February 4, 2025 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, our next story is about a 17-year-old kid named Bob Heft who designed the 50-star American flag we fly proudly to this very day!
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Our next story
is about a seventeen year old kid named Bob Heft,
who designed the fifty star American flag we fly proudly
to this very day.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Here's Greg Hangler with the story.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
After learning about Betsy Ross, you probably didn't give much
thought to how the subsequent US flags were designed. It
might seem like a no brainer. Flagmaker has just added
a new star for every new state, Right, Well, it
turns out not that simple. Each new flag has a
very careful design and the arrangement of the stars must
(00:52):
be precise and symmetrical. And for the flag we know today,
that arrangement was designed by a junior in high school
from Ohio. It was nineteen fifty eight and America only
contained forty eight United States. The flag at the time
featured six rows of eight stars. Bob Heff's history teacher
(01:15):
assigned a class project where each student had to bring
in something they made. Bob Heft loved flags, then he
loved politics, so, having been inspired by the Betsy Ross story,
the class just studied and seeing the news that Alaska
was poised to become our nation's forty ninth state, with
Hawaii soon behind. Half decided to make a fifty star flag.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Here's Bob an American history class. We had to do
an outside of class project. We can make or do
whatever we wanted, like a science fair or something like that.
You bring the project in. The Betsy Ross story intrigued
me and my mom and dad. They had a forty
eight star flag they received as a wedding present. Of
(02:00):
course meant a lot to them. Well, I took a
scissors and cut it up.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Half's mother walked in from the kitchen and found him
cutting up their family flag and promptly began scolding him.
She told his father when he got home, and heft
received another tongue lashing. I had always been in the
Boy Scouts, and I had always been patriotic, Half told
the Lancaster Eagle Gazette in two thousand and seven. They
(02:26):
wanted to know why I would turn on the flag.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
I had never sown in my life. I watched my
mom sew, but I'd never sown, and since making the
flag of her country, I've never sewn again. So anyhow,
we get the class. I had my flag on a
teacher's desk, and the teacher said, what's this thing on?
My desk. So I got up and I approached the
desk and I'm shaking like a leaf. And he said,
why you got too many stars? You don't even know
(02:52):
how many states we have. And he gave me the
grade of a B minus. Now that a BEE minus
isn't that bad of of grade. However, a friend of mine, Jim,
he picked up five leaves off the ground. He's taping
these leaves down to the notebook in the labeling ELM.
Hickory maple, and the teacher gave him the grade of
an A. I was really I I was upset. The
(03:15):
teacher said, if you don't like the grade to get
it accepted in Washington, then come back and see me.
I might consider changing the grade.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Bob arrived home that day with his class project.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
And I had in a plastic bag and I threw
it on the sofa from a mother command. She said,
suppers ready. I said, I'm not hungry. She said, what's wrong?
I said, and I never talked about a teacher. I said,
this stupid teacher give me a B minus on the flag.
And then she really hacked me. I said that's more
I had given me, because she was really dead set
against this. Two years later, I'd written twenty one letter
(03:48):
to the White House, made eighteen phone calls. Now you
can imagine when my mom got the phone bell. What's
this number? I said, well, mom, that's the White House.
So anyhow, I got this call and he said, now
the President United States is calling you later on today. Well,
at that time, Eisenhoer was president. And he comes on
the phone and he says, is this Robert g Hept
(04:11):
And I said, yes, sir, but you can just call
me Bob. And he says, I want to know the
possibility of coming to Washington, d C. On July fourth
for the official adoption of the new flag.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Bob received this call from President Eisenhower at his new
place of employment. Here's what happened next.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Well, I've been at this company eleven days. I said,
well wait a minute, my boss is standing here. I
reached down, pushed the red button on the phone, put
the President United States on hold. What are you doing?
