The Coral Gables Times

A NEW DEVICE at Doctor's Hospital permits a visitor in the lobby to be seen upstairs in a patient's room. Assistant Director Mahlon Clark talks on the phone (left) and his picture is transmitted over closed cirtuit TV to a set upstairs (right). The free service is available in all rooms.

H. Rinalden Saunders Retiring He Grubbed with the PTA, Was Man With Ready Sledgehammer

By RAYMOND LANG Times Reporter "Just now I want to go out into the world, see the world and let the future take care of itself." H. Rinalden Saunders was telling how he feels as he's retiring as principal this year at Sunset Elementary School and bringing to a close 36 years as an educator. Last year, his wife died of cancer. "She had never been sick in her life," Saunders said, "and then suddenly she went." His foot tapped nervously. "And so I decided I was going to retire and see some of these things," he said, talking about Europe and South America, "before I'm all crippled up and can't." This summer, Saunders will tour the Mediterranean, stopping to see the pyramids in Egypt, the Roman ruins in Italy and the sights in Spain. This fall, he'll tour South America. Saunders, spry for his 65 years and looking like 50, walks to school each day from his home four blocks away at 7240 SW 53rd Pl. He stepped from his office into the school's patio. "You see that tree?" he asked. "I planted it myself. You don't see one like that everywhere. It's an achia regina." Saunders, who loves gardening, pointed to another tree. "That's a peltathoran; I got a garden club lady to come here and give it to us." Saunders took a final sweeping look at the remaining trees and shrubbery and fondly recalled how he, the Daddies' Club and PTA got down on their hands and knees in the dirt and planted them. "When I came here, there were old wooden buildings, portable classrooms," Saunders recalled. "And there was dust here," he motioned to the ground, now covered with hibiscus in bloom. "And I used to come out here after school and with the PTA put them in." Saunders began walking back to his office. "And I'd come over when they had their carnivals and use the sledgehammer to pound things in." He laughed heartily. "I owned the sledgehammer. "Well . . . they'll miss that part of me." RETIREMENT AHEAD FOR SAUNDERS

Sunset Elementary Has Its Origins Way Back . . .

Sunset Elementary School, originally named Coplum, began as a one-room school in 1896 through the efforts of Jim Bertashaw and A. H. Ramsey. A year later Larkins and his family took over the school and changed the name to Larkins School. His daughter Mary, one of the first pupils, later taught there. The little school room was moved, board by board, to Sunset and 52nd Ave. in 1911 and was renamed South Miami in 1924. The school originally went as far as the junior class and the senior class attended Miami High School. The original school room is now a storage room. The old teacherage, an L-shaped building for teachers' living quarters is now used as a home for the caretaker.

600 Honor Saunders At Farewell

H. Rinalden Saunders, principal of Sunset School was honored at a tea and reception given by the faculty and the Parent-Teacher Association, Sunday. In the receiving line at the tea were Mrs. Dudley Hall, Mr. Saunders, Mrs. Paul Floyd, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Bates, Mrs. Francis Alsobrook and Mrs. Norman Alley. Serving punch were Mrs. Dale Freelove, Mrs. David Abrams, Mrs. Melvin Schiller and Mrs. Gerald Rosen. Committee members included Mrs. Lewis Plunkett, Mrs. Lloyd Solic, Mrs. Thomas Hutson Jr., Mrs. John Hoehl, Mrs. Jackson Peters, Mrs. Barbara Griffith. Mrs. James Hobbs, Mrs. L. A. Dix, Mrs. Francis Alsobrook, Mrs. Raymond Tuttle, Mrs. Howard E. Klohr and Mrs. Marry G. Dauernheim.

First Job In Orlando Back in '26

H. R. Saunders' first teaching job was in Orlando in 1926. He turned down an offer at the University of Miami in 1934 because the pay was only $1,200. Instead, he became a social studies teacher at Miami Beach High. Latin American affairs is what he originally hoped to teach. He did advanced study at the University of Chicago, George Washington University and the Brookings Institute. He was one course away from earning his doctorate, but this was during the depression and he could not afford further schooling. Saunders, a native of a small Ohio town, Columbus Grove, has two married daughters. He has been Sunset principal 10 years.

Gableites Explain People Program

Commissioner George Wilson led a three-man delegation to Hollywood recently to explain the Coral Gables People to People Program to the Committee of 100 in that Broward County community. Wilson was accompanied by Dr. Robert L. Cherry and Bert Burris, City advertising and publicity consultant. The Gables commissioner was invited to address the Hollywood group following a recent meeting in Jacksonville in which he had spoken about the Gables' People to People exchange program with Cartagena, Colombia. Hollywood is planning to affiliate with San Jose, Costa Rica.

Sam Cohen Takes Job In Mass.

SAMUEL COHEN A Coral Gables resident and social welfare executive has accepted an appointment as executive director of the Springfield Jewish Community Council in Massachusetts. Samuel Cohen, 221 Viscaya Ave., has served for the past six years as assistant director and head of the community planning and budget division of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. He will take over his new post in July. The GMJF is the central fund-raising organization in the Dade area for more than 50 local, national and overseas agencies. Harris said the Federation's executive committee accepted Cohen's resignation "with deep regret and sincere appreciation of the job he has done in Miami. His work has been of superior caliber, and the community has benefitted from his conscientious attention to every endeavor of which he has been part." Mr. and Mrs. Cohen's sons, Stuart and Alan, are both Times carriers.

CAPT. HOLLIS M. Warner retires next week at St. Louis after more than 30 years' service in the U.S. Coast Guard. He is moving here to 1449 Mantua Ave. The Warner's son, Michael, is a student at N.C. State College, Raleigh, N.C. Captain Warner has 14 1/2 years' sea duty.