Carl W. Anderson was a singer, a sailor and an innovative principal at Washburn High School in Minneapolis during a period of great societal change, including racial unrest, in the late 1960s.
Anderson, 96, died of respiratory failure Tuesday in Minneapolis.
In 1962, he was recognized among 20 outstanding principals in the country by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, said his son, Paul Anton, of Minneapolis.
Anderson served as Washburn's principal from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. In his last five years there, he faced unrest among black students, a local manifestation of unrest nationwide. According to Minneapolis newspaper reports, at one point police officers were brought in to cope with unruly students, and there were a few hallway fights involving students and staff.
Anderson hired two black teachers, but didn't meet all dozen demands made by black students.
Meanwhile, some staff members pressed for expulsion of those they deemed troublemakers, but Anderson said his goal was educating all students.
"If you kick them out, then they are out of society," Anderson told the Minneapolis Tribune in February 1972. "Particularly a black youngster. If he doesn't have a diploma, what chance does he have?"
Howard Straiton, now 92, was a Nokomis Junior High principal at the time. "If anybody rode out the storm without getting panicky, it was Carl," Straiton said. "He was very intelligent ... low-key, in control of his temper and emotions. But kids were getting so aggressive."
