We’ve come to the end of a remarkable moment in American history that almost nobody noticed, even though it never happened before and will probably never happen again.
Farewell, Sen. Ben Cardin.
Farewell, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger.
And a belated farewell to the late Rep. Elijah Cummings.
They all served America on Capitol Hill with honor. And it’s apparently the only time in history when three people from the same public high school ever did this at the same time.
The high school is Baltimore City College, that historic “Castle on the Hill” on 33rd Street.
“As far as I know, it’s the only time it’s ever happened,” Ruppersberger said recently while preparing to close his congressional offices for the final time. “Several years ago, I had my staff research it, and Elijah had his staff research it, and we couldn’t find any other examples.”
The distinction is a tribute to the three men and to City College itself. And it brings back a memory from 65 years ago in the City auditorium on Ruppersberger’s (and my) first day there.
All newcomers to the school arrived for an introductory speech from Principal Henry T. Yost, a nice man who wished to inspire us with a few words about City’s history as one of America’s oldest and most distinguished public high schools.
“The future mayor of Baltimore is sitting in this room right now,” Yost said on that early autumn morning in 1960. “That is the City College history.”
He said this to roughly 750 boys, most of us about 15 years old, and each one of us finding such words utterly incomprehensible.
I was sitting with my friend Stanley Nusenko, who lived across the street from me. We took two crosstown buses to get to the school, as did many of City’s students. When he heard the part about future mayors, Stanley turned to me and whispered, “He ain’t talkin’ about me.”
Such a thing was inconceivable. We were a bunch of wise-ass adolescents whose cockiness disguised every insecurity known to man (or woman.)
But the idea of three national leaders coming out of one public high school (ours or anybody else’s) and serving simultaneously in high-office Washington was something no one could imagine.
Sitting in that auditorium on that distant autumn morning, we didn’t realize that a City graduate (class of 1931) named Philip H. Goodman was about to become mayor of Baltimore.
Or that Marvin Mandel (class of 1937) would soon become governor of Maryland.
Or that William Donald Schaefer (class of 1939) would soon become mayor, and then governor of Maryland, and that Melvin “Mickey” Steinberg (class of 1950) would become Schaefer’s lieutenant governor.
Nor did we know that a future U.S. senator named Ben Cardin had graduated just three months before our arrival.
Or that a future U.S. congressman named C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger sat among us in that auditorium.
Or that a future mayor of Baltimore named Kurt Schmoke (class of ’67) was a couple of years behind us.
Or that a future U.S. congressman named Elijah Cummings (class of ’69) was two years behind Schmoke.
Such a roster of City grads who became political leaders goes on extensively and includes state legislators, City Council members and other political types.
But let’s get back to those three men who served simultaneously on Capitol Hill, on whom the curtain has now descended.
Now is the time to honor them, not mainly for their sake but for ours.
The city of Baltimore should erect statues to the three of them and place them together. Put them where crowds of people, proud hometown folks and visitors, could gaze upon them and say, “See that? We’ve got our problems in Baltimore, but we also produce people — and public high schools — like this.”
We put up statues for sports figures, soldiers and others. These men brought historic honor to a high school down on 33rd Street, and that honor spread across an entire public school system and an entire city.
No one ever saw the likes of this, and probably no one ever will again.
A former Baltimore Sun columnist and WJZ-TV commentator, Michael Olesker is the author of six books, including “Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore” (Johns Hopkins University Press) and “Michael Olesker’s Baltimore: If You Live Here, You’re Home” (Johns Hopkins University).
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