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Valentine Claus is small in stature but he was no shrinking violet while attending Downers Grove North High School seven decades ago.
You couldn’t be shy if you were the only male cheerleader in school.
In the early 1940s, Claus was member of North’s cheerleading team. He followed in some big steps, too, he said. Before him, John “Shorty” Powers would pave the way for Claus at the high school and later go on to become the “Voice of Mission Control” during the manned Mercury flights in the early 1960s.
Some former classmates may remember Claus for some of his moves.
“I had different body movements for different cheers,” he said. “This was a long time ago. We did not have groups leading cheers. The big difference then was we led cheers and people in the stands participated. We did not put on a show like cheerleaders do today.”
Claus said it was a whole different ball game back then.
Ask his wife, Marilyn, and she will tell you that her 85-year-old husband was, well, animated, when he was a boy soon to turn man.
“He sat next to me in Spanish class — that’s how we first met,” Marilyn said. “He was sort of loud. Nobody can be a cheerleader if they were not loud. He played the bass drum in band.”
Marilyn and Val have nine children; four are plumbers.
A day after high school graduation, Val Claus left to serve in the Navy. He volunteered for submarine duty and found himself at the Navy’s sub school in Groton, Conn. From there he set out for sonar school in San Diego.
He was in transit to Pearl Harbor when his ship started breaking up and had to turn back to San Diego. He was assigned to the sub USS Cobia but never made it to combat, he said.
The Cobia is now permanently moored at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc.
Claus worked as a plumber for several years at Stephens Plumbing before he eventually bought the business and ran it for 20 years. One of his four sons now stands at the helm.
Claus is no stranger to electrical work as well. Knowing how to do many things was just a matter of survival, he said.
“Very few people understand what we Depression babies went through,” he said. “Then we had the war and after the war we had to do something. We couldn’t all go on to school so we had to go to work for a living.”
Valentine Claus is small in stature but he was no shrinking violet while attending Downers Grove North High School seven decades ago.
You couldn’t be shy if you were the only male cheerleader in school.
In the early 1940s, Claus was member of North’s cheerleading team. He followed in some big steps, too, he said. Before him, John “Shorty” Powers would pave the way for Claus at the high school and later go on to become the “Voice of Mission Control” during the manned Mercury flights in the early 1960s.
Some former classmates may remember Claus for some of his moves.
“I had different body movements for different cheers,” he said. “This was a long time ago. We did not have groups leading cheers. The big difference then was we led cheers and people in the stands participated. We did not put on a show like cheerleaders do today.”
Claus said it was a whole different ball game back then.
Ask his wife, Marilyn, and she will tell you that her 85-year-old husband was, well, animated, when he was a boy soon to turn man.
“He sat next to me in Spanish class — that’s how we first met,” Marilyn said. “He was sort of loud. Nobody can be a cheerleader if they were not loud. He played the bass drum in band.”
Marilyn and Val have nine children; four are plumbers.
A day after high school graduation, Val Claus left to serve in the Navy. He volunteered for submarine duty and found himself at the Navy’s sub school in Groton, Conn. From there he set out for sonar school in San Diego.
He was in transit to Pearl Harbor when his ship started breaking up and had to turn back to San Diego. He was assigned to the sub USS Cobia but never made it to combat, he said.
The Cobia is now permanently moored at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc.
Claus worked as a plumber for several years at Stephens Plumbing before he eventually bought the business and ran it for 20 years. One of his four sons now stands at the helm.
Claus is no stranger to electrical work as well. Knowing how to do many things was just a matter of survival, he said.
“Very few people understand what we Depression babies went through,” he said. “Then we had the war and after the war we had to do something. We couldn’t all go on to school so we had to go to work for a living.”
