Kettering High was once a pride of the Detroit Public Schools and named for a titan of the automotive industry.
In the 1950s, the city of Detroit was at its peak population of nearly 2 million, and many of its public schools faced overcrowding issues. In 1959, voters approved a $90-million bond issue that was to construct 29 new schools. Among them would be a new high school on the east side in order to alleviate the burden on Eastern and Denby schools. It just needed a namesake.
'Boss Ket'
The school was named in honor of Charles Franklin "Boss Ket" Kettering, a giant of the auto industry and holder of hundreds of patents. After graduating from the Ohio State University in 1904, he took a job at the National Cash Register Co. in Dayton, Ohio, where he would invest the first electric cash register. Five years later, he and Edward Deeds formed the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., or DELCO, for short.
In 1912, Kettering developed the first electric starter, ignition and lighting system for cars. The electric starter, which first appeared as standard equipment on the 1912 Cadillac, would revolutionize automobiles. Four years later, DELCO became a subsidiary of the United Motors Corp., which became General Motors in 1919. Kettering became the head of the automaker's research division from 1920 to 1947, moving to Detroit in 1925 to form the GM Research Corp. His automotive resume includes crankcase ventilation systems, 4-wheel drive brakes, Freon-12 for air-conditioning, quick-drying lacquers for auto paint, antiknock fuels and leaded gasoline, and the V8 Kettering Engine.
Over his career, Kettering would tinker on everything from aerial torpedoes and synthetic aircraft fuel to diesel locomotives to safety glass to a process for extracting bromine from sea water. Beyond his inventions, he was also a noted philanthropist. He and GM colleague Alfred P. Sloan funded the creation of the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research at the Memorial Cancer Center in New York. His estate would go on to create the Kettering Family Foundation.
He died Nov. 25, 1958, in Dayton, Ohio, at age 82 following a stroke. The Detroit Free Press eulogized Kettering two days later extolling, "Down through the years, the world has been blessed by the presence of men who have left their impact on the ages by their inquisitiveness, imagination and sheer genius in being able to transform the unknown and the intricate into simple terms of the human common denominator. Such men were Leonardo da Vinci, Harvey, Edison, Ford. To this company belongs Charles Kettering. As much as any man, past or living, he changed the course of mankind's existence for all time."
The passing of such a genius, and one who called Detroit home at that, made naming a school after him a no-brainer.
Kettering High
In June 1960, the Detroit Board of Education acquired a six-block area bounded by Townsend, Van Dyke, Conger and the Edsel Ford Freeway for the new school. The demolition of houses to make way for the school began in March 1961, but delays caused by cost increases and strikes slowed the project. The building permit was finally pulled the week of Feb. 28, 1964 - almost four years after the school board bought the site. The building was designed by the firm Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, and cost $2.6 million to build.
Despite the years of effort to make the school a reality, the initial Kettering was lacking many of the amenities of most high schools of its era. Two two-story classroom wings flanked by a central area that was home to the light-filled cafeteria and library. At first, there was no gym or auditorium, let alone a swimming pool. Though cost and delays were certainly part of the problem, it is also worth noting that Kettering was built during a time of segregation in Detroit. Denby, for instance, was more than 90 percent white; Kettering was almost 90 percent Black.
As the start of the 1965 school year approached, workers were scrambling to finish Kettering, Eastern, and Murray-Wright high schools. Even as the school opened in September, some classes were held in the gym because classroom furniture hadn't showed up. Workers continued to install lights and tiles throughout the first week
The school was formally dedicated Dec. 1, 1965, even though it had opened for classes that September.
Two years later, in 1967, work began on a new wing that added a gym, as well as more classrooms. This addition was completed in 1969. The swimming pool wouldn’t come until 1975, when another $4 million addition was tacked onto the school.
The special K
Despite Detroit losing population for almost three decades, the school district decided to break ground on yet another addition to Kettering in 1978, spending another $4 million to add a 1,200-seat auditorium and larger cafeteria. (Though the Leonard Sain Auditorium, as it was officially named, wouldn’t be dedicated until 1981.) The final Kettering addition came off the drafting table of Roger Margerum, a Black architect known for his geometrically striking designs.
As part of the addition, Margerum came up with a 14-foot, 15-ton blue "K" made of reinforced concrete to serve as a source of school pride.
"We needed a physical symbol that the students could relate to," Margerum told the Free Press for a Sept. 11, 1982, story, "a sort of permanent battering ram of the school's identity."
It was initially installed in its natural concrete color, but the sculpture was painted white by Kettering students. Margerum told the paper that he believed the block letter sculpture was the first artwork incorporated into the design of any Detroit public school. The K was later painted blue.
Among Kettering's most famous alumni are a slew of athletes, including NFL players Stan Edwards, Jerome Foster and Carl Powell; NBA players Lindsay "Spider" Hairston and Eric Money (both of whom played for the Detroit Pistons), and Connie Norman; and 1984 Olympic gold medalist boxer Frank Tate.
Closing Kettering
From the time of Kettering’s opening in 1965 to the completion of the latest addition in 1981, Detroit’s population had fallen by 25 percent, from 1.6 million to 1.2 million. Things would go only downhill from there for the east side neighborhood around Kettering. By 2003, enrollment stood at about 1,500 for the 2,100-student capacity school. Just seven years later, enrollment was down to fewer than 900.
Citing the decline in enrollment and pricey roof and HVAC replacements being needed, Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts announced Feb. 8, 2012, that Kettering would close at the end of the school year, in June 2012. The building was soon picked apart by vandals and scrappers.
In 2019, parts supplier Dakkota Integrated Systems bought Kettering for $2.6 million in order to demolish the building and erect a new factory. Work on that facility began that year on the former Kettering athletic field, with the vacant school left standing. The factory officially opened May 5, 2022, in a ceremony featuring remarks from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Dakkota CEO Andra Rush. The factory employs more than 500 people in good-paying union jobs, making instrument panels for Jeep vehicles.
Meanwhile, Dakkota saved the Kettering K and put it on display at Van Dyke and Hendrie. A plaque next to the K reads:
"This property sits on the land that housed one of the most beloved high schools in Detroit history, Charles F. Kettering High School. It was affectionately called 'The Big KE.' A major symbol of the school pride is the 30,000 lb 'K' made of solid concrete that was proudly designed and cast by Kettering students. Standing 14ft tall, the 'K' symbolizes a strong tradition of academic and athletic achievement of the proud Kettering Pioneers. Since the inception of Kettering in 1965 until its closing in 2012, the 'K' remains a symbol of the schools (sic) legendary history and the unwavering pride of all teachers, staff and their committed alumni. The school mottos, 'Go Hard or Go Home' and 'We're a Winner' are words we lived by and will never be forgotten. Long live the memory of the 'Sweet Blue and White.'"
Finally, in the fall of 2024, preparation for demolition on the school began.