58th Reunion | 2023

The 58th Mini-Reunion of the HGS class of 1965  took place virtually on the palindromic evening of March 21, 2023 (3/21/23).

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It was a gala affair attended by 10 of us, with several more sending regrets that they could not make it.

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It was opened by Davi Kiputh on the virtuoso banjo.

 

After that we did a lot of catching up on what we've been doing.

 

One highlight: At John Braman's suggestion we went around and recounted which of our teachers had a lasting influence on us. Ed Brown and Ib Jorgensen were mentioned by many, as were Bill MacDermott, Helen Barton, Cory Cramer, and Kamen Ganchev. FAS was mentioned a lot, but not warmly.

This is what John wrote down during our Zoom:

Favorite Teachers and Qualities Embodied 

 

• Mr. Lewis York: unparalleled expertise in a new paradigm of artistic perception

• Mr. Karl Crawford: power sharing in the learning experience with students, plus reality-based submariner’s tales

• Miss Helen Barton: her sheer passion for words and instilling a love of literary interpretation

• Mr. Cory Cramer: his world vision and pioneer of hands-on learning

• Mr. Ib Jorgensen: leader of student expeditions into nature, phenomenal teacher of Earth Sciences, war hero

• Mr. Denoyan: his kind, humane personality, love of his subject area, and Old World style

• Mr. Alan Locke: his dynamic challenges to our world view, healthy critic of our whole enterprise

• Mr. Austin Albert: his deep expertise in his subject (E=MC2)

• Mr. Don Saunders: a great history teacher and lifelong friend of Dr. John M.

• Ed Brown: quintessential teacher/coach who loved both biology and winning

• Mr. Mac: his passion for the possible in us

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We were joined by Tom Diascro of the school, and there were a lot of questions for him. He updated us on tuition (now a bit over $50,000), the fraction of students receiving financial aid (aroun 30%), teacher salaries (not extravagant), the new well-regarded head of school, and the ongoing razing of Lovell Hall, soon to be totally rebuilt.

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We also shared stories about 'lost' classmates who have been in intermittend contact with one or anoher of us.

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There was some sadness. Michael Lopez, who died of Covid, was remembered fondly. Jim Nippes died in May, 2022, after our last reunion.  Dave and Hutch have lost their wives. Tom's wife still suffers from chronic illness.

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Marc Lendler took us on with an historic tune on the dobro, or 'resonating guitar'.

But as you might judge from the screenshot below, we all seem to have survived into senior citizenship in good health.

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Here's a screen capture of the evening:
 

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