West Olympia has been home to many people with a vision for prosperity both in mind and body. John Riley Chaplin was one whose keen eye saw a town budding and wanted to influence that growth from the schoolhouse door to the neighborhood front door.
On November 16, 1927 Olympia High School students gathered to pay respects to long time teacher B.R. McClelland. “Perhaps,” observed the Morning Olympian newspaper, “no teacher was ever as respected and honored by the students as was the white-haired mathematical teacher.”