First Teaching Post — Richfield High School

The Evening Telegram announced on September 21, 1957: “Lauren Ekroth, son of Mrs. C. Elton Ekroth, 915 Belknap St., has completed graduate work on his master’s degree at the University of Minnesota. He is now teaching sophomore speech and English at Richfield High School, Richfield, Minn.”

The notice is brief, but three things stand out. First, the subject matter: not dramatics, not theater, but speech and English — the pivot from performer to speech educator had already occurred. His master’s degree and his first job were both oriented toward communication and language rather than stage performance. Second, his mother is listed as “Mrs. C. Elton Ekroth” — the widow’s title confirming that his father Elton had died sometime between Christmas 1956 and that September. Third, the family home at 915 Belknap Street remained the anchor address even as Lauren had moved to the Twin Cities to teach.

Richfield is a first-ring suburb immediately south of Minneapolis, adjacent to the University of Minnesota campus. The school was a practical first placement for a new M.A. graduate. Lauren taught there for approximately one academic year — the 1957–58 school year — before being drafted into the U.S. Army on October 21, 1958. The classroom at Richfield High was his first professional arena for the kind of work he would continue, in very different settings, for the rest of his life: teaching people how to use language and speak to one another.