Howard Guthmann, St. Paul Central High School, Class of 1940, and his wife, Betsy, Class of 1946, show their yearbooks and memorabilia Sept. 1, 2016 in St. Paul in preparation for the school's 150th anniversary. Howard Guthmann was inducted into the Central High School Hall of Fame in 2005. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

Howard Guthmann, center left, from the Class of 1940 at St. Paul Central High School and his wife, Betsy, center right, from Central's Class of 1946, are shown in their respective yearbooks. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

Howard Guthmann collected this cartoon by fellow classmate Charles Schulz. The two graduated with the Class of 1940 at St. Paul Central High School. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

Howard Guthmann's 1940 yearbook with the Minuteman mascot on the cover. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

Betsy Guthmann shows an old photo from St. Paul Central High School that ran on the cover of the St. Paul Pioneer Press Sunday magazine in 1970. Betsy graduated from the school in 1946 and her husband, Howard, right, graduated in 1940. The state's oldest high school prepares to celebrate its 150th anniversary on Tuesday. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)



A 1916 postcard shows St. Paul Central High School, at Lexington Parkway and Marshall Avenue in St. Paul. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society)

In 1935, a 14-year-old farm boy failed again and again to pass the English test needed to get onto St. Paul Central High School’s academic track.

“They reasoned with my parents that I wasn’t really college material,” said Lowell Gess, now 95 and a retired ophthalmologist.

After lobbying from his parents and some extra work, Gess graduated from Central and went on to Macalester College, where he got a student job in the English department grading other students’ papers.

The state’s oldest high school, celebrating its 150th anniversary, has a well-deserved reputation for pushing kids to excel, said Jean O’Connell, a 1970 graduate and former St. Paul school board member.

“I certainly saw that when I was looking at colleges with my daughter. You mention St. Paul Central and they immediately have a different expectation than they do of other folks who might be sitting in the waiting room,” she said. “It’s an amazing school, and it’s been an amazing school for a long, long time.”

Central claims as graduates the baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, “Peanuts” cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, Best Buy founder Richard M. Schulze, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim and philanthropist banker T. Denny Sanford. Aviator Amelia Earhart briefly attended.

“When we look at our alums and where some of them have gone and the influence they’ve had, nationally and beyond, it’s pretty amazing,” said Maggie O’Reilly, a mother of two Central students who is serving on committees for the sesquicentennial and a plaza makeover.

Howard Guthmann, a retired CPA, graduated with Charlie Brown’s creator in 1940. Schulz lived along the route of the streetcar Guthmann sometimes took to school.

“The class was very successful — doctors, lawyers, CPAs, musicians,” he said. “Central was a leading national school academically. If you wanted to go on to one of the eastern colleges — in those days considered better — Central was an excellent school to apply from.”

Guthmann still gets a kick out of the annual announcements about which St. Paul Public Schools students earned college scholarships and other awards.

“That pamphlet is 50 percent Central,” he said. “It’s wonderful to be able to say you’re a Central graduate.”

Jack Schlukebier taught at Central for 31 years before retiring in 2011. He still does some contract work for the school and is heading up the sesquicentennial committee.

He said the school’s history made it a special place to go to work.

“That’s part of the allure of this place. It has this sort of tradition of a lot of notable people,“ he said. “You’re sort of walking in the footsteps of some of these giants.”

Today, the school is known as much for its diversity and inclusiveness as its academics. With dozens of student clubs, “There is a place for everybody,” Schlukebier said.

Central kicks off its sesquicentennial celebration at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, the first day of school, with proclamations from the mayor and lieutenant governor. They’ll gather in front of the school, where a major fundraising effort has produced new landscaping and outdoor learning space.

Additional celebrations will take place Sept. 30 at the school’s 1,000th football game and on Oct. 7, when alumni will be recognized at halftime of the homecoming game.

A concert series is in the works featuring musicians with ties to Central, and a historical booklet soon will be available for sale.