In 1941, Ernest Everett Wood had been principal since the school opened in 1908.
After almost twenty years, the Northwestern Pacific Railroad decided to abandon its school train service in 1941. “The Special” had picked up students from Manor in Fairfax through the Ross Valley to Corte Madera.
Two cars were for boys, two cars were for girls and one car was coed.
Mr. Wood ordered 14 yellow buses, had a garage built and hired George Stocking to supervise the service and keep the buses in repair. On Dec. 8, 1941, the morning after Pearl Harbor, Mr. Wood addressed the school in Mead Theatre in a voice choked with emotion.
What followed was a sudden influx of population. Marin Ship had been established in Sausalito. Mr. Wood put the school on double sessions because of lack of teachers, lack of classrooms and lack of buses. Faculty members including Miss McCurdy drove most of the buses.
A few faculty members worked at Marin Ship after school hours. The auto shop teacher resigned to work there. There was a mandatory course in First Aid for the faculty, and all did some sort of war-related work: Red Cross, Civilian Defense or plane spotting on Hog’s Back above Sausalito.
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