Mr. Wilbur (Bill) E. Sweet passed away on April 8, 1999. He was 82 years of age and a resident of San Antonio, Texas.
Mr. Sweet was a naval officer during World War II and lost his lower left leg while at sea. He retired on disability as a Lieutenant Commander.
He was the principal at ZAHS from 1961 to 1966. From Zama, he traveled to Seoul, Korea, to be the superintendent. He and his wife, Miriam, retired in San Antonio, where she still lives.
Mr. Sweet is survived by his wife, Miriam, and two sons. Their son, Jim, graduated from ZAHS in 1964.
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Yvonne Heinricks (Alexander) (1964)
Mr. Sweet had a soft side and a sense of humor. When I once wore my hair in a weird style, he asked, "Don't you like the way girls are wearing their hair these days?" He also knew that I spent a lot of time at school because it kept me away from home. He understood that I was absent frequently from school because I would travel (at dawn) to Tokyo by train to act as an extra in Japanese movies. He was always kind to me and never reprimanded me.
Yvonne Heinricks Alexander
Class of 1964
James Barnett (1964)
Mr Sweet was the key to the Trojans winning the Far East Championships in 1963. The team sort of had a "walk out" because the assigned coach didn't have a clue...I think he was an available Army sargeant or something...but he really had no idea how we worked. We told Mr Sweet that as a team, we were not going to play for this guy and would much prefer Darrel Coleman be our coach. Actually, we would have preferred Coach Fitzpatrick but the Sup had already run him off. Mr Sweet allowed as how this was all pobably true (his son Jim was on the team so he had some inside perspective) but we had to have an adult supervisor on the bench. We ageed that this was probably necessary, maybe more so on the bus but that is another story...did I mention that the cheerleaders rode the bus with us to away games? Anyway, Coach continued to sit on the bench and pose for pictures, but Darrell took charge on the court, Roy Walker fired it up, Bill Bug pulled it down when Roy or Darrell missed...seldome. The rest of us cycled around to help where we coud. Roy scored 30 of our 54 points in the final game...25 in the first half. On subject...Walk Like a Man by the Four Seasons was the top of the charts that week.