You know the school - now read the book!

Ever since its first graduating class -- six girls -- Staples High School has been a place of renown. From 1884 -- when 80-year-old Horace Staples built a handsome red brick building just a few yards from his Riverside Avenue home -- to today, as an $80 million facility replaces the 50-year-old North Avenue campus, Staples has been more than just classrooms and courses. It has been a place of true excitement, of educational innovation, of challenge and creativity. It has been a national leader in curriculum, student government, the arts, even sex education.

Through Westport’s growth from a small farming community to an artists’ colony, then to a booming suburb; through several wars, one Depression, a baby boom, the wild ‘60s and on into the 21 st century, Staples has been more than a mirror of its times. It has helped shaped its town, while significantly impacting the lives of thousands of young men and women who passed through its halls, played on its athletic fields and performed on its stages.

More than anything else, Staples is a place of personalities. Nearly every staff member and student made a mark on the school. Staples High School: 120 Years of A+ Education tells the story of all those years, and many of those people. Advanced Placement and vocational education; Players, Orphenians and Wreckers; the Student Court, Staples Student Organization and Staples Governing Board are all here. So too are the voices of Tony Arciola, Jim Calkins, Wilbur Cross, Karl Decker, Per Haarr, Gerry Kuroghlian, Dick Leonard, Paul Lane, Albie Loeffler, Gladys Mansir, Craig Matheson, John Ohanian, Jinny Parker, Al Pia, Vivien Testa, Joy Walker, George Weigle, Jim Wheeler, and hundreds of other principals, teachers and students. Few schools in America have as rich and tumultuous a history as Staples – and none has been as carefully and lovingly chronicled as Staples is here.

400 pages, 150 photos, and 120 years of memories. Order your copy today!