Horseheads High School Class of 1961

THANK YOUS and GREETINGS!!!!

Ric’s notes of thanks for work on arranging this reunion, (spoken at the Saturday evening event):

Many people worked together to make this reunion happen. Here are some, and I ask forgiveness from you whom I’ve left off this list. Sorry!

BIG THANK YOUs to:

· Sue Burnham Kapral, Mike Scullin, Peggy Marcoccia Zelko and Evelyn Woodruff Ochampaugh, for agreeing early on to undertake this project; for their encouragement, mutual support and leadership in the planning committee.

· Tom Britton for his unceasing work on the Internet, finding “lost” classmates’ contact information. Tom is truly our search “hero.”

· Linnie Belle Kennon McKee, for arranging our Friday night gathering, and decorating! She organized the perfect “ice-breaker.”

· Don Drake, for arranging our Saturday morning brunch. We gathered, some with eyes barely open, to begin a full day of reliving old memories and making new ones.

· Karren Jayne Harter, for leading our Saturday morning Horseheads tour. Some of us had no idea of the deep heritage of our high school town.

· Sharon Bower Overacker, for keeping our accounts straight, and Marjorie Plate Krejcar, for her assistance with that huge job. We’ve paid all our bills!!

· Linda Cornwell Olden and Ron Mills, who have spearheaded our search for information about our deceased classmates. They presented this information in a wonderfully moving way – we owe them a great debt for helping us remember the warm and beautiful people our lost ones were.

· Several anonymous classmates who have donated money for this event.

· Carolyn Miller Schad, class of 1963, has helped us particularly in locating some of you.

· Suzanne Farr Menorca, who led us in designing and procuring the tee-shirts. “Lordy, Lordy, it’s been 40!”

· Andy Andrews for all his work on our yearbook. We can now begin to keep track of one another.

· Bob Hoagland for putting up our bulletin board at boardhost.com. Let’s use it lots in the next years!

· Mary Voorhees Plumley and Chuck Castellana, for organizing our golf outing Saturday afternoon. What fun!

· Dianne Lepley Storch, for leading the tour of the National Soaring Museum Sunday morning, after brunch.

· Especially to Peggy Marcoccia Zelko for arranging our Saturday noon luncheon and tour event, and our Sunday brunch; and for being the point person dealing with the Hilton, looking after all those arrangements. We who live away owe Peggy many thanks for her local work. She was the person here, who willingly called classmates, who negotiated with the hotel here, and who placed announcements of our plans in the Star Gazette.

And I have greetings for you from a few who asked particularly to be remembered to you.

· Mary Catherine Randolph asks to be remembered to you. She is spending this weekend as part of her vacation in Ireland.

· Marjorie Aston Kilb sends you her regards – We only located her this spring, and she had already committed to a summer trip in the west.

· Beverly Gibbs and Linda Gibbs Sands attended a family reunion this summer near Washington, DC. Linda is expecting a second grandchild about now. Beverly felt she couldn’t come across the country twice in one year. She said, “I had looked forward very much to seeing old friends from high school and to having some laughs and to seeing all the picturesque sights in that part of the state once again.”

· Barry Woodward sends greetings. He writes, “The college has asked me to temporarily take over an administrative position, which necessitates canceling any summer time off.”

· Sandy Margeson Roberts wrote, “Curt and I are not planning a trip to Horseheads in July and will not be able to attend the reunion. Our thoughts and prayers will be with all of you at this most wonderful time!”

· Jerry Horton can’t attend – something about family visits and salmon fishing -- but says, “Spread the word that the class of 61 has a resident tour guide in Alaska. I'll be happy to provide any assistance to those that may want to see the Last Frontier.”

· Pat Bennett Sanford writes, “Sorry we won't be able to attend the reunion as we have a family reunion the same weekend.”

· Jack Kaul’s wife wrote me during the spring. She said, “However, due to many "things", including a family reunion in Ontario this summer, I am not sure that we will be able to make it. Jack was diagnosed with cancer in early December, and it has been 5 months of "hell" since that time. He has had major surgery, and is now on his second round of "chemotherapy".

· Sylvia Impert “had been looking forward to attending, but it looks like we will not be able to attend. I hope it is a real bash!”

· Sally Olin Seyfarth has been back to Horseheads several times, settling her mother’s estate. She sends best wishes to all.

· And Joan Arnold Dunbar is out of the country all summer.

Many others of you have told one another about contacts you’ve made with people who cannot come this weekend. I’ll suggest you share those with each other on the bulletin board

I express my personal thanks to Sue Shafer, for all her encouragement since I was first bitten by the reunion bug. She’s supported me continuously throughout this project. In fact, we double-teamed the 1999 HHS Alumni Association gathering as we moved among them with our long list of lost classmates. Many of them provided leads to finding many of you, and many of those who could not attend. Without Sue’s help, encouragement, and frank excitement about this project, we would not have had this gathering.

Finally, I thank all of you who have come here to greet one another, and who have resumed contacts because of this event. I thank all of you, here and not here, who welcomed me into your community in 1958. Just when my family life was breaking up, you all made room for me. You all made a huge difference in my life.

Click HERE to return to the HHS Class of 1961 Reunion Home Page.

This Page Updated July 27, 2001.
Copyright Richard L. Shafer 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001. All Rights on Original Material Reserved

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