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Three new members will be inducted into Comet Hall of Fame

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Three new members will be posthumously inducted into Comet Hall of Fame this week.

The honor, presented since 2012 by the Charles City Community Excellence in Education Foundation, was created to recognize distinguished alumni or contributors who have brought honor to the Charles City Community School District through their achievements in academics, activities, athletics and performing arts.

The 2020 inductees are Truman Manship, A.B.F. Hildreth and Lola Krumm. They will be honored at halftime of the varsity football game at Comet Field Friday night.

Criteria considered for selection to the hall of fame include secondary and post-secondary achievements, professional or lifetime accomplishments and civic endeavors.

Last year’s inductees were Greg Brunner, Austin Downey, Mike Duroe, Ralph Smith and Gary Schwartzhoff.

Now included on the list of past inductees are members of the Charles City Fine Arts Century Club Hall of Fame, which has joined the Comet Hall of Fame to honor people together.

The Athletic Booster Club, Performing Arts staff and the Excellence in Education Foundation make final selections for the Comet Hall of Fame.

Here is information on the 2020 Hall of Fame inductees, as provided by the selection group.

Three new members will be inducted into Comet Hall of Fame
Truman Manship

Truman H. Manship

Truman Manship graduated from the Iowa State Teachers college with a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education in 1934.

He was a football coach and teacher for the Charles City Community School District from 1950-1965. Coach Manship was noted by former players as always being calm, rarely raising his voice, never smoked, never drank, and telling his players nothing good happened after midnight.

Coach gained the respect of his players by caring about each one of them individually. He always had a special place in his heart for his two sons that played for him, Larry and Rich, and always his senior football players. One story that was told was he had several of his football players get into a little trouble and the consequence could have been 30 days in jail. Truman went to the hearing, called the mayor’s court, where Truman told the mayor that the school would be responsible for the punishment. Coach Manship had his players run an extra mile after each practice to account for these athletes’ misbehaviors.

According to his players, Truman coached the only undefeated team during a regular football season in Comet history.

Manship was inducted into the Iowa Football Hall of Fame in 1969 and was named the Charles City Man of The Year for 1978-1979. The Truman Manship Memorial Scholarship was started by his family upon his death and continues today for a Charles City High School graduate.

Manship died in 1985 at the age of 73.

Three new members will be inducted into Comet Hall of Fame
A.B.F. Hildreth

A.B.F. Hildreth

Azro Benjamin Franklin Hildreth was born in Vermont in 1856. He attended school, worked on his family farm, taught school and started a career as a journalist in the eastern states. In the spring of 1856, he and his family moved to Charles City.

In the book entitled “The Life and Times of A. B. F. Hildreth,” Charles City is described as part of the “growing West with a broad open field for enterprise and usefulness.” In those early days Charles City contained a population of only a few hundred.

Upon arrival in Charles City he erected a building for his newspaper business on the corner of Main Street and Kelly Street. On July 31, 1856, he printed the first issue of his newspaper, the Republican Intelligencer.

In 1858 he was elected to the state Board of Education. Among the more important results of his legislative efforts was a law requiring the state university at Iowa City to be opened and free to women as well as men.

It is reported that Hildreth said one of the proudest days of his life was when he was permitted to stand up in the university chapel in the presence of more than 200 women students and nearly as many men students and explain the women were permitted to enjoy the same educational privileges.

In 1863 Hildreth was elected to represent the 54th District in the Iowa Legislature. Among the measures he undertook was asking Congress to grant land to aid in the contraction of a railroad through Charles City.

In 1862, Hildreth was one of the incorporators of the First Congregational Society of Charles City. In the spring of 1871, he took an active role in the organization of the First National Bank of Charles City. He was involved with bringing the first library to Charles City.

For many years Hildreth was a member of the school board of Charles City and for much of the time its president. He was also the president of the Riverside Cemetery Association.

He was the leader in organizing the Floyd County Agricultural Society and as secretary he completed the preparatory work of holding the first Floyd County Fair. In 1893 he built the Hildreth Hotel and Opera House. It served as the center of social life for residents in Charles City.

Hildreth died in 1909 at the age of 93.

Three new members will be inducted into Comet Hall of Fame
Lola Krumm

Lola Krumm

Lola Krumm attended Iowa State Teachers College and Coe College, where she received a bachelor’s degree in music. During WWII she taught band and orchestra at several schools in Kentucky and Iowa before coming to serve as the elementary band instructor in Charles City from 1968-1983.

She designed and implemented the first “pre-instrument” program for the Charles City school district. She is also credited with starting the Picked Band program for students who excelled in their early years. In 1975 and 1978 her Picked Bands were selected to perform at the Iowa Bandmaster’s Association.

She was named Charles City Teacher of the Year in 1979 and 1980. Her teaching was described by fellow Charles City orchestra teacher Gene Martin as “Quality. Absolute quality in everything.”

Krumm was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church, and was one of the founders of the Carnegie Cultural Center in New Hampton. She received the Charles City Rotary Leo Lidd Vocational Service Award in 1983.

Krumm died in 2010 at the age of 92.

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