Stephen Frese in 2006 and 2023
This column by Daniel G. Clark about Alexander Clark (1826-1891) first appeared in the Muscatine Journal on Dec. 13, 2023.
My previous column told of the high-school junior whose 2006 biographical essay on civil-rights hero Alexander Clark won him a full-tuition university scholarship, the top prize in the National History Day competition.
To find out what became of Iowa’s prodigy, I sought help from Naomi Peuse who had been the NHD coordinator at the State Historical Society at the time.
“Stephen Frese, the history nerd,” he called himself back then.
Saying she had not been in touch with him in the intervening years, she quickly pointed me to a picture on the website of his alma mater, Marshalltown High School, where he is now a teacher—of science.
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