By STAN STAPP

HOMER M. DAVIS, former principal of Lincoln High School in Wallingford, died April 24 at the ageof 94. He had been in charge at Lincoln for 15 years, from 1954 to 1969, only exceeded in length of tenure by Leroy M. Higgins (22 years), who was principal when I was in school.

Homer previously was head man for two years at Meany Junior High, nine at Cleveland High, and had held a number of other educational positions

He believed in taking a low-pressure approach to education. Few rules were broken by the students because Homer had few rules for them to go by - depending on the students themselves to keep order.

As publisher of the Outlook, I got to know him quite well because our weekly covered Lincoln news thoroughly, often with student reporters in addition to our own staff (well enough that Homer OK'd an Outlook newspaper rack to be put in the main hall in front of the school office so that faculty members could conveniently pick up a copy); we also printed the school paper, the Lincoln Totem, and I occasionally spoke to the journalism staff; and I attended a number of Tradition Day assemblies, including the one in 1964 when I was the alumni speaker at the dedication of sculptor Avard Fairbank's bronze bust of the "Young Mr. Lincoln." And the Outlook's office and shop was conveniently just a block from Lincoln High.

In 1961, when we acquired Eileen Little as our student reporter, I suggested she dig up more than just the "usual" news at Lincoln - stuff that would REALLY be interesting to our readers. Kind of like her mother, Muriel Little, did for us regularly in the field of politics (as the Outlook's Olympia correspondent).

Was I surprised! Eileen's first column told how a student dissident and a dozen of his followers were unhappy with the proposed new constitution that was before the Student Council. Not the constitution itself, he said, "but that it can be ratified without the consent of the student body."

He made quite a fuss, holding secret meetings, publishing his own two-page letter-size newspaper, "The Rebel Yell" (in which he facetiously named Mr. Davis as "The President of the Confederacy"), and at one point shinnied up the Lincoln flagpole, securing a Confederate flag at the top, and greasing the pole as he descended. When they tried to remove the flag, the pole proved unclimbable, and it had to be cut down.

Unsure of how accurate Eileen's account might have been, I confirmed it with Homer and found out her story was true. He added that the young rebel's position did have some merit; and that he would be holding a meeting very shortly with him and his followers; that he thought they were about to come up with some sort of agreement; and that the story in the Outlook might set back the progress that had been made. In other words: "Could I hold off on the story until after the meeting?"

I gave it some thought, and then so agreed. It wasn't an easy thing to do (I'm a great believer in free speech), but I told him I would. Thankfully the soft-spoken Homer and the noisy rebels achieved a satisfactory solution.

My only real problem later was when I was invited to meet with the UW Daily staff, and was questioned closely as to whether I had done the right thing in "suppressing the news."

In retirement, Homer enjoyed reading, travel, lawn bowling, swimming, and was active in University Congregational Church, where memorial services were held May 23. He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Genevieve.