Bend’s most famous veteran may get a school building named in his honor — and it would be right on top of where he taught auto repair classes.

Chris Reese, principal of Bend High School, unveiled his school’s plan to name its new building the Robert D. Maxwell Center during Tuesday night’s Bend-La Pine School Board meeting.

But naming the new building after Maxwell will depend on the school board granting an exception to its rule that schools or school buildings can only be named after people who have been dead for at least five years.

Maxwell — who died in May 2019 at the age of 98 — was not only a former teacher at Bend High, but he also received the Medal of Honor in 1945 for risking his life to save fellow American soldiers during World War II. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient. As 23-year-old Army technician fifth grade, Maxwell jumped on a German grenade in September 1944. His action was credited with saving the lives of four American soldiers, including a battalion commander.

“He was a phenomenal teacher (and) a phenomenal human,” Reese told the school board. “It was truly an honor to get to know Bob Maxwell and all he represented.”

The name was unanimously chosen by a naming committee made up of Bend High administrators, teachers, students and other locals, including members of the local Band of Brothers veterans’ group, Reese said.

“As a student, I know we view him as one of our own family members in the Lava Bear family,” Bend High senior Molly Hodson, who was in the committee, told the school board.

This is not the first time Maxwell’s name was offered as a school building name. Despite a community survey showing overwhelming support for the new high school being named after him, the board in 2020 voted to name it Caldera High School instead. The sole reason they gave was that Maxwell had not been dead for five years.

However, at the time, board members said they liked the idea of naming a building at Bend High School after Maxwell.

Reese noted Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Bend was renamed after Maxwell in 2020.

“I don’t think we’re setting precedents by making an exemption,” he said.

Although board members Tuesday didn’t explicitly say if they’d grant an exception to the five-year rule or not, a couple board members seemed to think positively of the idea.

“As a Bend High alum, and wife of a military veteran, this one feels close to home,” said board Chair Carrie McPherson Douglass.

The new building at Bend High School is set to open this fall, and will have four classrooms, a multipurpose room, and more. It’s being built on the exact grounds where Maxwell held his auto mechanics classes, Reese said.

The school board will have a public hearing about waiving the five-year naming rule at its next regular meeting on June 15.