Those Oldies but Goodies Remind Me of You

In 1961, Elvis Presley’s hit “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” was topping the charts, pinups of Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and Brigitte Bardot were hanging on every teenage boy’s bedroom walls, and another class of seniors was graduating from .

That year it was a graduation marked by tragedy. On graduation day, senior Yale Kaplan was killed when a drunk driver slammed into his car on Route 32. “We got our first taste of tragedy early on,” said Kaplan’s former classmate Nancy Burdick. The graduation ceremony went on, she recalled, “with an empty chair.”

That was one of the many memories shared last weekend when the class of ’61 met for a 50th reunion in a ballroom at , the traditional site for New London High School’s prom. But though there were candles lit for the dozen or more classmates who had passed away over the years, most of the memories shared were of happier times and life-changing moments.

John Troland, host of the cable access show Business Beat Live, for instance, credits the two bookkeeping classes he took at the high school for inspiring his lifelong “love of numbers.” He’s been working as an accountant for 47 years now, he said, and has no plans to retire.

His father—who was head of the science department at New London High School when Troland was a student there—may have been a bit disappointed. But even with his dad as tutor, Troland said, “I got a D+ in chemistry: D as in dog!” To this day, Troland thinks the only reason he got the “plus” was because his dad was the chemistry teacher’s boss. He can laugh about it now.

A committed team of 15 graduates of the class of ’61 started organizing the reunion in April. The women were particularly hard to find, because many of them had married and changed their names. But as most people in the graduating class were still in Connecticut, many of them living locally, organizers went door-to-door to find them.

Of the 313 students who graduated in 1961, 177 said they would attend the reunion. “Our biggest challenge was locating everybody,” said Burdick, one of the event’s organizers. “This is a remarkable turnout really.”

In their dogged pursuit of former classmates, organizers took full advantage of technology that didn’t exist when they were in school, reaching out to people via social media such as Facebook. With the help of Tom Casey, a tech-savvy former classmate who created an email tree, organizers were able to track down all but 30 members of the class of ’61.

Now living in Alaska, Anita Nocery Schmiedel traveled farthest to get to the reunion, though others flew in from Maryland, Texas, Florida, Kentucky, and North Carolina, or drove from New York and Massachusetts to attend the event. And though Florida resident Katy Gale Johnson was too ill to make it, she still managed to reconnect with old friends over Skype.

The weekend-long festivities kicked off with a meet-and-greet at Groton Inn and Suites on Friday but the main event was the reunion at Ocean Beach on Saturday.  

Bernie Kenyon, 68, had come up for the event from Baltimore, Virginia, with his wife, Nancy. “I don’t know any of these people,” he said as he scanned the room. It didn’t take long for someone to recognize him, however. Even though Kenyon was sporting long hair in a braid that wasn’t in vogue when any of them graduated, former classmate Lenny Kaufman said, “I recognized him instantly!”

Nelson Potter, who retired as president and CEO of a Fortune 500 company in 2002, had no trouble recognizing people. He and his wife, Pauline, were high school sweethearts and had attended every previous reunion even though they had to fly in from California for the first few decades to do so. The Potters met freshman year in an ancient history class. In junior year, Nelson finally plucked up the courage to ask Pauline to a dance.

“She was by far the prettiest girl in our class,” said Nelson. “I had a 1951 bright red MG convertible. I think it was the car she was most smitten with!”

Whatever the attraction was, it proved to be enduring. They’ve been riding the highways together ever since on a journey that has taken them from Connecticut to California and, since retirement, back and forth from Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. to Amelia Island, Fla. They’ve been married 47 years, Nelson said, “and never a harsh word spoken.”

The last time they got together with their old friends from high school, however, was more than 20 years ago--and Potter had been lobbying hard for a fiftieth reunion. 

“The 50th is so unique,” said Potter. If people are going to attend any reunion the 50th is the most likely for a variety of reasons, he added, “mortality being one of them.” As Potter has been fighting cancer for the past three years, he knows a little something about that.

According to organizers, Potter’s illness was one of the motivating factors for this year’s reunion. “He always kept asking me what’s doing with the reunion,” said Jan McIntyre Secchiaroli. “We probably wouldn’t have had a 50th but for him.”

So are there plans for another reunion after this? Edward Parchaiski of New London certainly hoped so. His message on the sign-in sheet was was loud and clear.

“See you in 25 more!”