You can read the whole story here. I have never heard it myself so I was curious how widespread it was.
Kind of TLDR: In 1959 a junior in high school did a 50 star flag as a class project, as the flag at that point had 48, but Alaska and Hawaii would need to be added. His teacher gave him a B on the project. He sent a copy to his state senator.
A few years later, he get’s a call from President Eisenhower congratulating him, his design would be the US flag. Big deals, gets to meet Eisenhower, local news takes him back to teacher and films him crossing out the B and giving him an A. Everyone calls him the modern Betsy Ross.
Except, much like Betsy Ross, none of it is true. I have never heard any story like this. How about you?
Never heard that story. The history I’m familiar with is more about the political maneuvering about admission (particularly the weird reticence to admitting Hawaii) than about the vexillology.
It’s a US flag. I assume the government has professionals to design that kind of stuff.
What I thought was weird is that the story is written like everyone had heard of this guy. I actually scrolled back up and checked the date for April Fools or something.
I have heard about Mr. Heft and may have seen that episode of “I’ve Got a Secret” somewhere. I am a bit surprised that the article in the OP makes no mention of this from the Eisenhower Library:
Would you have been able to come up with his name on your own, or did seeing it trigger your memory?
Looking for the Eisenhower flag you showed, the first Google hit after that has this in it:
According to Reader’s Digest , the 50-star flag was began as a high school project for which the student Bob Heft only received a B- on his project. The flag was later chosen by President Eisenhower as the design for new flag out of 1000+ designs, and Heft’s grade was bumped up to an A. Over 10 presidents have served under this flag, from Eisenhower through to the present.
That’s got to pretty much settle it. Reader’s Digest would never publish a false story!
We don’t have to worry now, fortunately he designed a 51 star flag before he died. This means we don’t have to hold a countrywide competition of high schoolers for our next flag.
I would be genuinely interested to know the following–
Of the people who say that they’ve never heard of Robert Heft or his story, do any of you consider yourselves to be voracious readers?
Because I’m a voracious reader, and I came across that story years ago.
Doesn’t matter how much you read – it’s easy to miss trivia like this.
…
I had run across Heft’s story in the past, but I wouldn’t have been able to place his name. Further, I can’t recall where I might have read about that. Could’ve been something like Reader’s Digest. Could’ve been one of those Isaac Asimov trivia books or something similar. Could’ve been an issue of Highlights. No idea.
Yes, and particularly when I was younger (even as a kid in the '70s), I read every magazine that showed up in our house, as well as the newsaper. I mention that because I read Reader’s Digest (which has come up in this thread) cover to cover every month when I was a kid.
It’s entirely possible that I read his story, or heard about him, back then, and it’d had completely fallen out of my memory in the intervening decades.
Somebody needs do a similar story and investigate where the hell the “Canada burned down the White House” story came from and why so many Canadians (and Americans) believe it.
