Skyview Teachers and Adminstration 1975

This short presents Skyview's coaches and teachers.  There were many good teachers at Skyview.  My favorite was Señor Oswald.  He had the task of teaching us Spanish.  I took Spanish all three years at school.  We use to give Senor Oswald a hard time, coming into class saying, "Vamos a tener fiesta hoy."  We would do that every day, until finally Senor Oswald got upset with us.   However he was a patient man.  He had to be to put up with us.  I think the people I knew the best at Skyview were those in Spanish class with me.  We were together three years, and Senor  Oswald had special names for us.  Mostly our names pronounced in Spanish, but not always.  Some of us were Tigre Barker, Jose Carreido, Claudia Houston, Patricia Apelskog and Gregorio Johnson.  My first couple years I was also involved in Spanish club.  We were able to practice dance, and even put on a couple programs.  We went to North Cache on one occassion.  I loved the Mexican Hat Dance.  

Skyview Choir 1975, Jonathan Livingston Seagull Medley

This is a very excellent medley, and very likely one of the most enjoyable pieces we put together as a choir.  We sang this as three different numbers for the Fall Concert.  The Front Porch Majority group took the three songs, and combined the into a medley.  That is why in this number I feature pictures of the Front Porch Majority, including their band and their sound people.  Ryan Tew performs the solo in the last piece of the medley.  This material is likely protected by copyright, and in no way do I want to infringe on the rights of Neil Diamond who wrote the music.  However I want to share what we did together as a choir, and this is one of our highlights.

Our High School Hymn: Where the Mountain Peak Meets the Starry Sky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH4cevLI1xk
Concert version performed by the A Capella Choir 1975

Where the mountain peaks meet the starry sky,

Where the green hills meet the blue,

Stands a place close by with its standards high,

It's our school, our own Sky View.

There's the blue and white and a golden hue

We will long remember, too.

It's a place close by, with its standards high,

It's our school, our own Sky View.

We will always say as we go our way,

And of this it can be told,

The friendships dear we have made while here

Are a treasure more than gold.

Where the mountain peaks meet the starry sky,

Where the green hills meet the blue,

Stands a place close by with its standards high,

It's our school, our own Sky View.

While I was serving my mission in Argentina, Dean Samuels also served there.  Our paths overlapped for a few days in the same ward, Barrio Uno Liniers.  Dean is a terrific pianist, with the ability to play by ear and add his own accompaniment to a melody.
While in the church one day, I heard our school song playing.  Dean was in the primary room, on the piano there, playing this song.  It was one of times I felt nostalgic for home, and enjoyed his song very much.

Skyview High School Christmas Concerts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1dvFdC2Y1I
Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, Sky View High School A Cappella Choir 1975
Both years I sang in the choir we performed two songs from Handel's Messiah, "The Hallelujah Chorus" and "For Unto Us a Child is Born."  We also traveled to Salt Lake and sang at malls during Christmas, West Vally mall and Cottonwood Mall.  One year we also sang on t.v.
We performed a couple special numbers our senior year.  I don't have a program, but I remember we sang a vocal version of "The Night Before Christmas."  It had a lot of small vocal parts.  Leslie Wengreen sang one of these.  We also sang a song, "Give a Little Something Special" which was an attempt get us to think about our gifts.  We should put love in our gifts.  I still have nightmares of this song, particularly with regards to giving toy guns to the kids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLAVuDddPKQ

Skyview High School A Cappella Choir 1975, 'The River Song" from Tom Sawyer

At the first of Tom Sawyer there is a choral number.  This is the presentation of this number by the Sky View High School A Cappella Choir 1975.  This is one song we sang in the Logan Tabernacle.

