About Clarence Fulton Secondary
Clarence Fulton Secondary School is located in Vernon, British Columbia and serves grades 8 through 12. The school is nestled along Vernon Creek and is surrounded by Grahame Park which provides baseball diamonds, soccer, rugby and football fields, sand volleyball courts and outdoor basketball courts for use by our students and families.
Historical Information
Clarence Fulton Secondary School was first known as Vernon High School and was located at the north end of Polson Park beginning in 1937. The name was changed to Clarence Fulton High School in 1964 to honour a long-time teacher, Clarence Fulton. In 1967, the school housed grades 8 – 10 and was then known as Clarence Fulton Junior Secondary. In 1984, the school was reorganized into a full secondary school with students from grades 8 – 12 and another name change ensued. The newly-organized school was known as Clarence Fulton Secondary School. In 1993, the students and teachers moved into the newly-constructed school. The former site in Polson Park is now the North Okanagan Science Centre and a skateboard park. Clarence Fulton Secondary School is now aesthetically nestled in 30 acres of parkland bordered by Vernon Creek to the north and Okanagan Avenue to the south. The school staff serves the needs of students in Grades 8 – 12.
Historical Information about the namesake of the school
Even by today’s standards Clarence Fulton’s teaching methods were unorthodox, and though a strict disciplinarian, he loved to share his knowledge on many subjects.
A favourite student trick was to have him digress from a topic in the hope he would forget about homework. Fulton was never fooled – though he might discuss something else, he was always teaching.
Educated at Dalhousie University and Truro Normal School, Fulton came from Nova Scotia to Vernon via New Westminster Boys’ School in 1902. At first, he taught all the required courses for matriculation in makeshift quarters, and then at the new three-room high school, built in 1904 just north of the present St. James School on Mason (28th) Street.
Some early high school activities included singing, acting, debating, skating, basketball, and tennis. Fulton was an active member of the Vernon Amateur Athletic Association, and in later years delighted in coaching successful track and soccer teams for his school.
In 1908, he married one of his students, Thekla Reinhard, daughter of pioneer Vernon physician Dr. William Reinhard. The couple had three children
School teachers and principals were not particularly well paid at the time and, like other ambitious young men in the Okanagan, Fulton planted an apple orchard on a 20-acre site east of Sherbourne Avenue (15th Street) where Silver Star School stands today. When the trees froze in 1915-16, he turned the property into a dairy farm. During the First World War, Fulton’s Lakeview Dairy sold milk to the army camp for ten cents a quart to supplement his $150 a month teacher’s salary.
When the cattle herd had to be disposed of because of an outbreak of contagious abortion, he turned to raising chickens and even tried growing hothouse tomatoes. Finally, in 1919, the property was sold for one dollar to discharge the mortgage.
Clarence Fulton retired officially in 1938, but returned to work during the teacher shortage amid the Second World War. He was named Vernon’s Good Citizen in 1954, and died in 1960.
Clarence Fulton School (originally Vernon High School at Polson Park) was named for him in 1964. The name is carried on in the new school and in Fulton Road, adjacent to the school. It is ironic that the route of Fulton Road passes through what was once the property of the Grahames, who were Fulton’s rivals in the dairy business.
Editor’s note: Terry Hurst shared her love and knowledge of Vernon’s street nams with th community through her book and this column. Hurst died Dec. 12, 2025, after living her entire life in Vernon. The Morning Star thanks Hurst for keeping history alive through this space, which will continue to share her knowledge posthumously with a couple more columns she had prepared.
Source: https://vernonmorningstar.com/2026/02/22/remembering-clarence-fulton-vernon-teacher/