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Estate sale of Robert G. Heft: 1942-2009 - Creator of 50-star flag

If there is one name to be remembered with honor, that name would be Robert Heft, the designer of the 50-star American Flag.

Born January 19, 1942 in Saginaw, Heft’s boyhood home was in Lancaster Ohio. From 1972 to 1998, Heft lived in Napoleon, Ohio, where he served seven terms as Mayor of that city. He then returned to Saginaw, residing in Thomas Township until he died at age 67, in December of 2009.

Heft was a past District Governor of the Lions Club of Michigan, a member of the Saginaw Harvey Spaulding Toastmasters Club, Resurrection Lutheran Church member, and a retired professor, Northwest State Community College in Archbold, Ohio.

Heft gave over 200 speeches annually, and has spoken in all 50 states, and 57 foreign countries.

The story of the fifty-star flag begins with the impending statehood of Alaska and Hawaii. In 1916 the first official statehood bill for Alaska came before Congress, and the bill for Hawaii followed three years later.

While flag makers began working on a design for a forty-nine star flag, eighth-grader Bob Heft decided to create a fifty-star flag for his high school history project, predicting that Eisenhower would want to add Hawaii shortly after the addition of Alaska. Using his mother’s sewing machine and a hot iron, Heft added a new blue canton and 100 hand-cut stars (50 for each side) to the field of an old forty-eight star flag. The total cost of materials: $2.87.

After twelve-and-a-half grueling hours, his flag was completed. When Heft handed in the project, his history teacher, Stanly Pratt, told him that if the design was accepted by Congress, he’d change the grade from a B minus to an A. Heft first sent his flag to Ohio’s governor, and then gave it to Congressman Walter Henry Moeller.

Alaska was admitted into the Union in January of 1959, and in July 4 of that year, the forty-nine-star flag became official. But by the end of August, Eisenhower signed a proclamation adding Hawaii to the Union.

Congressman Moeller brought Heft’s flag to the design committee, where Eisenhower himself selected the flag to become the national emblem. On July, 4 1960, Heft and Eisenhower stood together in Washington to watch the first fifty-star flag raised.

Hefts flag is flown in all 50 states and 131 countries, including state capitol buildings and the White House. As of July 4, 2007 it became America’s longest serving flag.

There will be a sale of what remains of Heft’s estate, located at 11340 Daisy Ln., at the Kris Kay Mobile Home Park on Graham Rd. (Hwy 52), Friday, June 18 and Saturday, June 19 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Included in the sale are various memorabilia, as well as framed photos of Heft with such celebrities as Bob Hope, Ronal Reagan, Regis Philbin, Buck Owens, Mohammed Ali, Johnny Carson, Johnny Cash and June Carter. There is also a collection of 300 die-cast model cars, and many other collectable items.

Robert G. Heft

Robert G. Heft

 

 

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