Our school was named after a local hero and pioneering educator, Albert Will Angier., 1859 - 1944.
He was born on the still-unsettled frontier on the prairie near Forest City in Meeker County, Minnesota. There was violence as pioneers were settling the Midwest and the Native American tribes fought back and fought among themselves. To avoid the tribal warfare, his family fled to the city of St Paul. When he was a baby, Angier's father left to fight in the Civil War. After the war, the family moved to Illinois.
Angier attended lots of different schools in many different towns and didn't always get to school. Instead he pitched in to help the family and assist his father, a printer, working as what was called a "printer's devil." He was so smart that he was able to go to college, at the prestigious Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Soon he earned a teaching certificate and a job.
When the family moved to San Francisco in 1880, Will studied law at the University of California (now UC-Berkeley). He married Mamie Theresa Long in 1885 and they moved south to a farm near Del Mar in 1887, where they had three children, Harold, Charles and Carrie. Angier taught school in Encinitas and Del Mar, where he served as Justice of the Peace and a notary public and also helped his aunt run the local grocery store. He also worked as a typesetter for the local newspaper, the Daily Bee.
Angier became principal of the San Diego University Heights School in 1896. and rose to the position of Supervisor of Arithmetic. In 1899, he was made the first principal of the new State Normal School, which in the 19th and early 20th century is what teacher training colleges were called. San Diego's Normal School grew up to become San Diego State University.
Angier became first Assistant Superintendent of San Diego City Schools in 1920 and retired in 1931 as Business Manager. He had given the school district 35 years of continuous service, helping build the strong school district that has educated countless youths. He died in 1944 at age 85.
He is remembered not only for his sterling character, his untiring devotion to his work, his many civic services, but for three special activities: the establishment of the San Diego Schools' student savings program, the establishment of the first traffic signs at school crossings and the initiation of the first inter-district track, baseball and football contests. This school has been named in his honor.