Bangor High School, a member of the Bangor School System, is a

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's List of municipalities in Maine, third-most populous city, behind Portland, Maine, Portland ...

, United States. It has an enrollment of approximately 1,500 students in grades 9–12. It is Bangor's only public high school. Since its 2001–2002 selection as a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by the

U.S. Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a United States Cabinet, cabinet-level department of the federal government of the United States, United States government, originating in 1980. The department began operating on May 4, 1980, havin ...

Bangor High School has consistently been recognized for the achievements of its students. For four years from 2012–2016, the school was named a National Silver Award winner by '' U.S. News & World Report''s "America's Best High Schools. In 2013, BHS was the only urban school among the state's 133 high schools to earn this designation. BHS consistently ranks among the top five Maine schools in annual rankings of America's Most Challenging Schools published by the ''Washington Post'' and journalist Jay Matthews. To determine its rankings, the Post considers the degree to which disadvantaged students outperform their state peers coupled with percentage of most recent graduates having earned a score of 3 or higher (out of 5 maximum points) on one or more Advanced Placement exams. In 2014, the ''Post'' analysis placed Bangor High in the top 8% nationally (of approx. 22,000 'normal-enrollment' public high schools), and Bangor was one of only six Maine high schools to make the top 10%, and one of only two in a Maine city. In 2011, Maine's male and female AP Scholars were students at Bangor High School. In 2016, a Bangor High School senior earned the AP International Diploma for having achieved scores of 3 or higher on three or more AP exams in each of three content areas. In 2014, the College Board recognized Bangor as one of 547 US / Canadian District Honor Roll designees, a critical element in the district's selection by the College Board to serve on its national steering committee for its revision of the SAT and the PSAT.

History

Bangor's first public high school (for boys only) was founded in 1835, followed by a school for girls in 1838. These were consolidated as Bangor High School in 1864. The first principal was Robert P Bucknam, a graduate of

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...

. In the late nineteenth century, Bangor High School was located on Abbott Square, across from the present

Bangor Public Library The Bangor Public Library is the public library of Bangor, Maine. It shares the URSUS online cataloging system with the University of Maine and other Maine libraries. The library's roots date to 1830, when the Bangor Mechanic Association assemb ...

. Designed by architect Wilfred E. Mansur, this building burned down in the

Great Fire of 1911 The Great Fire of 1911 took place in Bangor, Maine, United States, on April 30 and May 1, 1911. A small fire that started in a downtown shed went out of control and destroyed hundreds of commercial and residential buildings. History It started ...

. Its

steel-framed Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The develop ...

, yellow-brick replacement was built in 1913 on Harlow Street, just across from its earlier location, from designs by the Boston architects

Peabody and Stearns Peabody & Stearns was a premier architectural firm in the Eastern United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the firm consisted of Robert Swain Peabody (1845–1917) and John Goddard Stearns ...

, who also designed the new

next door. The high school moved into its present building on outer Broadway, designed by architect Eaton W. Tarbell, in 1964.

Sports

Bangor High School is known for its athletic teams and earned its 100th team state championship in 2016. In that year, Bangor won its third consecutive Class A Baseball title. A source of great pride is the precise arrangement of its state championship banners, which hang on the back wall of the school's Red Barry Gymnasium. Five soccer state championships (three boys, two girls) as well as a 2013 sweep of girls track (indoor and outdoor) are among recent highlights. In 2009, The Varsity Football Team went 11-1 and the Rams won the Eastern Maine Championship. In 2007, Bangor High School earned state championships (Class A) in boys

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

, boys

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, boys

indoor track Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

, boys

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

and

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), ...

, girls

and

, and boys

outdoor track Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a ...

. Fall sports at Bangor include

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

(varsity, freshman),

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense Physical exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...

