She kept everything: 76-year-old yearbook finds its way home

A copy of the first yearbook published by the former Exeter District High School has been donated to the library at South Huron District High School. The yearbook, which belonged to longtime school secretary Doris Ohmayer (Schwartz), was kept in almost perfect condition. Pictured are school technical resource assistant Robyn Cox, who accepted the donated yearbook, and Karen Windsor, Ohmayer’s niece who found the yearbook after aunt’s death.

By Dan Rolph

A unique piece of local history now sits on the shelves of the library in South Huron District High School, thanks to one local woman who was the “face of the high school” by the time she left.

That piece – the first yearbook published by what at that time was Exeter District High School in 1950 – was found by Karen Windsor, the niece of former school secretary Doris (Schwartz) Ohmayer.

Ohmayer, who died in October 2025 at 95, held onto that yearbook and kept it in near mint condition, with its black velvet cover almost untouched and the words “Ink Spot” the only thing time has faded.Windsor said she didn’t initially think much of the book beyond its sentimental value as she went through her aunt’s possessions after her passing, but in time, she began to understand the importance of what she’d found.

“It’s in pristine condition,” said Windsor. “I wanted it to be somewhere where it stayed in that condition.”

Collections of the high school’s yearbooks exist both at the Huron County Library Exeter Branch and the high school’s library, but copies of that first 1950 yearbook weren’t part of those collections on the shelves.

That was until Ohmayer’s copy was donated to South Huron District High School’s library on March 2.

The yearbook was published the same year Exeter’s high school opened, replacing the building that is now Exeter Elementary School. The same building that opened in 1950 is where today’s students go to learn 76 years later – albeit in a school that’s been expanded several times over the years.

Ohmayer’s career at the school began when she was one of those students. After the school’s principal, H.L. Sturgis, visited Ohmayer’s parents at their home to tell them of their daughter’s potential, she began working in the school office in 1949.

By the time she retired in 1990 – 41 years after she first started working at the school – she was running the office as head secretary.

“This career was extremely important to her,” said Windsor. “Everyone knew Doris, and their children knew Doris. She was the face of the high school for a long time.”

Even in her first year working at the school, it’s Ohmayer’s face that can be seen front and centre in the first photo featured in the yearbook alongside the rest of the school’s staff.

However, what stood out to Windsor was that while the rest of the staff members were identified as “Mr.” or “Mrs.,” her aunt was called “Doris Schwartz” in the list of those in the picture.

“It was probably never Ms. Schwartz,” said Windsor. “That’s the way it was.

“She was tremendously close to the kids. They had to follow the rules and there had to be structure, but the kids would all come in and see Doris.”

The yearbook itself acts as a time capsule from an era just after the Second World War, where secondary school education was seen as the pinnacle of schooling for most Canadians. Dozens of local businesses proudly advertised between the pages dedicated to preserving the names and images of the students who first learned in the new school, while much of the writing below those photos is noticeably handwritten, not typed.

A stark contrast when compared to today’s digitally crafted yearbooks.

The school’s first yearbook wasn’t the only piece Ohmayer kept from her time at the high school that clearly meant a great deal to her.

Amongst many photos from Ohmayer’s time at the school, in nearly perfect condition, Windsor found a red booklet — the very first typing job Ohmayer had completed as secretary at the school. Attached to that booklet with a now-rusted paperclip was a note, written in her aunt’s handwriting and signed “Doris” that stated principal Sturgis “was really pleased” with her work.

“She has kept that all these years,” said Windsor. “She kept everything.”

Windsor said she and her family would often find her aunt running into people in Exeter who knew her as she went about everyday life in Exeter after leaving the school, and that those run-ins with former students were a “thrill” for Ohmayer.

“We’re extremely proud of her,” said Windsor. “You just don’t see this much anymore, people having this longevity in one place.

“For her to be the one in the office that was taking your late slip or typing up exams in the corner, to touch people the way she did was pretty incredible.”