This day in history: With shortage of nuns and students, Spokane’s Catholic schools faced challenges. Gov. Roland Hartley took flight at Felts Field

From 1975: The Spokesman-Review’s Sunday Magazine asked the question: Will Spokane’s private schools survive?

This question may have been prompted by the recent closure of Holy Names Academy, but it was also prompted by a lowered birth rate following the Baby Boom years.

The number of students in Spokane private schools had been steadily dropping. Administrators said the percentage of students seeking a private education had not changed, but “there simply are fewer students because of a decline in the birth rate.”

The superintendent of schools for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spokane said there was also a shortage of nuns.

“With the fewer nuns available to staff our schools, we are having to employ more and more lay teachers, to where, at the present, about half our teaching staff is made up of non-religious personnel,” he said.

From 1925: Gov. Roland Hartley got a bird’s eye view of Spokane when he went up in a Washington National Guard plane out of the Parkwater air field.

Hartley was inspecting the guard’s air unit at Parkwater (now Felts Field) when he took up Major John Fancher’s offer to experience the unit in action.

“It was a wonderful thing for the National Guard unit,” said Fancher. “The spirit of the governor, in having the courage to do the things men in his command have to do, made a hit with all of us. He was up about a half an hour and flew all over the city and Fort George Wright.”

Hartley called it “the greatest thrill of his life.”