I said, I've got to talk to you. He said,
you just put the President United States on hold. I said,
he wants me to come to Washington. He said, well,
tell him you'll be there. I said, look, I don't
(04:50):
have any sickly. I don't have any vacation because you know,
your first job out of high school, you don't want
to mess up and lose it. And he said, get
him back on the phone. We'll work, got the details,
we'll charged it off to executive leave or something. But
yet him back. He was really upset. And we did
a lot of military contracts. I think they probably sat,
here's this kid that's been working ever eleven days, is
(05:12):
going to mess up future contracts, you know, putting the
president on hold. So I picked up the phone, put
the white button, put the phone h and said, Dwight.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Are you still there?
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Cause you and I didn't know how you properly address it.
And they're cracking up. Oh my lord, here Bob talking
to abouddy Dwight and stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Years following his talk with Dwight, Bob preserved this historic
moment and paid a visit to his old teacher.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
And so I have the grade book. It's incased in plastics,
kept in the bank my teacher. And he said, I
guess if it's good enough for Washington, it's good.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Enough for me.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
I hearby change the grade to an.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
A decades after half to inspired people young and old
with his follow Your Dreams story, he became a high
school teacher, college professor, and a seventh term mayor of Napoleon, Ohio.
He spoke extensively, as many as two hundred engagements a year,
and visited the White House fourteen times under nine presidents.
(06:13):
Helf died on December twelfth, two thousand and nine, at
the age of sixty eight, but his legacy survives every
time we fly his fifty star creation. And if the
US ever adds a fifty first state, HEF's got that
flag covered two back in nineteen fifty eight, he designed
a fifty one star version that uses six rows of stars,
(06:36):
alternating between rows of nine and eight. This would make
Heft the only person to design two United States flags.
Bob said in two thousand and seven, an idea doesn't
do any good if you don't pursue it.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Engler.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
And what a story.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Bob Heft's is and was class project assignment, basically a
high school class project, an American history class project. And
my goodness, be still my heart, we should have more
like these. The story of American Imagination, the story of
Bob Heft.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Here on our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host
of our American Stories.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Every day we set out to tell the stories of
Americans past and present, from small towns to big cities,
and from all walks of life doing extraordinary things. But
we truly can't do this show without you. Our shows
are free to listen to, but they're not free to make.
If you love what you hear, go to our American
Stories dot com and make a donation to keep the
(07:53):
stories coming. That's our American Stories dot com.
And we continue with our American stories. Our next story
is about a seventeen year old kid named Bob Heft,
who designed the fifty star American flag we fly proudly
to this very day.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Here's Greg Hangler with the story.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
After learning about Betsy Ross, you probably didn't give much
thought to how the subsequent US flags were designed. It
might seem like a no brainer. Flagmaker has just added
a new star for every new state, Right, Well, it
turns out not that simple. Each new flag has a
very careful design and the arrangement of the stars must
(00:52):
be precise and symmetrical. And for the flag we know today,
that arrangement was designed by a junior in high school
from Ohio. It was nineteen fifty eight and America only
contained forty eight United States. The flag at the time
featured six rows of eight stars. Bob Heff's history teacher
(01:15):
assigned a class project where each student had to bring
in something they made. Bob Heft loved flags, then he
loved politics, so, having been inspired by the Betsy Ross story,
the class just studied and seeing the news that Alaska
was poised to become our nation's forty ninth state, with
Hawaii soon behind. Half decided to make a fifty star flag.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Here's Bob an American history class. We had to do
an outside of class project. We can make or do
whatever we wanted, like a science fair or something like that.
You bring the project in. The Betsy Ross story intrigued
me and my mom and dad. They had a forty
eight star flag they received as a wedding present. Of
(02:00):
course meant a lot to them. Well, I took a
scissors and cut it up.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Half's mother walked in from the kitchen and found him
cutting up their family flag and promptly began scolding him.
She told his father when he got home, and heft
received another tongue lashing. I had always been in the
Boy Scouts, and I had always been patriotic, Half told
the Lancaster Eagle Gazette in two thousand and seven. They
(02:26):
wanted to know why I would turn on the flag.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
I had never sown in my life. I watched my
mom sew, but I'd never sown, and since making the
flag of her country, I've never sewn again. So anyhow,
we get the class. I had my flag on a
teacher's desk, and the teacher said, what's this thing on?
