EDITOR’S NOTE: Superiorland Yesterdays is prepared by the reference staff at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette.

30 years ago

ISHPEMING — One group of Ishpeming elementary school students are finding out what heights their minds can take them. They may find those heights to be as high as the mountains of Boulder, CO, where the national finals of the Odyssey of the Mind competition will take place later this year. The U.P.-wide Odyssey of the Mind competition took place March 11 at Michigan Technological University, with the fourth-grade team from Ishpeming’s Birchview Elementary School taking the gold medal. Another fourth-grade team from Ishpeming’s Central Elementary School took a silver medal. The high placing of Ishpeming’s teams are not only exceptional, but amazing, considering this is the first year the district has participated in the competition, which tests creative thinking through long range problem solving. Some of the teams in the competition had been working on their problems since last September, but the Birchview team formed January 23 and only worked on its problem for about a month. The problem they faced was building a structure of balsa wood that would weigh the least amount and support the greatest amount of weight. The Birchview team built a structure of nine grams (about one-third of an ounce) that supported 27 pounds.

60 years ago

MARQUETTE — C. Fred Rydholm was honored by the Marquette Junior Chamber of Commerce last night as “Outstanding Young Man of Marquette for 1958.” Rydholm, 35, was presented the award at a dinner meeting in the Clifton Hotel. Rydholm was selected from among the five men receiving the greatest number of ballots in the election conducted through The Mining Journal. The four other finalists in the contest were R. Bond Perket, Thomas F. Jernstad, Harold N. Herlich Jr., and Richard A. Lutey. Rydholm is a native of Marquette. He attended schools here and also attended Albion College, where he received his bachelor of arts degree in 1948. He also attended Baldwin Wallace College in Ohio, Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Western Michigan University. During World War II he served in the United States Navy four years. He taught school in Republic (1948-50), Battle Creek (1950-51), and Vermontville (1951-53) before retuning to Marquette, where he has been employed as an instructor in general science in the Howard Junior High School since 1957. Rydholm was appointed to the Marquette City Commission in 1957 and elected to a two year term last year. He served as president of the Marquette City District unit of the Michigan Education Assn. in 1956-57.