The designer of our current 50-star flag was Robert Heft. It was 1958 and there was some talk that Alaska and Hawaii were going to officially become states 49 and 50. One of his high school teachers capitalized on the current events of the day and had his students design a new flag incorporating the two new states. Inspired by Betsy Ross, (and cutting up his parents’ flag), Heft did just that, arranging the stars so it wasn’t very evident that he had added any. His teacher gave him a B-, saying that the design was unoriginal. When Heft balked at the grade, his teacher told him that if he could get the flag adopted by Congress, he would bump the grade up to an A. Heft jumped at the opportunity, sent the flag to his congressman, and after a long campaign and a refusal to give up,  he ended up getting the flag approved. Heft got his ‘A’ as promised. Since then, Heft’s original homemade flag has flown over every single state capitol building, over 88 U.S. embassies, and over the White House for five administrations. He is now deceased, but has left behind a design with 51 stars ready to go if the need arises.

happy 4th of july!

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