The small fundamentalist, evangelical Christian school had changed significantly since I had graduated from 8th grade in June 1989. The high school that had been founded in 1988 had since moved locations on two separate occasions. Originally established on Lawrence Avenue near the Admiral Adult Theatre and L’Amour’s Adult bookstore. The school then migrated to the less seedy locale of the Alvernia building near Irving Park Road and Elston Avenue before moving again after a two-year lease. The school was now situated on California Avenue just south of Montrose Avenue across the street from Horner Park. The school was just a mile away from traditional Chicago powerhouse high schools Gordon Tech and Lane Tech. However, as far as an educational institution, the gulf between G.O and those schools was immeasurable. Tellingly, there were no signs outside of the building even displaying the name of our school.
The building that once housed Gospel Outreach High School at California and Cullom.
There had been some major changes to the school hierarchy from three years ago when I completed grammar school. Steve Blaha, the former grade school principal was no longer part of the school administration. I still saw Steve on Sundays at church where he would continue to deliver his intense sermons sometimes punctuated by emotional breakdowns. It was good to see that some things had not changed. Pastor Tom Peterson was the school principal and resident Bible Class teacher. He resided at the top of the Church and school hierarchy. I had not been much of a fan of Pastor Tom’s going back to my grade school days and if anything, student resentment toward him had increased. Those ill feelings were exacerbated by his botched handling of a school scandal at the end of the 91’-92’ school year.
Tom Peterson, a charmless evangelical zealot. His classes and sermons were about as interesting as this photo suggests.
At the end of the 1992 scholastic year on a school retreat, a well-established, long-time teacher had brought alcohol for some of the students. Several students were caught drinking and were then summarily kicked out of school. This included seniors who were a couple of weeks away from graduation. There was no consideration for mitigating circumstances. No conceding to the fact that it was a trusted member of the teaching staff that had brought the beer and wine coolers. Tom’s puritanical justice was predictably harsh and unforgiving.
Several students were expelled, including my best friend Ranjit, my former classmates Nathan Marroquin, Robert Garcia and Carlos Flores. I remember the shock when Ranjit called me in May of 1992 to let me know what had happened. I was still in Pittsburgh wrapping up junior year and I was flabbergasted when he broke the news. I took Ranjit to task for taking such a foolish risk on a school trip. I knew that the fallout would be severe over such an infraction. However, my overriding reaction was resentment towards Tom Peterson’s and his astonishing level of strident judgement with little to no empathy or understanding.
It also blew my mind that the parents of the students who were expelled did not react with outrage. To my knowledge, there was no backlash from the parents. I am still at a loss to account for their thinking when I consider the circumstances. It was a teacher that had facilitated the incident and brought the alcoholic drinks. Where was the recognition that an adult had seriously transgressed the teacher-student code? What the students did was wrong, but it did not merit having the type of permanent black mark on their educational record that would compromise their future.
What happened to the teacher who brought the alcohol? They were quickly dismissed from the school and left the church in disgrace. I knew this individual from my grade school days, and I was disappointed but not shocked in retrospect by their actions. Sadly, bringing alcohol to the school retreat was not their biggest violation of the teacher-student relationship.
Gospel Outreach High School Staff
Marvin Adams
None of my old teachers from 1988-89 were still with Gospel Outreach. Miss Darlene, Mr. Simpson, and Jolene Musker had all moved on. Who then were part of the 90’s G.O teaching generation? It makes sense to start with Marvin Adams, who taught English. I had first taken note of Mr. Adams in the summer of 1990. He was part of the Youth Group leadership and looked as if he should be heading up his own New Wave band. His thick, sandy blond hair, parted over to the side unmistakably belonged to someone from the Arts department. He was friendly, very social with mannerisms and vocal tones that were a little reminiscent of Paul Lynde. That is to say that there was an element of camp to Mr. Adams. It was not overt, it was not over the top, it was simply present and easily identifiable. If anyone from Central Catholic is reading this, he shared some personality traits with the Spanish teacher Brother Mike. Marvin was about 5’9, slightly chunky and usually well-dressed. He was quite young and likely no more than 24 or 25 years old in the fall of 1992.
With Marvin, it was a bit like having Erasure’s Andy Bell as your English teacher.
