Search for Whitfield School grads who served in World War II

On November 6, 1943, Glenn Husted, superintendent of Daniel Whitfield Elementary School in Sylvan Lake, wrote his first “Dear Joe Whitfield” letter to a graduate of the school serving in the U.S. armed services during World War II. He eventually corresponded with about 45 young servicemen. Recently Mr. Husted’s daughter, Mrs. Sharie Husted VanGilder, found some 70 letters to and from her father. As a girl, Mrs. VanGilder remembers going to Whitfield School on Sunday afternoons as her father wrote the letters on the school typewriter while she helped with mimeographing. Since the end of June, Mrs. VanGilder, along with GWBHS Board member Helen Jane Peters and Randy Rogers, a former Whitfield student now living in Seoul, Korea, have located 16 men or their families and returned the original letters to them. According to Mrs. Peters, “It is very heartwarming when a son or daughter says This is the only correspondence we have from my father during World War II.” For information on the search see the Facebook Daniel Whitfield Elementary School alumni page or call Mrs. Peters, 248-681-9568.