PAGE TH MICHIGAN DAILY SUNRAY, FEBRUARY 27,1951S PAGE SIX THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1955 AFTER 38 YEARS: Chief Zahn Ends Fire Fighting Career Verdi Opera To Receive 2 2 MILLION EXCESS: U.S. School Enrollment Over Capacity By JIM DYGERT In 38 years and seven months, Ann Arbor's Fire Chief Ben Zahn has missed only one fire "that amounted to anything." Except for a blaze that took place while he was away at a fire chiefs' convention in Menominee, Mich., Zahn has personally di- rected his crew of firefighters at every major fire in the area since he became chief in 1939. "I've always liked to go out and put out fires," he said, thinking :f his 23 years as an ordinary fireman prior to 1939. He didn't miss any fires of any importance during that time. Retiring Tomorrow Now 60 years old, Zahn is re- tiring from the Ann Arbor Fire Department, effective tomorrow, although he may stick around to help the new chief, Ernest Heller, now an assistant chief. "If someone comes along and wants some help, I'll be available," is the way he puts it. His 38 years and 7 months give Zahn second place in number of years spent with the department. He's retiring of his own will. "Why wait until they push you out?" he asks. Administrative Worries Fire chiefs have worries enough, and "at this age, you begin to for- get things and worry about things." His last 16 years with the depart- ment as chief has accustomed him to the administrative angle of fire- fighting. Paging through some of the many record books he is required to keep, he said, "I liked being a regular fireman." He was just that, except that he was the number one fireman, when he was asked by the city's fire commissioners to take the chief's job. Most chiefs are lieutenants, captains, or as- sistant chiefs first. A pension will follow him out of office and he has no definite plans for the immediate future. Not in- tending to take another job, "I've got a lot of work to do around the house. I've already bought paint for the house-just have to wait until the weather gets nice." Grew Up in Ann Arbor A native of the area, Zahn was born a few years before the turn of the century -in Lodi township, about 12 miles from Ann Arbor. 5 Showings Five performances of Verdi's " musical version of Shakespeare's "Merry Wives of Windsor" will be given this week at the Lydia Mendelssohn. Theater. The opera, "Falstaff," is the first offering of the speech de- partment's playbill. It is perform- ed in, conjunction with the School of Music. Running Tuesday through Sat- urday, performances will begin at 8 p.m. The department has stated }.that latecomers will not be seated during the first scene (there is no overture). >'}< Opening night tickets for "Fal- staff" as well as for the other plays ("The Skin of Our Teeth" >< and "The Clugstone Inheritance") are priced at $1.50. Single tickets to the opera are $1.90, $2.60 and $3.25. ' Singing the lead in.Chester Kall- < man's English translation of the comic opera is Robert Kerns, Grad. -Daily-John Hirtzel Other cast members include Do- MAKES A FINAL INSPECTION lores Lowry, Grad., Joan Rossi, Grad., Laura Smith, '55, and Wil- tripled since 1916, also. There were liam Cole, Grad. 20 when Zahn first became a fire- Handling the musical direction man, and now there are 56 be- is Josef Blatt of the music school sides himself-40 at the Huron while the stage director is Prof. Street station and 16 at the Stad- Valentine Windt of the speech de- ium Blvd. station. partment. By HERMAN R. ALLEN Associated Press Newsfeatures Writer Government reports on educa- tion, never couched in very dash- ing terms, make frequent use these days of the jaw-breaking phrase "number of pupils in excess of nor- mal capacity." A recent U.S. Office of Educa- tion report shows that more than 2%1/ million American children "in excess of normal capacity" are enrolled in public schools this year. About 2 million of them are elementary pupils. All told, they make up about 9 per cent of public school enrollment. Somehow, most school districts manage to give their students full- time classes despite the extra load. But an average of 2.3 per cent of the school-age children in each state are not in full-time atten- dance this year, because of the lack of facilities. The accompany- ing map shows the percentage range in each state. Problem of '50s Crowded schools are a problem peculiar to the 1950s. As the graph indicates, school enrollments at the start of the decade (because of the lower birth rate during the depression) was slightly lower than in 1930. Then the deluge of war babies started and overcrowd- ing became the rule. The problem has'been aggravat- ed from another angle. During the .::ONTr . .E..:........ ..TEXAS 'S. * .~. FUL .TENN:.E A:ARKawe I ALL STATES LACK FULL EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES RETIRING FIRE CHIEF ZAHN1 He grew up in Ann Arbor and Join- ed the fire department at the age of 21. He remembers clearly the horse and buggy days of fire fighting. "Took a lot longer to get to a fire in those days. And keeping horses and replacing buggies cost about three times as much as upkeep of equipment today." Getting to a fire is a much quicker process in these modern times. "We average about two minutes to a mile," Zahn reports. "And it takes only a minute to get the trucks on the street after a call comes in." In Charge of 56 Men The size of the force has almost Engineering Board Any sophomore engineer inter- ested in filling a position on the Sophomore Engineering C 1 a s s Board may contact Tom Beierle, 433 Williams, West Quad, before Wednesday. war governmental controls held down the building of new schools or replacement of those becoming obsolete. Even without the rush of students, that alone would have been enough to cause trouble. U.S. Census Bureau trend fig- ures show that even with the pre- sent declining birth rate, pressure on schools will continue to mount until about 1980. There will be a levelling off in the early 1960s, but immediately after that the 1942- 53 babies will begin to reach mar- riageable ages, and their children will shortly thereafter hit the schools as a second wave. The Administration estimates that the current shortage totals more than 300,000 classrooms. To ease this situation, the President sent to Congress this month his recommendations for a four-point emergency school construction program costing more than one billion dollars in federal funds alone. i One of them is keeping the name Zahn on the fire department payroll. Ben, junior, has been on the force a year and is 29 years, old. Ben, senior, also has three married daughters. He lives with his wife, Emma, at 823 W. Washington, where he intends to take his gardening more seriously from now on. "I want to do some manual labor," he says. "It's good for the soreness in the back of my neck that's been bothering me for, the last couple years." Although he's willing to. give a hand if needed, he no longer has to be concerned about a bad wind fanning the embryo of a disaster- ous fire. It won't be his job to worry about it. -IChoice of Choice of .I. I* --'0-1 ~- 'rChoice of v ovr:: ."r:42. i:**}".v: :":...t*.v*.*.:"" :::ti. ___ __ __ __ __ __ __ __You don't eFIELDS OF SPECIALIZATION choiceont r:::-:;: very little -4 z z LMe PPO"TzNaTESOn the third howe u a poor choice can ADMINISTRATION * ® * * " .classmates and a POWER PLANT ANALYSISj" I it'1I s ea Parents Wife Job have any ( the first and on the second.. . ever, it's strictly up to you - n throw you years behind your good choice can put you years 1. 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