Memoriam Skyview Class of 1975

This is a memorial to those form the class of 1975 who have passed on.  Dean has maintained a list on the Sky View High School class of 1975 Facebook group. The song is from the album made by the choir that year and is entitled "Time is my Friend."  Sorry about the crackling.  If you stand back it sounds OK.
CLASS OF 1975
Bonnie Ashment [Gosnell], October 23, 2011 (complications from diabetes) 
Todd Bair, 25 January 2007
Mike Barrett, 30 September 1982 (motorcycle accident)
John Benali, February 1985
Brad Blair, 24 January 2007 (natural causes)
Boyd Bodily, 17 February 1995
Mike Calderwood, 29 August 1994 (car-train accident)
Richard Chugg, 20 January 2014 (spinal cancer)
Leslee Clawson [Layne], 22 May 1997 (illness)
Jerry Cowdin, 30 March 1977
Randy Vance Douglass, 3 October 2013 (auto-pedestrian accident)
Roberta Drury, 20 October 1984 (fire)
Debra Falslev [Blau], 9 October 2008
Melvin Grandy, 20 December 2011 (long illness)
Scott Griffin
Mike Hall, 17 June 1994 (long illness)
Jill Howard, 7 July 2012 (cancer)
Kyle Hyden, 17 August 1999 (asphyxiation)
Janette Jensen
Layna Jensen, 9 May 1981 (motorcycle accident)
Cathy Kendrick, 28 June 1994 (illness)
Michael Krogh, 16 April 2008 (cancer) (attended SV briefly but not sure if graduated)
Andrea Maughan, 12 May 1985 (cystic fibrosis)
Phil Maughan, 10 September 2011
Marty McClendon, 29 June 2012
Donna Miller [Summers], 3 July 1987 (ATV accident)
Jeff Olsen, 28 September 1998
Jed Parkinson, 12 January 2012
Cindy Purser [Tuthill], 15 September 1993
Wendy Wardle [Thomas], 5 February 2010
Jed Watterson, 14 March 1975 (car accident)
I could not find pictures in the Senior yearbook for all.  Vance Douglas is from junior year.  He lived in our ward.  Wendy Wardle Thomas also lived in our ward.  The picture is from a musical we did together in Vernal.  One time I accidentally broke her nose in a performance.  Leslee Clawson lived a few doors down from me when we were young, second, third and fourth grades.  I danced with her in third grade for the May Day Festival.  Donna Miller also lived in Hyrum. 

My Father's Suicide Note and Attempt

Dearest Bill,  Bill, I admonish you to be everything you have the potential of being.  There could be no greater aspiration for a son.  Help you mother, she will rely on you greatly.  You will continue schooling, of course.  Help Weldon in doing the same, and Charles too.  I am sorry for the shame I have brought the family.  Please forgive me.  Love, Dad.

When I was a Freshman at Utah State, my father took a job at Brigham Young University.  He had his own apartment there.  However, it was discovered that he had stolen books from the Special Collections at the library he had worked at previous to this, Utah State University.  There was an intense investigation, and police were at our house going through my father's personal collection of books.  Apparently they found a book that matched those they were looking for.
My father, when all this came out, was very distraught.  It is stressful to be the subject of a police investigation.  He decided to take his own life.  He wrote every one a suicide note.  The one he directed to me is above.  He planned on walking in the mountains behind BYU and throwing himself off a cliff.  In the end he couldn't do it.  However, he did cut his wrists very badly, causing some permanent nerve damage.  Weldon, who was just home off his mission, went down to Provo to see if he could intervene with Dad.  Apparently he found him all bloody walking back down the hill.
During this time I was attending college, and sitting by a couple nice looking girls in class, trying to get to know them.  There was a story in the Utah Statesman about my father, and his seeking to be reemployed at Utah State.  (He was fired at BYU because you cannot commit a crime and work there.  He probably would have gotten the job too, except for the Statesman reporter you broke the story and caused some embarrassment for the library.)  Anyway these girls were talking about Dad and how foolish he was thinking he could get a job after stealing books.  I didn't tell them he was my father, but I never tried to be their friend after that either.