Student council project helps return restored sundial to Quincy Junior High School grounds

QUINCY — A historical artifact is back where it belongs in Quincy.

More than 30 years after being vandalized, then eventually removed and stored away, the sundial at Quincy Junior High School has returned to its original home on the south lawn near 14th and Jersey.

“It’s been a learning process,” said Rick Owsley, assistant principal at QJHS.

The sundial is more than 90 years old, dating to its concept, approval and completion in the late 1920s and early 1930s when the current junior high school building served as the high school. The sundial had been stored in the school basement in recent years.

Owsley said much of the history tied the sundial is connected with Native Americans of the time, particularly the Ojibwa tribe.

“We need to look after and take care of historical sites like this,” Owsley told a turnout of about 75 teachers, citizens and students Thursday afternoon just before the restored sundial’s formal dedication.

Owsley helped coordinate a month-long project that involved the eighth-grade student council leadership group, building supervisor Eric Walton, district librarian Heather Colombo and the contributions of three local companies: 

• Krazy Town Trampoline Park/Schuster Construction (Kasey Schuster restored the stone and reattached the stone to the pedestal);
• Awerkamp Machine Company (Mark Terwelp custom-made the new shadow caster for the dial); and
• Johnson Painting (Ted Johnson provided a custom paint job for the shadow caster).

The eighth-grade student council leadership group, sponsored by Mary Meyer, consisted of students Lucy Shields, Raziah Whisler, Aubrey Brown and Ella Cain. Owsley said the student council group helped raise $880 toward the project.

“Ella took the lead on this, and all the girls did a lot of research,” said Owsley, 58, in his last official act as assistant principal before retiring from the Quincy Public Schools.

Meyer praised the efforts of the girls involved.

“These girls really stepped up, and this project fit perfectly with them wanting to leave a legacy at the junior high,” Meyer said. “They are leaving the school better than they found it.”

Cain explained the importance of the sundial to Native Americans.

“The sun held great significance to the Ojibwa tribe,” she said. “It held both a cultural and spiritual importance to them.”

Both Brown and Whisler discussed being involved with the project and how important it became to them.

“We were all grateful to have been able to help,” Whisler said. “The sundial is an important part (of our history).”

Owsley said the restored sundial, its pedestal and other properties are as “close to the original condition as possible.”