Tribute to George W. Stevenson Recalls Glory Days of Bay City High Schools
Inspirational Principal Remembered by Hundreds in Country Club Fete
February 1, 2009
By: Dave Rogers
Mike Gwizdala and his wife Marie, right, foreswore allegiance to the University of Michigan sports teams and wore green in tribute to George Stevenson.
Mr. Stevenson, left, and longtime assistant principal Alvin Sprague shared a rare quiet moment during the 1978-79 school year at Handy High.
It was as much a pep rally as it was a memorial service.
The memorial to George W. Stevenson at the Bay City Country Club on Saturday was a tribute to the man and also to the local educational system he served for nearly three decades.
People came from as far away as Three Rivers and Leland to jam the main dining room -- estimates of the crowd ran as high as 350.
"He was always Mister Stevenson to me," one visitor recalled as dozens took the microphone to give their personal recollections of the late educator who died Jan. 26 at age 73.
The outpouring of condolences for the late principal brought to mind the important role played by inspiration in the educational process.
His gentle, caring hand in the disciplinary process was recalled by several speakers who attributed their success in life to their Handy experiences.
Besides a host of former Handy High students in red, there were many in the green of his beloved Michigan State University.
Mister Stevenson split his allegiance to his alma mater, Central High, with T.L. Handy, where he was principal for 17 years.
Shouts of "GO RED!" rang out from enthusiastic graduates eager to laud their mentor. Speaker after speaker told of the inspiration he provided during their formative years.
"I was a high school football," he had joked, as one speaker recalled. Mr. Stevenson was also known as a prankster with an ever-present smile.
Comments confirmed that the man personified the spirit of Bay City both in the 1950s when he attended Central and played football and the 1970s and 1980s when he headed the staff at Handy.
Alumni of both Central and Handy, school board members, school officials from several eras, superintendents, teachers, coaches and friends of the family filled the seats at the memorial.
The presence of spirits of legendary figures like the late Elmer Engel, grid coach of Central 1950-72, and the late Ron Hughes, Handy football coach when the high school ended in 1990, hovered over the jam-packed room.
Images of Central High Sports banquets drawing upwards of 800 to the the Consistory Cathedral dining room in the mid-1950s were evoked.
Mr. Stevenson had been one of the backfield stars of the start of the Engel era, 1952-55, and won an athletic scholarship to Michigan State. Two injuries ended his Spartan career but he is enshrined in the Bay County Sports Hall of Fame, that he also served as a board member.
Jan Brandow, a former secretary to Mr. Stevenson, wore a "Harold Who?" button recalling the young Handy player Harold Greenleaf who won undying fame by catching a pass that defeated Central one memorable game.
Handy Middle School Principal Carla Derocher told how Mr. Stevenson, Mr. Hughes and other Handy advocates worked to preserve the memorabilia of the high school.
Bonnie Sloan, retired dean of students at Handy, recalled that she attended kindergarten, elementary school and high school with Mr. Stevenson. She recounted that he would put her pigtails in the inkwell when he sat behind her at Woodside School.
"He is a very caring individual and he has quietly helped many people during his time as a teacher, counselor and principal," she told the Occident yearbook in 1988 when both retired. "He was our paper boy and my dog, Cinder, bit him on the leg when he was delivering the paper on his bike. Years later every time he would see my mom, he would pretend to limp on that leg to tease her," she chuckled.
After she graduated from the University of Michigan and he from MSU, they collaborated at Handy from 1963 to 1988, when both retired.
"George would have loved to have seen this," said son-in-law Bill Kozuch, looking over the assemblage.
Mr. Stevenson was born Jan. 20, 1936. He was graduated from Central High in 1955, Michigan State University with an education degree in 1959 and earned a master's degree in counseling from MSU in 1965.
He died Monday, Jan. 26, 2009 of a massive heart attack.
Surviving are his wife, Patsy Foss Stevenson, daughters Fritzi Stevenson and husband Bill Kozuch of Bay City and Shannon (Todd) Brunner, of Jupiter, Florida; his brothers, Harold, Fred and Patrick, sister Lynne, sister-in-law Fritzi Johns of San Diego, California, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.