The High Schooler Who Designed the 50-Star American Flag
It was 1958, and Robert G. Heft was a junior at Lancaster High School in Ohio. His history teacher, Stanley Pratt, gave the class an open-ended assignment: make something, anything, and bring it in. Most students chose something safe. Heft decided to redesign the flag of the United States.
Heft took the challenge seriously. He sent his flag to his congressman and began a steady campaign of letters and calls. Then history caught up with his design. Alaska became a state in January 1959, and Hawaii followed that August. Suddenly the country needed a 50-star flag, and submissions poured in by the thousands.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower selected a design identical to the one Heft had sewn in his grandparents’ kitchen. On July 4, 1960, the 50-star flag became official. It has flown ever since, the longest-serving version of the American Flag in the nation’s history.
And the grade? Pratt kept his word. The B minus became an A.
Now you know the rest of the story.
