Libby High School turns 50 years old
<p>Aug. 22, 1963: With the classroom section of the school well along, work is now beginning on the gymnasium. Here workers pour concrete for the stairway at the northwest gym entrance. In the background are some of the 80 footings which will support the gym floor area.</p>
<p>Back to School Mrs. Margaret Church, Libby High School English instructor, is shown here seated at her desk in the new high school building preparing for the first day of school. Photo from the Sept. 10, 1964, files of The Western News.</p>
<p>Aug. 22, 1964: Construction is progressing on the new Libby High School, and George Nass, superintendent for York Construction Co. said Friday he is confident the huge building will be roofed and completely closed in long before cold weather hits so finishing work can continue through the winter. This photo shows concrete finishing on the floor of the library area. Roofing work was also progressing last week and the area that had already been covered was almost 40,000 square feet, or about one acre, with much more to go.</p>
Someone asked Bob Malyevac last year at a class reunion if he was “a dammer.”
“A dammer? What do you mean?” Malyevac responded, somewhat confused.
What the questioner meant was whether or not Malyevac came to Libby before the dam or after. Construction on the dam began in 1966 and had a big impact on the local community and economy.
Malyevac, in fact, did come “BD” — right before. Malyevac came to Libby in 1963 to teach seventh, eighth and ninth grade at the Asa Wood school. A young 22-year-old, he came into a town that was soon to grow from the new dam and from the logging industry.
“It was a great time then,” Malyevac said. “It was such a great little town.”
The same year, in 1963, construction began on what would become a pillar of Libby: a new high school that reflected the town’s sense of growth and development. The school has aged and now remains a quiet remnant of the bustling days of Libby, but this year, it is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Twenty-one men were hired to construct the building from the cement pouring to the construction of a quartzite wall, The Western News reported in 1963.
By September, the roof was atop the structure. Monday, Aug. 31, 1964 was the first day of school. At the end of the year in 1965, the first-year graduates numbered 125.
Malyevac, who taught English, reading, history, geography and spelling, saw 160 students a day. He almost didn’t take the job because it seemed so intense. He would walk his elementary students to the high school for their lunches, and the lunch ladies would always make a meal for Malyevac.
“I told them, ‘You’ve got to stop! I’m going to get fat,’” Malyevac recalled. “But they wouldn’t. They took care of me.”
As a young teacher, Malyevac saw the changing tides of Libby. The established logging town saw an influx of people from around the world, coming to Libby for the new dam that started to be constructed in 1966. The newcomers — who didn’t stay for many years like the logging families did — brought a fresh breath to Libby. In the schools, the sports reigned — the gym would be packed for games. The students excelled and the sports teams were competitive with others across the state.
“We had one international day once,” Malyevac said. “It was strange for the Libby kids. All these new kids came from across the world and these kids from Libby had no idea where these places were.”
Logging students sat among dam students. All of them were hard to pin down due to youthful impatience and lack of desire to be sitting at a desk, but Malyevac said every student had an immense work ethic.
Don Steward was one of those students. He graduated in the class of 1968 — the first class to make it through the full four years at the new high school.
Other than being a student, though, Steward was a wrestler. Steward joined the first wrestling team the high school had when he was a sophomore. Sports were the life of the high school.
When Steward goes back to visit he still notices the pegboard, where athletes grab pegs and climb up an indented piece of wood, remains. Steward’s wrestling team made that peg board when he was in school, and he loves that it’s still there.
Dave Zwang was one of Steward’s classmates. He was senior class president, and was an involved student. He described one year how, for the homecoming parade, his class put together an approximately 10-foot-tall papier-mâché Logger. He said it still sits in the high school.
“It was a brand new school,” Zwang said. “It was unbelievable. It looked beautiful. Completely new.”
Malyevac started teaching in the high school in the 1980s after teaching at Asa Wood, and things were starting to change. Engineers who came for the dam retired. The environmentalist movement grew across the country and began to impact the local industry.
In 1968, 146 graduated from the first group that made it through the whole four years. In 1970, 181 graduated. 1980, 149. 1990, 119. This year, it was 62.
Now, Libby High School is both a middle school and high school. The half-circle building sits atop of a wide space of land, a bit out of place as the crescent-shaped gym emblazoned with “Libby Loggers” in a dated block font harks back to the 1960s.
For those who experience the transition for the high school like Malyevac, memory needs a kick. The days of the bustling Libby have past, and the memories are susceptible to fading. Coming back to Libby is a common denominator for the high school graduates. For whatever the reason, the city still draws back its young, even if they forget what it used to be.
“I left and went to school,” Zwang said. “It’s what a lot of people did. But I came back.”
When the man at the reunion asked Malyevac if he was a dammer, he remained confused. The days of long past had confused the man about how he knew Malyevac.
“I mean, were you here before the dam or after the dam,” the man said. “Are you a dammer?”
“What do you mean?” Malyevac said, laughing. “I was your teacher, ding-dong.”