If you walk into the main entrance at Sachem High School North, you’ll notice the original building dedication plaque on the wall from 1969. For you Sachem aficionados, you’ll recognize the names Walter C. Dunham and Herman Beebe, but there’s another name with historical significance: Charles Baack.
Mr. Baack served on Sachem’s Board of Education from 1965-1971 and was honored during Sachem North’s graduation ceremony at Fred Fusaro Alumni Stadium on Saturday.
Baack’s name is on the building plaques at six Sachem schools. His trusteeship occurred during a bustling time in Sachem history, packed with expansion, construction and growth.
A lifelong resident of the Sachem community, Baack recalls when he attended a one-room school house on Main Street in Holbrook where Richard Hawkins was his teacher (yes, that Hawkins) and later the Union Avenue School where he graduated in eighth grade. Born in 1916, he is the Sachem community’s longest tenured resident to date.
Baack graduated from Sayville High School in 1936 since Sachem was not yet a school district until 1955.
After serving in the U.S. Navy during WWII, Baack went into commercial construction. In the prime of his life and successful in business, he felt it was the right time to run for the school board. His tenure lasted two terms, six years, before he said politics took over and he lost during his third election.
“There was always controversy,” he said, “but it was a wonderful experience.
Baack recalls the centralization of Sachem in 1955 and the necessity for the Holbrook, Holtsville-Farmingville and Lake Ronkonkoma school communities to come together.
“Neither one of them could afford it by themselves,” he said.
Addressing thousands in attendance during Saturday’s commencement ceremony, nearly 50 years since the construction of the school sitting next to him in the distance, Baack was very pleased to be back with his Sachem family.
“I don’t have any regrets,” he said. “It was a wonderful experience. I still occasionally look back on it today and think about what an experience it was.”
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro