William Happ, driving force behind Lab School, dies at 83 By JENNIFER JACOBS, Courier Staff Writer
The former Price Laboratory School physical education teacher who planned and supervised the construction of the original field house gymnasium and swimming pool has died. William Peter Happ died in Green Valley, Arizona, on February 18, 1999, of prostate cancer. He was 83. "He was very competent in his field, but he was dedicated to the total school program and contributed significantly to the overall welfare of the Laboratory School during his years here," said Ross Nielsen, who was director of the school from 1962 to 1986. When Happ came to Cedar Falls in 1948, the campus lab school was housed in Sabin Hall. The new school was in the design phase. Happ raised objections to the designs for a new conventional gym. He and then president William Maucker convinced the Board of Regents to reject them and accept Happ's concept for a fieldhouse and pool.
Born in 1915 in Winnetka, Illinois, Happ swam in high school. He graduated from Northwestern University, where he was also on the swim team, in 1939, with a pre-law degree. When Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He served as a pilot instructor, then shipped out to Norwich, England, as a B-24 bomber pilot. Happ flew missions over Germany and was scheduled to join the war in the Pacific when Japan surrendered. Taking advantage of the GI Bill®, Happ enrolled at the University of Iowa, where he achieved a master's degree in liberal arts and a doctorate in physiology. At the Lab School, he created the physical education and health programs for girls and boys in kindergarten through twelfth grade. "It's one of the remarkable programs that has been accomplished in the Lab School," Nielsen said. "Basically, it's still in place." Happ also founded the statewide high school competitive swimming program, produced. instruction films for teaching young children to swim, and played a key role in fund-raising for Ray Edwards Pool.
He married Suzanne Conklin-Happ, a University of Northern Iowa professor of piano, in 1959. He had two sons from a previous marriage, Kirk and Richard. And Suzanne brought three children into the marriage, Ferol, Beth, and George, who was killed in a car crash in Missouri in 1971. After the Happs built a retirement home on Duck Lake in Interlochen, Michigan, over a period of three summers, they retired in 1972. Happ created the Duck Lake Community Association. He also planned and built a recreation center with tennis courts, a baseball diamond, and other recreational facilities. The Happs moved to Arizona in 1986. He was elected president of the Desert Meadows Circle Homeowners Association, and joined the board of directors for the Green Valley Concert Association. There will he a memorial service on March 13, 1999, in Green Valley. Remembrances may he sent to the American Cancer Society, 1636 N. Swan Road, Tucson, Arizona 85712.
Copyright Waterloo Courier, February 28, 1999, page C6.
"GI Bill®” is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). More information about education benefits offered by VA is available at the official U.S. government website at www.benefits.va.gov/gibill.