Evelyn Tolpa-Lisek gripped her walker and a packet of photographs she shared with fellow Gary Lew Wallace grads Thursday as they belted out their school song.
The requiem for the legendary Glen Park school came eight years after its doors closed in the wake of declining enrollment.
The empty school soon became a magnet for vandals as crime spiked, alarming its neighbors.
Last year, the district paid $2.1 million for Lew Wallace’s demolition.
A demolition contractor said its remains included 1,500 tons of steel, 35,000 tons of concrete and 6,000 tons of construction debris.
More than 100 people came for Thursday’s ceremonial goodbye in a cratered parking lot south of the school that produced All-Americans, a Super Bowl runner-up coach, a lyric soprano and a revered newspaper photographer killed in World War II.
Tolpa-Lisek, 96, the lyric soprano, was greeted by Robert Kaplar, of Crown Point, from the Class of 1974.
“You sang at my mom’s funeral and my grandmother’s and my aunt’s,” Kaplar told Lisek who showed off a photo of herself with 1941 alum Hank Stram, whose Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I.
Both graduates held back pangs of sorrow as they gazed at acres of rubble where their school and stadium once stood.
“My first reaction was it’s heartbreaking,” said Lisek, of Hobart. “I loved the school. If it had to be, let’s hope whatever replaces it to be good and profitable to the community.”
Kaplar agreed. “It’s a sad time, but the only thing constant is change. I sit back and I’m delighted to be here and I found Evelyn. She did it all.”
Former Post-Tribune and Army photographer John Bushemi, who left Lew Wallace his junior year for a job in the steel mill, is buried about a mile from the school at Mount Mercy Cemetery. He died in battle in the Pacific in 1944.
City Councilman Dwight Williams, D-6th, is hoping to woo developers into building low density residential housing that retains 40% to 50% of open space.
Williams said he’d like to see a community swimming pool, walking/running path and a community center.
Matt Grabowski, construction manager from KLF Demolition in Markham, Illinois, said he noticed a time capsule on the blueprints for the school.
“It was under the tower at the main entrance on the left wall,” he said.
Wearing gloves, district manager Paige McNulty gingerly lifted the lid on a weathered copper box buried March 31, 1931. The first item out was a Bible.
A March 30, 1931, Post-Tribune held front pages stories about Franklin Roosevelt’s presidential bid, an ax-killer from Iowa and the harrowing home invasion and robbery of a Miller businessman.
Former Lew Wallace athletic director Earl Smith paid tribute to many of the sports stars that sported Hornets on their gold and black letter jackets.
He began with Stram and mentioned late coaching standouts Ed Herbert, Bill Kukoy, John Hoover and Renaldo Thomas.
Smith, Wallace’s first Black basketball coach, mentored All-Americans Jerome Harmon, Johnny Fort and Tellis Frank.
He also saluted Indiana Track and Field Hall of Fame members Sariyu Shittu-Suggs, Kimberly Shittu and Lutisha Shittu who led the school to state track championships in 1992, 1993 and 1994.
Alumna Joslyn Washington Kelly, a 1992 graduate and the owner of J’s Breakfast Club in Gary, said better times are ahead.
“There’s a tremendous legacy that will stand better than any building that could be erected here on 45th Avenue.
“Don’t focus on the loss. Focus on the love,” she said.
As graduates began waiting in a long line to pick up commemorative bricks from the 360,000-square-foot school building, the Rev. Andrew Corona, of Porter, led them in the school song, “Hail Lew Wallace.”
The 1974 graduate said he retired from the priesthood three years ago and is in charge of Lew Wallace class reunions.
“I’ve noticed there are all sorts of emotions and frankly some angry ones,” he said.
“I think it’s most important we have our memories.”
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
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