(V, JV), soccer (V, JV, F),

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

(V, JV), cross country, and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

. In 2011 The Varsity Girls Soccer Team won their first ever State Championship in school history. Winter sports include basketball (V, JV, F),

pickleball Pickleball is a racket or paddle sport in which two or four players use a smooth-faced paddle to hit a perforated, hollow plastic ball over a net until one side is unable to return the ball or commits a rule infraction. Pickleball is played i ...

(intramural), cheerleading (V, JV),

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

(intramural),

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

(V, JV), indoor track, swimming and diving, and

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow for basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International S ...

. Spring sports include baseball, (State Champions 2006, 2014, 2015, 2016) (V, JV),

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

(V, JV, F), outdoor track, and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

. Bangor High School's highest-achieving sport is its Boys Varsity Swim Team. The Swim Team has won 27 State Championships and 1 New England Championships. In 2012, the Boys Swim team went undefeated and maintained a 6-year State Championship winning streak. Coach Phil Emery has led the team to 26 of its State titles and the New England title in the 2018-2019 varsity basketball season Bangor high school won the state championships.

Activities

Bangor High offers a variety of activities. The speech and debate teams win various competitions across the state during the year and send students to nationals annually. In June 2015, Bangor High School junior Nick Danby won the National Speech and Debate Association Grand Tournament for Congressional Debate in Dallas, Texas. Danby was the first junior in the country to win, and the first person from Maine to exceed tenth place. Bangor has a large number of juniors and seniors in its chapter of the

National Honor Society The National Honor Society (NHS) is one of the oldest, largest, and most widely recognized cocurricular student organizations in American high schools, with 1.4 million members. The purpose of the NHS is to create enthusiasm for scholarship, to ...

Miscellaneous

Peakes Auditorium is used by many groups around the city and state. Most notably, the

Bangor Symphony Orchestra The Bangor Symphony Orchestra is one of the oldest continually-operating professional orchestras in the United States. Based in Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The city pro ...

held concerts there while the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...

's Collins Center for the Arts was being renovated. Graduation exercises for Beal College also use the Peakes Auditorium. The

school year An academic year, or school year, is a period that schools, colleges and universities use to measure the duration of studies for a given educational level. Academic years are often divided into academic terms. Students attend classes and do rel ...

runs from September to June. School days are 8:00 to 2:00. The day is split up into sixteen ' mods', or 20-minute blocks of time. There are five minutes between each class, and each class takes up 2 mods. Lab sciences take up 3 mods 2, 3, or 5 days a week, depending on the difficulty of the class. The school utilizes locally developed assessments to document student proficiency in Maine learning standards. Although Bangor takes students from communities lacking a high school, about 2/3 of the students come from Bangor's two public middle schools: the William S. Cohen School and the James F. Doughty School, each of which enrolls approximately 500 students.

Notable alumni

* John F. Appleton -

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

general * Taber D. Bailey - lawyer and politician *

John Baldacci John Elias Baldacci (born January 30, 1955) is an American politician who served as the 73rd governor of Maine from 2003 to 2011. A Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, he also served in the United States House of Representatives from 199 ...

- politician *

William Cohen William Sebastian Cohen (born August 28, 1940) is an American lawyer, author, and politician from the U.S. state of Maine. A Republican, Cohen served as both a member of the United States House of Representatives (1973–1979) and Senate (1979� ...

- politician and U.S. Secretary of Defense * Galen Cole - military veteran and philanthropist *

Marcus Davis Marcus Paul Davis (born August 24, 1973), is an American professional mixed martial artist and former professional boxer who is perhaps best known for competing in the UFC. A professional MMA competitor from 2003 until 2014, Davis also compete ...

- mixed martial arts fighter * William Hammatt Davis - former chairman of the National War Labor Board * Prescott Freese Dennett - one of 30 people indicted for sedition for sympathizing with the Axis powers * Henry Payson Dowst - novelist and short story writer *

Fannie Hardy Eckstorm Fannie Pearson Hardy Eckstorm (1865–1946) was an American writer, ornithologist and folklorist. Her extensive personal knowledge of her native state of Maine secured her place as one of the foremost authorities on the history, wildlife, cultures, ...

