This story was written by Walter Johnson student William Murphy for the WJPitch student newspaper and was republished with permission.
It’s rare to still be connected to your high school 50 years later; more so to come back after nearly 70 years and be able to see your legacy in fruition. On Wednesday, Dec. 3, the first SGA president in WJ history, Bill Hiatt Jr, class of 1958, returned to his alma mater.
His return was accompanied with a tour of the 365,138-square-foot campus (an increase of over 138% since the original form), a meeting with class officers and administrators and a donation of two Walter Johnson memorabilia to the school. The memorabilia included a signed artwork by Walter Johnson and a WJ baseball jersey, which will be added to WJ’s historical archive.
Hiatt’s face lit up when walking through the hallways. A special moment was shared at the Walter Johnson plaque, which has remained since the original building and is a testimony to the history of the school. The plague highlights the merger between Woodward and Walter Johnson in 1987, and inspired Hiatt’s return.
“I have a picture of me with the plaque,” Hiatt’s niece Stacey Fauntleroy said. “I showed him the picture, and he got so excited. He started looking for his Letterman jacket, and then he said, ‘I have a signed piece of artwork by Walter Johnson that I’ve wanted to dedicate to the school’ and give it to them so they could have it. When I saw the excitement in his eyes, I knew I had to do this and get this together, so I reached out to Principal Morgan, and then she put me in touch with Gail Samuels.”
Other than the plaque, the school building is nearly unrecognizable from the original building. While over 3,000 students now flood the hallways and speak about going out to G-square or Wildwood for lunch, Bill’s experience reflects the developmental boom of the Old Georgetown corridor while the school has evolved in different ways.
“I think it’s stayed the same and just enlarged a lot, because it has the same friendliness, you know?” Hiatt said. “I just got a good feeling about it. All the students I’ve met, and your principal and vice principal, and all those kinds of people. That’s the only thing that changed, of course, we were a really rural high school back then. We were miles from anything… But I think the experience the kids are getting is much the same as ours, I can still see it as our old high school.”
Hiatt further reflected on his time as SGA president and a student, showing off his impressive memory as he spoke of old teachers and cherished moments with a smile. “It was just a privilege to be here, because we were the first class, of course, and we broke up all kinds of cliques that were available from other schools,” Hiatt said. “Everybody got to more or less start from scratch.”
Hiatt also met with his 68th predecessor, current SGA president Mya Andriamalala who listened to Hiatt’s experiences. “It was such a great opportunity to be able to meet him and his family and just hear all of their experiences and how different the school was then, but also how similar it is now, “ Andriamalala said. “It was really touching.”
The experience marked an initiative of WJ towards connecting back to its history. Even 67 years later, Hiatt still felt very connected to the community and is proof of WJ student pride. “We have such a dynamic school community with a lot of school spirit, and I think that all of that really comes from the students having pride in their school and feeling connected to each other and to the school building,” Assistant Principal Gail Samuels said. “I want those traditions to continue, and I want the current students to know about the traditions of previous students, so I just think it’s important to keep building that community.”
