Friday, August 20, 2010

My Semester at Sea voyage

On Monday 23 August my wife and I will be boarding the MV Explorer to begin our 4 month journey around the world with the Semester at Sea program.  I will be teaching 3 courses and leading various land field trips.  I invite you to check my blog frequently, as I intend to chronicle our experiences.  The link to the blog can be found on the left of this entry, just above the reunion pictures.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the summer and is well.

bob

Sunday, June 20, 2010

43rd reunion: June 18-20, 2010

Our 43rd Glen Rock High School class of '67 reunion has just ended, and I think I speak for everyone who attended in saying that it was a great gathering.  The weekend began with a round of golf at Knoll West, in Parsippany, thanks to Dave Ryan who secured a tee time for us:  Amesbury, Judd, Healy, Ryan, and myself.

On Friday evening, about 50 of us dropped in at the Glen Rock Inn where we had to put on name tags to prevent some embarrassment.  The wonderful reunion booklet that Elaine Suehnholz (Canto) had compiled was first revealed this evening.  Neil Calman was given high fives when it was discovered he is a father of a 5 year old.  Many of us then headed over to the high school to see this year's graduation decorations--the theme was House of Rock.  It was sort of a NYC nightclub, with a city scape of NYC, and the eating area was on a roof top.  It's a bit difficult to describe all the "alcoves" that were decorated in different themes, much of which had already been somewhat taken down the previous night by the graduates.

On Saturday morning Ed Archbold, historian extraordinaire on the history of Glen Rock, led about 10 of us through the town and back ending up at a mid town restaurant new to me.  Bob Patterson took brother George, Dave Schrader and Gus Katterman fishing at Beaver Lake, in western NJ.   In the afternoon several classmates could be found around the pool at the Woodcliff Hilton, where the Saturday dinner was held.

Saturday evening we had about 70 at the dinner and it was just a great evening to see everyone and to hear about such diverse paths that our classmates have taken.  Many pictures were taken including the traditional "elementary school" pics.  Coleman had the largest contingency but the Byrd School crowd maintains it is quality not quantity.  And, Pam Stephens remarked "what about those of us that came after elementary school".  So, a new category was born, "Finishing Touches".

The general consensus was that Joyce Strange and Joe Vella looked most like their senior pictures.  Joe says his appearance was due to having five kids, eleven grandchildren and the Arizona climate.    Travel-wise, we had three who traveled from the west coast (George Patterson, Norm Judd and Geri Olson),  the largest contingency, outside of NJ, was from Fla (John Brice, Jim Bucci, Jeff Euart, Ox Schrader, and Randy Fogel); Blain Abbott, Sandi Mims and Ellen Bober rolled in from Texas; and Beth Rousseau and her husband came in from North Dakota.

And, finally Sunday morning about 34 of us once again gathered for a brunch at the Hilton before bidding our adieus and heading home.  Ed Archbold had a few extra reunion booklets printed so if you would like to read the bios of over 100 of your classmates, contact Ed at Edwardwa@aol.com (first come, first served until they run-- $ 10 a piece).

We still have over 40 classmates for whom we have no contact information, so if you know how to find them, let us know.


Pictures that I have taken can be found to the left on this page. I encourage others to get their pictures to me as I know I did not get everyone.

Do bookmark this blog as I hope to periodically post news about our classmates, so send me information and pictures whenever you like.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

A Message from Joyce Strange Berrian

As most of you know, Tom Berrian past away on Friday 14 May 2010 after battling cancer.  Joyce has asked me to send along to the class the following message:

"  Life is continually teaching me lessons. I've learned to be humble, to have faith in dark hours, to see that there is more goodness in people than evil. The many ways that our classmates have reached out toTom and me during his illness, whether it was a note or a gift or your presence at the Glen Rock Inn fundraiser, has touched our hearts more than can be imagined. Tom fought a most noble battle. He loved life and he struggled to stay in it. He will remain forever in my heart.
 
It is taking me a long time to send my thanks to you individually, and it is my goal to get in touch with each of you in the coming weeks. But I wanted you all to know how grateful we are for your support.
 
Be well; be happy. Joyce Berrian"