About Salem High School Alumni Association

SHSAA History | Board of Trustees

Salem High School Alumni Association History

The Salem High School Alumni Association – one of the first high school alumni groups in Ohio – not only keeps alumni connected with their former classmates, it gives numerous scholarships each year.

The goal of the scholarship program is to help as many SHS alumni as possible continue their educations beyond high school. A total of $3,952,612.50 has been awarded to 1,770 Salem High School graduates as of June 2007. Scholarship winners include Charles Burchfield ’11, the famous American artist, and Ella Thea Smith Cox ’16, who authored the textbook "Exploring Biology."

The Salem High School Alumni Association (SHSAA) began on June 14, 1882, when 33 Salem High School alumni met with several of their former teachers. The next year the association’s tradition of holding a reunion banquet annually started with a dinner at the high school.

Several years later, association members decided that they wanted to do more than keep alive memories of high school days. They decided they wanted to help outstanding graduates attend college. On June 20, 1903, they established the first high school alumni scholarship fund in Ohio. SHS graduates and friends were contacted to raise funds, and within four years the group had enough money to buy a $1,000 bond. The $60 interest generated by the bond was awarded as the first alumni scholarship to Walter French, a graduating senior in 1908.

The association’s office has been at 328 East State Street since 1983 when Daniel E. Smith ’46 generously gave the association a 15-year, rent-free lease for the downtown space. During 1983 and 1984, the building was extensively remodeled in a Williamsburg décor. During the summer of 1984, a limited mail solicitation to members of 18 classes brought a heartwarming response, enabling the association to furnish its new offices. The association later purchased the three-story building which includes an office, meeting rooms that are available for all classes for reunion planning meetings, storage areas, and a first floor retail space.

One function of the office is to display Salem High School artifacts. Many wonderful items have come from the estate of Laura Mae Hovermale Whinnery ’30, unofficial Salem High historian who died in 1984. Another function of the alumni office is to keep a permanent list of graduates. These names and addresses are stored on a computer database from which addresses for the newsletter are taken. Contact information from the database is also shared with alumni to plan class reunions.

Three office coordinators have served the association: Robert Dixon ’40 from 1984 to 1995, Henrietta Hilliard Kilbreath ’42 from 1995 to 1998, and Helen Potter Hayes ’57 1998 to the present time.

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BOARD of TRUSTEES

All Board of Trustee members shall be elected at the annual membership meeting of the Association. The Trustees shall be elected for a term of three years, and no member shall serve more than three consecutive terms. There shall be five standing committees: Alumni Relations, Executive, Finance, Nominating, and Scholarship. Every Trustee shall serve on a standing committee; there shall be a minimum of three Trustees on each committee.

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