Mr. Adams was intelligent, respected, and well-liked by most everyone. He was also a devoted member of the church. He did not project an authoritarian presence, but he didn’t have to. Marvin was comfortable and in his element within the classroom. He kept students engaged and his skills as an educator were obvious. We covered Shakespeare’s Macbeth that fall. Parts were assigned to everyone, and we would read the play aloud in class. I enjoyed reading Shakespeare and hamming it up for a laugh at times in class. It was a way of calling attention to myself, but it also came to me naturally. I was in the embryonic stage of discovering my own affinity for theatrical performance.
On a side note, I had an affinity for a character in MacBeth named Lennox. This was for no other reason than one of my favorite boxers at the time was Lennox Lewis. More on the 1988 Olympic Heavyweight Gold Medalist later on, as his fight on Halloween night in 1992 that was televised on HBO would set the stage for an amusing night at Ranjit’s grandparent’s apartment.
Marvin also oversaw the school paper, and I contributed articles introducing the new students, including myself. I had no issue writing about myself, imagine that! I don’t recall the paper producing content on a consistent basis, but it demonstrated Mr. Adam’s commitment to making the school credible as an academic institution. Coming back to his involvement with the church, Marvin had become a prominent member of the congregation along with his girlfriend Sally who taught grammar school at Gospel Outreach. They had established themselves as junior members of the Church hierarchy and provided an important balance to the heavy-handed dullness of Tom Peterson
Amy Wohl.
The rather conservative Miss Wohl. I wasn’t hot for teacher but there is definitely something about her in this photo.
Ms. Amy Wohl, was our math teacher. Ms. Wohl was young, probably fresh out of college. She had no affiliation with the church. Bookish, demure, and lowkey, this was likely her first teaching gig. She had shoulder-length light brown hair, brown eyes and a face dotted with freckles, and glasses. She wore long dresses, and white socks that were rolled down and paired with white sneakers. Ms. Wohl was pleasant enough, clearly intelligent, and even-tempered. Her class was fairly uneventful. Truth be told, perhaps she could have done with a cup of coffee before class. As for the class content itself, we weren’t tackling Trigonometry or Calculus. It was more like exercises that addressed how to balance a checkbook. After my almighty struggles with Algebra II and Geometry at Central Catholic, I was all on board for Ms. Wohl’s dialed-down class expectations.
I recall that she was engaged to be married and that was a point of interest for the girls in the class. I didn’t really have any significant run-ins or exchanges with Ms. Wohl. She was an amiable sort in general and competent with her job responsibilities. We didn’t have any disruptive personalities in the class who tried to push her buttons. For the most part, the class was well-behaved. Yes, I know, a bit boring.
Tina Vanyzendoorn
Tina was decidedly normal and a familiar face from my previous time at Gospel Outreach
The school day would start with Tina Vanyzendoorn’s computer class. We would report to the front office located down the south corridor near the main entrance of the building. I knew Tina from my previous time at Gospel Outreach. Her husband, Mike had become the church youth group leader and was genuinely well-liked and respected by everyone that I rubbed shoulders with. Tina came across as professional, well-organized, and very decent. I figured that she and Mike must have had to atone for some serious iniquities to have ended up at G.O. Okay, I jest, but they always appeared way too normal for Gospel Outreach, which attracted its share of lost souls and misfits. Upon entering the office, behind the main desk were a handful of workstations with computers circa 1982. The screens were small and if you reference the film “War Games” with Matthew Broderick, then you have a good idea of the cutting-edge technology we had our hands on. As for the class itself, we may have learned some rudimentary computer skills. The class seemed to consist primarily of typing out text and printing out our work to be graded.
Strangely, I only recall sharing the computer room with Danny and a new kid, Ismael Ramirez who quickly became good friends with us. I’m thinking that the reason there were only a few of us in the room was that we did not have many actual computers. The school was operating off a shoestring budget. However, G.O made do with what they had and none of the parents had any delusions of educational grandeur. Parents who had serious academic ambitions for their kids didn’t send them to Gospel Outreach. I should qualify that comment. Tom Peterson’s kids all excelled academically and were genuinely smart. I’ll put it this way, academics took a back seat to the overall goal of providing education through the church’s narrow, theocratic lens.
