Dedication Day
Celebration
Celebrating 143 years of Excellence at Austin High
Thursday, May 2, 2024
8:00 a.m. Induction Ceremony
Student Assembly will take place during the school day
Austin High School
1715 W. Cesar Chavez St.
Austin, TX 787
Our 55th Class Reunion is planned for August 3, 2024. Check back–more information to follow!!!
The AHS Hall of Honor is accepting nominations for future consideration by the Hall of Honor. Your nominee could be selected to be one of the Distinguished Alumni and Honored Faculty inducted into the Hall of Honor. On this day we also honor AHS alumni Veterans, and select Seniors to be inducted into the Maroon Society.
Held each spring, Dedication Day is observed as an anniversary celebration of the 1976 dedication of the Lakeside Campus. We consider Dedication Day to be the “official birthday” of the school. The purpose of Dedication Day is to “tie the new school to the old and the past to the present.” When the school was moved to its present lakeside location – in 1975 – students created a movement known as the Hall of Honor Student Steering Committee. The work of the student committee resulted in an annual observance – Dedication Day, and a reason for an annual observance – The Austin High School Hall of Honor, a roll call of distinguished and meritorious Maroons.
Please consider nominating a member of your class by clicking on this link: https://forms.gle/bbwJpwa5W4usSSfH9 if chosen, this alumni would be honored in the Spring of 2025.
If you have questions or thoughts about this honor or the celebration please feel free to contact faculty sponsors Sara Stewart and/or Bailey McEachern or call the Austin High Library 512.414.7223
We are proud of our AHS Band students who made
ALL-REGION BAND.
Wind Ensemble
Aidan Herrera – Flute
Sara King – Bb Clarinet
Sebastian Blanco – Bb Clarinet
Jack Hebert – Trumpet
Tommy Bryant – Tuba
Symphonic Band
Molly Liao – Bb Clarinet
Julimar Otero-Figueroa – Bb Clarinet
Hudson Hall – Tenor Saxophone
Justis Garza – Trumpet
Eliud Pozos – French Horn
Luke Salinas – Tenor Trombone
Luke Bone – Euphonium
LaFalco “Corkey” Robinson, longtime band director in the Austin school system, passed away on June 20, 2021, at the Lantana Lodge at Longhorn Village just outside of Austin, TX. Corkey was born to William Wallace and Geneva Walker Robinson on August 11, 1927 in Cooper, Texas, where he grew up and graduated from Cooper High School, playing saxophone in the high school band. When the school’s high school band director was drafted into the Armed Services, Corkey became director of the dance band, and began his career as a conductor at a very young age.
He entered The University of Texas at Austin in September 1944, where he played briefly in the Longhorn Band before entering the U.S. Navy in 1945. He attended the Navy School of Music, and was later assigned to a Navy dance band in the Pacific theater.
Following his discharge from the service in 1949, Corkey re-entered U. T. Austin in 1950 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1953 and a Master’s degree in Music Education in 1956. Later that year, Corkey became the band and orchestra director at O. Henry Junior High School in Austin. Continue reading “Thank you LaFalco “Corkey” Robinson” »
We honor the life well-lived of Steve Warren, who passed peacefully on February 2, 2021 surrounded by family. He was born on May 2, 1947 in Columbia, Missouri to William S. and Betsy Avery Warren. After a brief time in Childress, Texas the family moved to Austin in 1950 where he attended Casis Elementary School, O. Henry Middle School and graduated from Austin High School.
Steve received his B.A. in English in 1969 from The University of Texas where he was also a catcher on the UT baseball team. After graduation, he enlisted in the Navy, flying F-8s in such places as Norfolk, Virginia, Beeville, Texas, Meridian, Mississippi and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as well as on a Naval carrier in the Atlantic. After completing his active duty he returned to Austin where he earned an M.A. in Education from UT while continuing to serve in the Naval Reserves.
In 1978, he came full circle, teaching English first at O. Henry Middle School and then at Austin High School. Steve was also the tennis coach for many years earning the nickname “Coach”. He was a beloved educator and coach whose influence continues to resonate in his students’ lives. Steve was inducted into the Austin High School Hall of Honor and retired from teaching in 2000, as well as retiring that same year as Captain in the United States Navy. He then began his third career as screenwriter and playwright. Continue reading “Steve Warren” »
We mourn the passing of Elisha Gayland Walker, former AHS faculty alumni. Coach Walker moved to Austin in 1960 and began teaching algebra at the old AHS campus. During his tenure he also coached football, baseball and was the head basketball coach when he left AHS to join the AISD administration. Click here for current obituary
Dr. Jacquelyn Ann McGee, 1946 graduate and retired principal of Stephen F. Austin High School, died Tuesday, June 2, 2020.
Ms. McGee began at AHS as a teacher of English then in 1974 was appointed principal of the newly constructed Austin High School. She became the first woman in the state of Texas to serve as principal of a high school in a major urban center and led the school when it was recognized as on of only forty “outstanding high school in the United States.”
Along with recognition by many national associations, the AHS students and faculty further honored her by naming their new performance facility “The Jacquelyn McGee Performing Arts Center.”
Click this link to read the full obituary.
I want to thank everyone who responded to my emails this week, you sent in hundreds of changes and it was a treat to hear from all of you. Thank to those of you who donated to the Alumni fund – your donations provide funding for the AHS Archives and other special projects that provide excellence at AHS. If you would like to donate simply click this link: https://ahigh.kimbia.com/aushigh
Mary Margaret Holt, Class of 1954 – $100.00
Elizabeth Stevens, Class of 1972 – $50.00
Robert Bohn, Class of 1953 – $50.00
Jay Simmons, Class of 1970 – $50.00
With everyone staying home and getting a little bored with family, maybe it is time to set up a Zoom meeting or send an email out to some of your friends from Austin High. Wouldn’t it be great to reminisce about teachers, football, band, red jackets, red dragons, watching the World Series in the cafeteria during lunch…In the past week, I have emailed the classes of 1950-1959 asking for updated emails and contact information to be added to our loyalforever website. Registration is free and once approved (our site is closed to the public) you will have access to email and telephone numbers for thousands of Alumni.
I’ve received an email from Jean Samples, class of 1958 and wanted to share it with you:
I know our alumni have stories of what they remember in high school (remember getting on the Red Jackets’ bus for the out of town games with so much food that Miss Herndon said we had to start eating as soon as the doors on the bus closed in order to finish everything before we got back to the school that night!? Remember the very careful measurements in the spring for our new red jackets — then when they were delivered in the fall right before the first game some of us— not me — who were more “ generously endowed” couldn’t button the top button? Remember wearing white socks over our hands when some folks forgot their gloves for the governor’s parade down Congress? Dancing at the Continental Club on South Congress?) And I’m sure most of us have neat “after graduation” stories — was anyone in NYC or at the Pentagon on 911??
Be a part of this vibrant body of alumni, if you don’t have an account, register here: https://www.loyalforever.com/wp-login.php?action=register
And if you would like to share a story, send it to me and I’ll post it online
