barry Robinson, Bob Martin, Ken Kelling and me to the 1959 Rose Bowl. The four of us earned our way by selling the most fund-raising chocolate bars. One of the highlights of the trip was meeting and getting photographs taken of us visiting Bing Crosby and Debbie Reynolds on the scene at 20th Century Fox studios, making the picture of Bing's, "Say One for Me" movie. He was playing the role of a Catholic Priest. Bing was a Spokane Boy, and he donated lots of money to the club and was an honorary member. He paid for the Rose Bowl 50-yard line tickets. Ken had had 3 older brothers in the club. All 3 had won trips to a Rose Bowl--Albert in 1953, Ron in 1954 and Charlie in 1957. All 3 had been officers of the club, too.
One of the best things that happened to all of us Hillyard guys was what we learned and did as members of the Hillyard Booster Club. That helped us make contributions to Rogers, by being active, doing "community service" in the school, "preventing crime" by not doing wrong things and leading pretty "clean lives". George Elmer Brown had enormous respect from all of us.