Fairfield High School Trojan Honor Plaza and Courtyard

Please click on these links to see the video and photos:

Video

Photos

Produced by:
Werner Elmker Audio-Visual Studio
Fairfield Media Center

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Two articles from the Southeast Iowa Union newspaper about the projects:

Trojan Honor Courtyard nears completion FAIRFIELD – Progress continues on the construction of the Trojan Honor Courtyard south of the Fairfield High School, and should be ready for students when they return to class this fall, assuming they do. The project honors Fairfield High School’s tradition of fine arts with a courtyard in an octagonal shape and a concrete sitting wall and brick floor. Funds for the project will come partly from selling the bricks in the courtyard, which will bear the names of those honored such as Fairfield graduates, teachers, coaches, district or state champions, In the middle of the courtyard will be the school’s logo, an image of a Trojan soldier. As of Thursday, the outline of the octagon was complete, and a bed of rocks had been poured that the bricks will rest on. One half of the project is already done, and that’s the concrete slab leading to the octagon. This “bridge” bears a design with the names of the school’s fine arts programs: art, drama, musicals, plays, speech, its choirs such as concert and jazz, and its bands such as concert, jazz and pep. The letters in the design are stainless steel, and were installed last August. The Trojan Honor Courtyard is the second “Trojan Honor” project at Fairfield High School. The first was the Trojan Honor Plaza on the east side of the school near Trojan Stadium. That began as a project to commemorate the contributions of Fairfield alumni Fred Behner and James Evans, and expanded into a place to recognize other graduates. The instigator of the project is Ron Hunerdosse, who said that since the Honor Plaza has an athletic theme, he wanted to do something to honor the school’s fine arts programs as well. Thus was born the Trojan Honor Courtyard. It’s fitting that the courtyard is just outside the auditorium where the school’s concerts, musicals and plays are held. Though Hunerdosse oversees the project, he feels that the credit for the courtyard should go to two other people: Sue Buch and Kent Whitney. Buch hatched the idea of the courtyard, and Whitney designed the octagon and picked out the bricks for it. “I have nothing to do with most of these ideas,” Hunerdosse joked. “I just go around and make sure they get done. I found the right people to help me out.” The courtyard is being built by Brandon Buch and Cole Boatright. Hunerdosse said 60 of the bricks have already been purchased, which will go a long way toward defraying the cost of the project. The committee is hopeful many more bricks will be purchased for engraving in the near future. Hunerdosse noted that, unfortunately, the shape of the courtyard will mean that many of the bricks will not be engravable because they will be small, partial bricks.
Andy Hallman/The Union • July 17, 2020

Trojan Honor Courtyard under construction The project is known as the Trojan Honor Courtyard, and it’s a companion project to one done a few years ago on the east side of the high school called the Trojan Honor Plaza. The courtyard will be an octagon shape with a concrete sitting wall and a brick floor. Funds for the project will come partly from selling the bricks in the courtyard, which will bear the names of those honored such as FHS graduates, teachers, coaches, district or state champions, etc. In the middle of the courtyard will be the school’s logo, an image of a Trojan soldier. The courtyard also includes a concrete bridge connecting it to the front doors of the FHS Auditorium. That bridge bears a design with the names of the school’s fine arts programs: art, drama, musicals, plays, speech, its choirs such as concert and jazz, and it's bands such as concert, jazz and pep. The letters in the design are stainless steel, and were just installed Aug. 19. The bricks and the sitting wall will soon follow. Ron Hunerdosse, who has organized the project, is hopeful the courtyard can be ready by Fairfield’s Homecoming football game Oct. Hunerdosse said he grew nervous as he watched Jeff Schafer and his son Joe pour concrete over the letters. “I was in panic mode,” Hunerdosse said. But they knew what they were doing. Jeff and Joe quickly grabbed a trowel to smooth the concrete so it came right up to the top of the letters without covering them. Then they sanded the letters so they stood out nicely.
Andy Hallman/The Union • September 03, 2019