History

Conrad Ball Middle School

Conrad Ball Junior High School was authorized for planning, design, and construction in 1969 by the voters of Thompson School District R2-J. The school was designed by the architectural firm of Wheeler and Lewis in Denver. The general contractor was Livingston Construction in Fort Collins. The 84,000 square foot building cost $1.76 million and was built on a 21 acre plot of land adjacent to Mary Blair Elementary near the intersection of Monroe Avenue and 29th Street in Loveland. The original enrollment was expected to be 850 students.

The Board of Education recognized Conrad Ball for his 16 years of service on the Board as well as his service as the Board’s attorney for 10 years. Conrad Ball accepted his appointment as district judge in 1969.

Richard E. Neale was appointed the first principal of Conrad Ball Junior High School in 1972. Prior to his administrative assignments, he served as a teacher and coach in the Thompson School District. He is also a past president of the Loveland Kiwanis Club.

Conrad Ball (1907 – 1989)

Conrad “Lucky” Ball was born on July 9, 1907, in Gallatin, Missouri, the son of Robert J. and Theo Welden Ball. In 1922, Robert Ball purchased the Loveland Reporter Herald newspaper and moved his family to Loveland, Colorado. Con graduated from Loveland High School in 1925. He attended Colorado A & M (now Colorado State University) for a year and then enrolled at the University of Colorado School of Law, where he graduated in 1930.

In August 1931, Conrad married Clara Vorreiter, the daughter of pioneering Loveland merchants. Clara and Con loved to travel. After their marriage, they visited Europe in 1932, with a stopover in New York City. Upon his return, Conrad was asked to recount his greatest experience during the trip. Without hesitation, Conrad responded, “Seeing Babe Ruth in Yankee Stadium.”

After law school, Conrad worked in Ft. Collins and Wichita, Kansas, but he always wanted to return to Loveland. Acting on his dream, in 1946, Conrad moved back to Loveland and established a law partnership with Herman Seaman. In 1948, Con and Clara built their dream home on Lake Loveland, where they raised their three children and lived for the rest of their lives. Family was always fundamental in Conrad Ball’s life. At his death many remembered that as his children were growing up, he would not schedule appointments after 3:00 pm in the summer, so that he could go home and play ball with them.

Public service was a hallmark of Conrad’s career. He organized the Loveland Memorial Hospital Association in 1951 and did all its legal work pro bono. In addition to his private practice, he served as Loveland City Attorney for more than twenty years. He became recognized as an expert on municipal law throughout the state. Conrad founded the Loveland Methodist Foundation for the First United Methodist Church in Loveland. He also helped found the Home State Bank, because he felt Loveland needed at least two major banks. Moreover, Conrad served on the local school board for fourteen years. After leaving the school board in 1961, he served as its attorney until 1968.

Conrad’s service to his profession and community allowed him to hurdle political barriers. A life-long Democrat in a heavily Republican community, in 1969 he was appointed to the Eighth Judicial District Court by Republican Governor John Love. He was later elected to the presidency of the Colorado District Judges Association and appointed to the state of Colorado’s Judicial Qualifications Committee. He also was a founding member of the Larimer County Community Corrections Board. Every year, that group gives an award in his name for service furthering respect for the law. Conrad also was a prominent member of the Colorado Bar Association for sixty years.

As a jurist, Judge Ball was loved and respected by his peers and by those who practiced before him. He believed in judicial efficiency and was famous for courteously, but firmly, moving matters along. He often used humor to make his point and this endeared him to the lawyers of Larimer County.

His commitment to the children of Loveland was recognized in October 1973 when the Conrad Ball Junior High School (now Conrad Ball Middle School) was dedicated. At the dedication of the school, Federal District Court Judge Hatfield Chilson eloquently recounted the details of the distinguished career that led to the school’s dedication in Conrad Ball’s name. At his death on September 7, 1989, Conrad’s intelligence, compassion, humor and love for the common man were remembered.

The Legend of the Thunderbird

Two Indians desired to find the origin of thunder. They traveled north and came to a high mountain. These mountains performed magically. They drew apart, back and forth, then closed together very quickly.

One Indian said, “I will leap through the cleft before it closes. If I am caught, you continue to find the origin of thunder.” The first one succeeded in going through the cleft before it closed, but the second one was caught and squashed.

On the other side, the first Indian saw a large plain with a group of wigwams, and a number of Indians playing a ball game. After a while, these players said to each other, “It is time to go.” They disappeared into their wigwams to put on wings, and came out with their bows and arrows and flew away over the mountains to the south. This was how the Passamaquoddy Indian discovered the homes of the thunderbirds.

The remaining old men of that tribe asked the Passamaquoddy Indian, “What do you want? Who are you?” He replied with the story of his mission. The old men deliberated how they could help him.

They decided to put the lone Indian into a large mortar, and they pounded him until all of his bones were broken. They molded him into a new body with wings like a thunderbird, and gave him a bow and some arrows and sent him away in flight. They warned him not to fly too close to trees, as he would fly so fast he could not stop in time to avoid them, and he would be killed.

The lone Indian could not reach his home because the huge enemy bird, Wochowsen, at that time made such a damaging wind. Thunderbird is an Indian and he or his lightning would never harm another Indian. But Wochowsen, great bird from the south, tried hard to rival Thunderbird. So Passamaquoddies feared Wochowsen, whose wings Glooscap once had broken, because he used too much power.

A result was that for a long time air became stagnant, the sea full of slime, and all of the fish died. But Glooscap saw what was happening to his people and repaired the wings of Wochowsen to the extent of controlling and alternating strong winds with calm.

Legend tells us this is how the new Passamaquoddy thunderbird, the lone Indian who passed through the cleft, in time became the great and powerful Thunderbird, who always has kept a watchful eye upon the good Indians