My desk. So I got up and I approached the
desk and I'm shaking like a leaf. And he said,
why you got too many stars? You don't even know
(02:52):
how many states we have. And he gave me the
grade of a B minus. Now that a BEE minus
isn't that bad of of grade. However, a friend of mine, Jim,
he picked up five leaves off the ground. He's taping
these leaves down to the notebook in the labeling ELM.
Hickory maple, and the teacher gave him the grade of
an A. I was really I I was upset. The
(03:15):
teacher said, if you don't like the grade to get
it accepted in Washington, then come back and see me.
I might consider changing the grade.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Bob arrived home that day with his class project.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
And I had in a plastic bag and I threw
it on the sofa from a mother command. She said,
suppers ready. I said, I'm not hungry. She said, what's wrong?
I said, and I never talked about a teacher. I said,
this stupid teacher give me a B minus on the flag.
And then she really hacked me. I said that's more
I had given me, because she was really dead set
against this. Two years later, I'd written twenty one letter
(03:48):
to the White House, made eighteen phone calls. Now you
can imagine when my mom got the phone bell. What's
this number? I said, well, mom, that's the White House.
So anyhow, I got this call and he said, now
the President United States is calling you later on today. Well,
at that time, Eisenhoer was president. And he comes on
the phone and he says, is this Robert g Hept
(04:11):
And I said, yes, sir, but you can just call
me Bob. And he says, I want to know the
possibility of coming to Washington, d C. On July fourth
for the official adoption of the new flag.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Bob received this call from President Eisenhower at his new
place of employment. Here's what happened next.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Well, I've been at this company eleven days. I said,
well wait a minute, my boss is standing here. I
reached down, pushed the red button on the phone, put
the President United States on hold. What are you doing?
I said, I've got to talk to you. He said,
you just put the President United States on hold. I said,
he wants me to come to Washington. He said, well,
tell him you'll be there. I said, look, I don't
(04:50):
have any sickly. I don't have any vacation because you know,
your first job out of high school, you don't want
to mess up and lose it. And he said, get
him back on the phone. We'll work, got the details,
we'll charged it off to executive leave or something. But
yet him back. He was really upset. And we did
a lot of military contracts. I think they probably sat,
here's this kid that's been working ever eleven days, is
(05:12):
going to mess up future contracts, you know, putting the
president on hold. So I picked up the phone, put
the white button, put the phone h and said, Dwight.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Are you still there?
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Cause you and I didn't know how you properly address it.
And they're cracking up. Oh my lord, here Bob talking
to abouddy Dwight and stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Years following his talk with Dwight, Bob preserved this historic
moment and paid a visit to his old teacher.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
And so I have the grade book. It's incased in plastics,
kept in the bank my teacher. And he said, I
guess if it's good enough for Washington, it's good.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Enough for me.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
I hearby change the grade to an.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
A decades after half to inspired people young and old
with his follow Your Dreams story, he became a high
school teacher, college professor, and a seventh term mayor of Napoleon, Ohio.
He spoke extensively, as many as two hundred engagements a year,
and visited the White House fourteen times under nine presidents.
(06:13):
Helf died on December twelfth, two thousand and nine, at
the age of sixty eight, but his legacy survives every
time we fly his fifty star creation. And if the
US ever adds a fifty first state, HEF's got that
flag covered two back in nineteen fifty eight, he designed
a fifty one star version that uses six rows of stars,
(06:36):
alternating between rows of nine and eight. This would make
Heft the only person to design two United States flags.
Bob said in two thousand and seven, an idea doesn't
do any good if you don't pursue it.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Engler.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
And what a story.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Bob Heft's is and was class project assignment, basically a
high school class project, an American history class project. And
my goodness, be still my heart, we should have more
like these. The story of American Imagination, the story of
Bob Heft.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Here on our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host
of our American Stories.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Every day we set out to tell the stories of
Americans past and present, from small towns to big cities,
and from all walks of life doing extraordinary things. But
we truly can't do this show without you. Our shows
are free to listen to, but they're not free to make.
If you love what you hear, go to our American
Stories dot com and make a donation to keep the
(07:53):
stories coming. That's our American Stories dot com.
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!