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Class Of 1933 Graduate Tours School Building After 75 Years...

Mr. David O. Astry, who goes by the nickname “Ace,” is a 1933 graduate of Northeast High School and still lives in the greater Kansas City area. For the last 75 years, he has dreamed of revisiting his alma mater. He has often explored the old neighborhood on the weekends.

Mr. Astry’s daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Terry Steele, worked quietly behind the scenes to make Ace’s dream come true. A few months ago they took the final step. At our website, http://northeastvikings.org, Mr. Steele was able to reach Alumni President Mike Frederico who set the dream in motion. Although Mr. Astry was told that he was going to watch some skydiving, he secretly believed that he was going to visit his high school.

Ace arrived at the Lyle Viers Alumni Room of Northeast High School and was greeted by Velma Showalter and numerous members of both the staff and future alumni. I don’t know who was more surprised, Ace or the students. Ace posed for pictures and let us record his visit, while a group of his family and alumni listened to him reminisce about his years at Northeast.

One of Ace’s classes was printing where students prepared publications which included setting type and printing of the Northeast Courier, the student newspaper. The Alumni Room has an extensive collection of those early Couriers. We pulled the Couriers published from 1931-1933 for Ace to review. Although he did pre-press and printing, no one article stood out in his memory. What Ace DID remember, however, was receiving an S (superior) grade while a pretty girl made an E (excellent). Mr. Astry protested and got his E after telling the teacher he would quit because he felt he was doing much more work than the girl! His printing teacher saw the error of giving Ace anything less than an E.

Mr. Astry also remembers a buddy bringing his car to metal shop where it would be worked on by the class. Ace and his friend would put a few miles on the car after class and would bring it right back in for more work. What fun while learning this must have been in the ‘30s! In those days, classes were offered that taught students life skills and vocations to prepare them for the jobs they would use to support themselves and their families.

After graduation, Mr. Astry went to work for Butler Manufacturing before joining the military during WWII. He served in the Field Artillery Observation Battalion and reached the rank of Sgt. Technician. His job placed him near the front lines. His unit was responsible for measuring the distance of shooting, so that our troops knew where the enemies were. Mr. Astry received two Battle Stars for serving in the Rhineland and Central European theaters.

He returned home on the Queen Mary along with 25,000 other soldiers. There were so many soldiers on the ship that you got a stateroom one night and scrambled to find a space on the floor the next.

After WWII, Mr. Astry tried several jobs, among them one at Sheffield Steel. He had learned welding which helped when he went to work for the General Motors (GM) plant in the Fairfax district. Mr. Astry worked 30 years at GM as a skilled tradesman. After retirement, he held a union position for the United Auto Workers for many years. He has been retired 32 years.

Since Mr. Astry was in ROTC, there are plans to have him tell his stories to Colonel Hillard’s ROTC. Hopefully, Mr. Astry will get to see the girls ROTC drill team perform. Now that he’s finally made it back in the building, we hope to keep bringing him back!