Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Twenty years ago in this column, an Omaha South High grad helping to form an alumni association told me his long-term goal — a $1 million endowment.
On Saturday, he announced that the goal was reached: $1,000,042.
"This is a good day for the South High Alumni Association," Richard Gulizia told 35 people at its quarterly meeting.
To use a football analogy, reaching the goal line came not on a final 1-yard dive into the end zone but on a long bomb — a surprise bequest of $677,000.
It came from the estate of a 1940 graduate who lived most of her adult life in Southern California. But Margie Krakowski grew up in South Omaha playing softball, basketball and other sports
She attended business school, worked as a bookkeeper, married and divorced and, at 28, married Waldon Calamia, 36. According to her obituary, they built several businesses before relocating to the Los Angeles area. He was involved in food manufacturing before his death in 1986.
She then married attorney Dale Speck and, in 1990, returned to South High for her 50-year class reunion. She became a "life member" of the alumni association and received its newsletter, the Alumni Tooter, which editor Judi Koubsky mails to more than 19,000 graduates around the country. But the association otherwise wasn't aware of Margie Speck.
"God bless her," Dick Gulizia said in an interview. "We've made it — we made our million in 20 years. Hopefully, that will encourage more people to donate."
In 1991, then-Principal Joyce Christensen asked Gulizia and fellow 1961 grad Paul Kracher to help form an alumni association. Over the past two decades, Dick said, the association has raised money and contributed more than $500,000 toward college scholarships, teacher seminars, athletic fields and other needs.
The alumni association set up a foundation that gained tax-exempt status 11 years ago. Because a public high school is tax-supported, Dick said, some people incorrectly think there's no need to donate to an alumni association's foundation.
Alums, he said, can help fill in some financial gaps. But the grads don't want to substitute for what taxes should cover.
South Omaha long has served as the Omaha area's immigrant gateway, first for eastern Europeans, Irish and others, and more recently for Asians and Hispanics.
When the meatpacking houses hit their peak in the 1950s and '60s, they produced as many as 15,000 jobs. Steve Cavlovic, a 1950 South High grad and athlete who followed his Croatian-born father as a packinghouse worker, smiled Saturday as he recalled opposing fans taunting the South High Packers as "pig-stickers."
All these years later, he said, the South High alumni association is strong in part because of the loyalty and relationships that developed when members were in high school.
"Where we grew up, nobody was rich," Steve said. "We all got along — whites, black, Mexicans. There's something about South Omaha. We were kids from the other side of the track, and there was a pride that went with us."
Today, some old grads wear ballcaps with SOB across the front — for "South Omaha Boy."
They have taken pride recently in the construction of a South High football stadium and the rededication of a plaque at Brown Park in memory of Omaha amateur baseball players who died in World War II.
Gulizia, the alumni association's unpaid executive director, took pride Saturday in reaching the $1 million milestone. Like many others from South Omaha, he said, he came from a blue-collar family — his dad was a welder who also delivered bread and ran a small grocery store.
One of six children, Dick was diagnosed at age 3 or 4 with Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes. He played on the South High golf team but missed his senior season because he began losing his sight. He soon was totally blind.
But he graduated from Omaha University (now UNO), earned a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and taught in high schools and colleges.
Kracher, the alumni president, said the association and its foundation "wouldn't be here if it weren't for Dick."
Some other schools also have foundations. That led to confusion in the recent bequest.
Margaret Krakowski Speck died April 9 at age 88. In July, California attorneys for her estate addressed preliminary paperwork to the South alumni association, but at the wrong address — 50th and Dodge Streets, the address of the Central High Foundation.
The Central foundation forwarded the envelope to South High, where administrators thought it was a mere copy. The South High alumni offices are not at the school on South 24th Street but at 107th and Q Streets.
So Gulizia was at a loss in December when he received an email from Dale Speck, asking why the alumni association had not responded to the paperwork.
"We told him that was the first we had heard of the situation," Gulizia said. "Then on Dec. 19, we were notified that we were part of the estate. I informed my board: 'Be patient — Santa Claus is coming to town.'"
The check arrived after Christmas, nine days ago. Combined with the previous assets of more than $300,000, the bequest puts the endowment just above the $1 million mark. The interest will go toward scholarships and other needs.
Twenty years ago, Dick Gulizia had made 400 phone calls and written 200 letters just getting the South High Alumni Association off the ground. It took flight, and now the surprise bequest from a 1940 graduate has made spirits soar.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1132, michael.kelly@owh.com
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