Tom Peterson
Small eyes and a well-fed visage. Getting some overgrown Charlie Brown vibes here.
Since we were attending a fundamentalist, born-again Christian high school, Bible class was a daily staple. The class was taught by none other than the charismatic powerhouse that was Tom Peterson. Most of the time Tom droned on uninterrupted. Tom was undoubtedly book-smart but never engaged his students in a significant way. His emotional intelligence and ability to connect with people was sorely lacking from my experience.
Tom was the undisputed leader of the church and school. Often, within the evangelical church culture you come across big personalities that inspire huge followings. Tom possessed none of the personality, charisma, or dynamic energy needed to create the type of devotion and growth he probably envisioned for Gospel Outreach. What he did possess was a core belief system that was very protestant and austere. He may have seen himself as a continuation in the tradition of The Great Awakening. He had an outwardly genial demeanor, but that veneer gave way to a person who was ideologically rigid and harsh in his judgments.
Tom and his wife Cynthia. Just under the dopey vanilla veneer was an arrogant self-righteousness married with a misguided, inflexible version of Christianity. They had no business leading a church or a school. Some may say that is harsh. Some may say a lot worse.
When I compare Tom to the late Brother Dave Baginsky from my days at Central Catholic, he falls woefully short. Brother Dave was strict. He was tough. However, you could see that he cared about his students and carefully observed them. Brother Dave was ultimately on your side. Tom Peterson was bland Puritanism in the flesh. He was awkward, clueless, and out of touch when it came to genuine interaction with the student body. Tom would have been much better suited to a small, rural church community of like-minded individuals as opposed to a multicultural, urban community.
Tom Peterson passed away on June 15th of 2023. It was just a few days after I had completed my senior year recollections. The timing was unsettling. I gave thought to editing what I had written about Tom. However, I decided to leave the memoir as it relates to him as is. His well written obituary was crafted by his daughter Amy.
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/thomas-peterson-obituary?id=52256408
Andrea Kirksey
Andrea Kirksey was an influential teacher and figure at the school. Like Miss Wohl, she had no connections to the Gospel Outreach church. Miss Kirksey was in her mid to late 20’s, African American with a spunky, energetic, strong personality. I’m not aware of what classes she taught, but she was particularly popular with the freshmen and sophomores. I didn’t have many interactions with Ms. Kirksey, but I could tell early on that I was not her cup of tea. After the first basketball game of the season, she voiced criticism of my histrionics on the basketball court. I sensed her antipathy, and the feeling became mutual. I don’t have anything bad to say about her. Some people just don’t click. That she was not a member of the Jimmy Cook fan club should not detract from the fact that she was a positive presence for many students at the school.
“J-I-MM-Y! Goooooo Jimmy!” Deep down she was a fan. No doubt.
Senior year I don’t recall taking any kind of science class. There was no history class to my recollection either. However, I could be mistaken. Truth be told, the only class that would have been worthy of Central Catholic standards was English with Mr. Adams. The rest of the courses would have been judged as substandard by most independent observers. Without Marvin Adams, the academic level in the high school would have been decidedly mediocre..
Troy Hardy
Junior high teacher, Gym class instructor, and Basketball coach. Troy Hardy was probably plotting his exit from Gospel Outreach when this photo was taken.
If Science and History were given the short shift by Gospel Outreach, gym class was still maintained as part of the curriculum. Troy Hardy was the gym teacher and he appeared to come from a basketball background of some kind. Mr. Hardy was mid to late-thirties, 6 feet tall with short-cut blond hair. Along with his duties as a gym instructor, he was also the junior high teacher. It was on the outdoor courts at Horner Park in September that I initially caught his attention. The physically gifted junior Bruce Marcotte pulled up for a jumper in the lane. I had tracked his move, leaped up, and caught a piece of the shot. Mr. Hardy audibly notated in an observational way, “We have an athlete.”.
Gym class was awfully casual at times, and I remember portable radios being brought in to play music during gym. “Rhythm is a Dancer” by the German band Snap! was huge at the time and that track featured prominently. Mr. Hardy made a decent impression. He was approachable and normal without being overly invested in what was happening.
Gospel Outreach School and High School Memories 1988-1992 