- writer, ornithologist and folklorist *

Ashley Emerson Ashley Emerson (born April 20, 1984) is an American soprano who is a vocal instructor at the University of South Carolina School of Music. She has made more than 60 opera appearances since 2007, including starring roles at major venues; and she ha ...

- soprano *

Keith Farnham Keith Farnham (September 22, 1947 – June 18, 2017) was a Democratic former member of the Illinois House of Representatives who resigned from office and pleaded guilty of distributing child pornography in 2014. Early life Farnham was born in Pi ...

- politician who pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography * John F. Godfrey - sailor, soldier, and officer * Adam Goode - politician *

Bettina Gorton Bettina Edith Gorton, Lady Gorton (née Brown; 23 June 1915 – 2 October 1983) was an American-born Australian academic who was best known as the first wife of John Gorton, the 19th Prime Minister of Australia. She was born in Portland, Maine, ...

- academic and former Spouse of the Prime Minister of Australia *

Carl Frederick Holden Carl Frederick Holden (May 25, 1895May 18, 1953) was a decorated officer in the United States Navy who reached the rank of Vice admiral (United States), vice admiral. A veteran of both World Wars, he became an expert in Military communications, N ...

- vice admiral * Blanche Willis Howard - novelist *

Chris Johnson Chris or Christopher Johnson may refer to: Entertainment *Chris J. Johnson (born 1977), American actor *Chris Johnson (presenter) (born 1991), BBC television presenter *Christopher Johnson, fictional alien refugee from the film ''District 9'' Spo ...

- politician *

Matt Kinney Matthew John Kinney (born December 16, 1976) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He spent with the Saitama Seibu Lions of the Nippon Professional Baseball (MLB). Kinney is a graduate of Bangor High School. Kinney and his Littl ...

- baseball player *

Wayne Maunder Wayne Ernest Maunder (December 19, 1937 – November 11, 2018) was a Canadian-born American actor who starred in three American television series between 1967 and 1974. Three television series From September 6 to December 27, 1967, Maunder sta ...

- actor *

David Richard Porter David Richard Porter (1882–1973) was a major figure in the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) during the height of the organization's popularity and influence on American high school and college campuses. Porter was Executive Secretary of ...

- former major figure in the YMCA *

Gerald Talbot Gerald Edgerton Talbot (born October 28, 1931) is an American civil rights leader, author, and politician from Portland, Maine. Talbot was the first Black legislator to serve in the state of Maine, the founding president of the Portland, Maine, ...

- politician * Artemus E. Weatherbee - Assistant Secretary of the Treasury * Cary Weston - politician *

Charles Huntington Whitman Charles Huntington Whitman (November 24, 1873 – December 27, 1937) was the chair of the department of English at Rutgers University for 26 years (1911–1937) and a noted scholar of Edmund Spenser and early English verse. Biography Whitman wa ...

- academic *

Donald Norton Yates Donald Norton Yates (November 25, 1909 – August 28, 1993) was the US Army Air Force officer who helped select June 6, 1944 as the date for D-Day, the Allied invasion of Europe, in his capacity as chief meteorologist on General Dwight D. Eisenh ...

- Air Force general *

Elmer P. Yates Elmer Parker Yates (December 19, 1917 – August 14, 2011) was a Major general (United States), major general in the United States Army Corps of Engineers who saw service in the Vietnam War. He was the younger brother of United States Air Force ...

- Army general * H. Edwin Young - former chancellor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison''Bennington Banner'' (Vt), Sept. 16, 1965, p. 2

References

External links

* {{authority control Public high schools in Maine Schools in Penobscot County, Maine 1835 establishments in Maine Educational institutions established in 1835 Educational buildings in Bangor, Maine Peabody and Stearns buildings