Room at the Top

In the summer of 1956, two young graduates of Dallas' Highland Park High School embarked on the most rigorous ordeal of their young lives: the plebe year at the U.S. service academies. Annapolis Midshipman Alton K. Thompson and West Point Cadet Charles Paddock Otstott (who had spent a year at Southern Methodist University) had impressive records to maintain. At Highland Park, both were presidents of their senior class, both were members of the National Honor Society, and both were recipients of the top award given by the National Honor Society for all-round excellence in grades and extracurricular activities.

Last week, as they went off to relax on postgraduation leaves. Ensign Thompson and 2nd Lieut. Otstott left behind them still more impressive records. Each commanded his academy's undergraduate battalions, each was graduating class president, each led his class both academically and in military standing. For Highland Park High's prize alumni,* only one more goal was left to shoot for in the distant future: Chief of Staff for their respective services.

* Highland Park High School, which serves two upper-class Dallas suburbs, University Park and Highland Park, is one of the toughest high schools academically in the Southwest. From 1957 to 1959, only 40 of its 1,022 graduates did not attend college. In 1960, the national ratio of graduating seniors to National Merit scholars was 1,666 to 1; at Highland Park, the ratio proved to be 183 to 1.

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