[button color=”” size=”” type=”square_outlined” target=”” link=””]Bud & Dorothy Page Hall of Fame nominations
Nominations are being accepted for the 2020 Bud & Dorothy Page Hall of Fame awards.
The Bud & Dorothy Page Hall of Fame was established in 2013 to recognize Lebanon (Union) High School graduates who have made significant achievements in the fields of arts and entertainment, science and medicine, business, humanitarian service and athletics.
Alumni who graduated prior to 2005 are eligible for nomination. In addition, an individual who may not have achieved professional recognition but whose life demonstrates high moral character and dignity, or who has demonstrated courage in overcoming extraordinary obstacles in life, may be nominated for Lifetime Achievement.
Nominations must be submitted by Tuesday, Nov. 12. The nomination form, along with specific selection criteria, is available at high-school.lebanon.k12.or.us/2019/09/09/lhs-hall-of-fame-nominations.
For more information, visit the Lebanon Alumni Association Facebook page, or contact LHS Associate Principal Chrissy Shanks at (541) 451-8555, ext. 102.[/button]
By Sarah Brown
Lebanon Local
It’s that time of year again, when residents of Lebanon begin thinking about the holidays, preparing their hearts to spend time with friends and family, and opening their wallets for charities.
It’s also the time of year when community members submit nominations for the Bud and Dorothy Page Lebanon High School Hall of Fame awards.
The Hall of Fame, formed by the Lebanon Schools Foundation, is named after Lawrence “Bud” Page, former high school coach and principal, and his wife Dorothy, lifelong volunteer. It is intended to promote Lebanon pride, inspire students by highlighting the successes of those who’ve gone before them, and raise scholarships for the Bud Page Leadership Award.
The scholarship is considered the top award a LHS graduate can receive, said Edda King, who sits on the Hall of Fame committee.
“It has really distinguished people who have won that award as graduating seniors and who have then really gone on to do something.”
Many of those inducted into the Hall of Fame were Leadership Award winners in their senior year, she noted.
The Pages, longtime leaders at the school and in the community, are the namesakes for the Leadership Award, Hall of Fame, the high school activity center, and a high school music award because of their commitment to and support of Lebanon’s youth for more than 40 years.
To understand what kind of a pillar and legacy Bud left for his students, all you have to do is ask.
John Stolsig, who played basketball for Bud, still remembers the influence Page had on his life.
“He helped form my work ethic and discipline,” Stolsig said. “Unfortunately, I appreciated it more after I got out of school than I did at the time, but I always told him later on how much I appreciate him.”
Mike Jones, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame two years ago, recounted a memorable lesson he gleaned from Bud.
During his senior year, Jones “slacked off” because he knew he would graduate. But Bud had different ideas.
“You need to quit thinking about yourself, and instead think about being a good role model for everybody else,” Bud told Jones.
That was in 1969, and it still impacts Jones today.
And there was the kid whose path was changed because of Bud, Dorothy recalled.
This boy went to his graduation practice drunk. Bud allowed the kid to graduate, but prevented him from attending the ceremony.
“He had everybody in town working on him on that because they felt that kid should be allowed to be in graduation,” Dorothy said. “Bud felt he should not if he didn’t have any more respect for the school. Years later, that young man has become a minister, and he
told me that was the thing that helped him stop drinking.”
Bud retired in 1980, and the community came out in thousands to honor him. Mayor Dan
Clark proclaimed May 13 as “Bud Page Day,” and presented him a key to the city.
“He loved that school and he loved the kids,” Dorothy said.
Dorothy, who was born in Lebanon in 1922, also loved and served her community.
When she was only about 5 years old, Dorothy and her sister began learning to play the piano, and later started dance lessons. With their talents, they joined community groups during the Great Depression to perform for Lebanon and nearby farming communities as a way to lift peoples’ spirits.
“We’d do our tap dancing and singing, the others would do their tumbling, and we’d have a person who was a comedian, and we had a person who drew caricatures,” she said.
Dorothy was also the piano accompanist for all musical productions during her high school years, and at 13 years old started playing the pipe organ at the First Presbyterian Church, which she continued to do until last year.
She graduated from Lebanon Union High School in 1940, the same year her future husband began teaching there. But they hadn’t met quite yet. She went on to Oregon State University for business secretarial typing, and joined a sorority.
Bud was born in Burns in 1917 and earned his teaching degree from OSU in 1940. He accepted a job as assistant coach at LUHS, and taught business education and world history.
Since there wasn’t much entertainment for him in Lebanon, Bud would return to his fraternity for weekend fun, Dorothy said. The frats would go to sorority “nickel hop” dances, a Red Cross fundraiser, in which Dorothy participated.
“He paid for one of my dances,” Dorothy said. “He was a wonderful dancer; oh my goodness, he was a wonderful dancer! I did notice him that evening because of the dancing.”
After Pearl Harbor was bombed, Bud was denied the chance to serve in the military due to a health issue, so he remained at home to help raise the youth as dean of boys and head baseball, basketball and football coach.
Bud and Dorothy married in September 1942.
“Those were fun years for us because he did love what he was doing and enjoyed all the sports, but I think basketball was his favorite,” she said.
High School Hi-Lite newspaper.
During his decade as coach, Bud’s basketball teams won district titles five times. His best year was 1946 when his basketball, baseball and football teams were all district champs, and his basketball team placed fourth at state.
Stolsig played basketball in the early 1950s. He recalled preseason games scheduled with some of the top teams in the state because Bud believed they needed to play the best in order to be as good as they could be.
Playing for Bud, Stolsig sometimes wondered at the time whether the “hard, hard” practices were worth it.
“He just made us work awfully hard, and I’d go home fatigued and exhausted,” Stolsig said. “But there’s a reason we worked that hard, and I could see that later. It helped form our personalities and our desire in the future to be hard workers. We saw the value of working hard because of the results that we got from our work.”
By 1953, Bud was principal of the school, a position he stayed in for 27 years. He has been described by many as a disciplinarian who kept his thumb on everything, but he managed to do so in a way that was fair and respected.
When kids skipped school, he had a knack for knowing where to find them, and made sure parents knew what their kids were up to. Bud also tried to “straighten out” the ones who often got into trouble, said Bob and Betty Adams, longtime friends of the Pages.
“There would be those who harbor resentment of people in authority, but I think for the most part they all came to really respect him, because he’d go to bat for them,” Betty said.
Stolsig described Bud as a good listener.
“He would take your input, but when he made a decision, it might not be the decision you wanted, but he had good reason,” Stolsig said. “He was just a no-nonsense type personality. There was no gray area with him; it was either right or wrong. We need more like him in our society.”
Bud has also been described as nice, honest and caring, and he always made himself accessible by walking the halls instead of sitting behind his desk. Teachers felt supported by him, and he put on great pep rallies for their games.
He was also a “natty dresser,” Betty noted.
“He had a good image, always was very careful about what he wore, and he was stately, I would say,” she said.
Bud loved to dance, regularly enjoyed a sweet treat from the school cook, and helped wash the dishes with Dorothy every day.
Dish washing was a habit he picked up while growing up in his mother’s rooming house, where he had to help with all the dishes, Dorothy explained.
“That’s something he did for me, too,” she said. “It’s when we’d visit about the day, and he’d dry the dishes and I’d wash them. We never did have a dishwasher.”
Bud passed away in November 1988. After that, Stolsig chaired a committee to raise money to build a memorial for Page at the high school. The memorial, which still stands today, includes the Bud Page Activity Center, a dedicated wall near the auditorium, a bronze relief bust of Page, and a trophy case in his honor.
Dorothy continued to serve her community, and in 2015 was nominated Senior First Citizen of the Distinguished Service Awards.
Betty and Bob, in their nomination for Dorothy’s award, said Dorothy gave Lebanon the gift of music. She also used her talent to entertain in hospital and nursing homes, and at weddings and funerals.
Dorothy’s gift to the community extends as a Girl Scout leader and co-chair of the Strawberry Festival’s junior parade. She served on the library board, hospital auxiliary, Presbyterian Church, junior women’s civic group, Eastern Star, Rainbow Girls, Study Club, Present Day Club, P.E.O., and Lebanon Soup Kitchen.
She also helped start the first co-op nursery school, and attended most high school games, dances, dramas and musical productions with her husband during his 40-year career.
Dorothy hopes her legacy to Lebanon will be the message and encouragement for kids to finish their education and continue toward their goals, she said. She also hopes parents will be available to their kids in that respect.
“I just want them to back their children in their education,” she said. “It means so much when the parents are behind the children getting something done.”
As for Bud, Dorothy believes his advice to kids today would be for them to not make life hard on other kids, and to decide what they want to be and start working toward it now.
“He always wanted them working toward what they would use as a life’s work.”
Reflecting back over the years, Dorothy probably said it best in a letter to the editor in 1980 following Bud’s retirement and celebration of Bud Page Day.
“How fortunate we are to live here and to have had these many years of watching our young people grow, mature and take their rightful places in the adult world,” she wrote. “No one could ask for a more rewarding occupation and we shall always be grateful that this was our mission in life.”
[button color=”” size=”” type=”square_outlined” target=”” link=””]Page Hall of Fame nominations
Nominations are being accepted for the 2020 Bud & Dorothy Page Hall of Fame awards.
The Bud & Dorothy Page Hall of Fame was established in 2013 to recognize Lebanon (Union) High School graduates who have made significant achievements in the fields of arts and entertainment, science and medicine, business, humanitarian service and athletics.
Alumni who graduated prior to 2005 are eligible for nomination. In addition, an individual who may not have achieved professional recognition but whose life demonstrates high moral character and dignity, or who has demonstrated courage in overcoming extraordinary obstacles in life, may be nominated for Lifetime Achievement.
Nominations must be submitted by Tuesday, Nov. 12. The nomination form, along with specific selection criteria, is available at high-school.lebanon.k12.or.us/2019/09/09/lhs-hall-of-fame-nominations.
For more information, visit the Lebanon Alumni Association Facebook page, or contact LHS Associate Principal Chrissy Shanks at (541) 451-8555, ext. 102.[/button]