Ithaca High School Class Of 1961

Lonnie Poole (Green)

Then

Birthday:September 11, 1943 City:Conyers State/Prov.:GA Occupation:Retired Marital Status:Married No. of Children:2 What elementary school(s) did you attend?:St. John Elementary What Junior high school did you attend?:Boynton Junior High Did you attend ninth grade at Boynton or IHS?:IHS What have you been doing for the past 50 years?:Waaaay back in my Fresh. or Soph. year, the Murphy family from Starkville, Miss. came to Ithaca with their 3 small chldren, for Mr. Murphy to do some work at Cornell. The family joined our church and Mrs. Murphy was our choir director and did some teaching at IHS. During their stay in Ithaca, I babysat for them. When Mr. Murphy finished his work at Cornell, they returned to Miss. During the summer of 1961 they returned to Ithaca for a visit. When they were preparing to return home, they asked me to go back with them for a visit to Starkville. I was there for a few days and they offered to have me stay in their home to attend Mississippi State University. Long story shortened, I returned home, packed my belongings and returned to Starkville to attend MSU. Commercial Ed. was my major. I attended MSU during the school year and returned to Ithaca to work during the summers. While in Starkville, I met my husband, Truman. I graduated on Monday, May 31st and we married on Saturday, June 5th (6/5/65 easy for us to remember!) In 1967 we moved to the Decatur, GA area for my husband to begin teaching Industrial Arts in a high school there. I have been a church secretary in 3 churches, taught pre-school kindergarten, been a teacher's aide in 5th grade and was Attendance/Scheduling secretary in 2 middle schools. We have two daughters (Karen & Sheri),
our son-in-law (Duane) and two grandchildren (Kevin & Ashley). We have lived in Conyers, GA (home of the 1996 Olympic Horse Park) for 34 years.

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Robert Poole

Then

Now

Birthday:April 01, 1943 City:Livingston State/Prov.:TX Occupation:Retired Marital Status:Married No. of Children:4 What elementary school(s) did you attend?:St. John What Junior high school did you attend?:Boynton Did you attend ninth grade at Boynton or IHS?:IHS What have you been doing for the past 50 years?:'61-'65 U.S.Navy. Served aboard the USS Prime and USS Constant two Ocean Going Mine Sweepers (MSO). EN2, Vietnam Veteran.

’65-’66 Worked for Douglas Aircraft in Southern California.

’66-67 Leased and operated an Atlantic Service Station in Cortland, New York.

’67-’68 Attended National Technical School in Southern California.

’68-‘99 Worked for NYSEG at Milliken Station Power Plant in Lansing, New York.

After being forced into an early retirement with a reduced pension due to the sale of the power plant we had a decision to make, sit in Lansing mowing grass in the summer and shoveling snow in the winter or go traveling. We couldn’t afford both so we sold our home and woodlot bought a new truck and travel trailer and hit the road. We spent the following winters in South Texas, summers in New York visiting 3 of our children and 13 grandkids and springs and falls touring the USA. We volunteered for many Habitat for Humanity builds around the country and have met so many wonderful people. We have just purchased a 20 acre woodlot in the Adirondack Park and are planning on building a summer home there.

From Robert:

Robert passed away January 3, 2022.

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Nick Poulos

Then

Now

City:Smyrna State/Prov.:NY Occupation:Licensed Master Social Worker Marital Status:Divorced No. of Children:1 What elementary school(s) did you attend?:East Hill What Junior high school did you attend?:Boynton Did you attend ninth grade at Boynton or IHS?:IHS What have you been doing for the past 50 years?:It is easier to provide a resume.
Any way to upload one?

From Nick:Hi: I am looking forward to attending the reunion and taking part in the discusion group I had proposed. What prompted me to suggest the discussion group is that the friends I was closest to in high school have all died. So, I was looking for a way to honor their memory and have as part of the program a thoughtful discussion that would begin to put the high school experience and the ensuing years in some relative perspective. The only title I could conceive of was: "What is the Legacy of the Class of 1961."
I retired a few years ago after teaching and practicing as a social worker for over 35 years. My first job was at the George Junior Republic beginning in 1970. Teaching has always been my love and I beganas an instructor in the Air Force training combat crews for work on the Minuteman ICBM. I have taught in a variety of interesting settings including Auburn Correctional facility while a facullty member at CNY community colleges and at Syracuse University. Yet in most recent years I have been active in the peace movement and been active with the Syracuse Peace Council and creating the Syracuse Center for Peace and Social Justice.
I have been volunteering with a number of non-profits over the years, but the most meaningful work has been as a Hospice of CNY teaching in their "Living With Dying" series where I taught the module on famliy dynamics, and most recently the module on spirituality as it realtes to death and dying. I have also been volunteering with the American Red Cross since 1998 and served at a number of national disasters, as a disater mental health social worker. The hospice experience was critical when I served the famlies at the World Trade Center disaster beginning on 9/12/2002, and then returning to NYC in November of that year to assist the famlies of AA flight 583 which exploded over Queens, NY.
Training future social workers has provided great meaning in my life, but providing direct service to clients and helping them reconcile abuse, death and other losses has shaped my life.
I have been fortunate to be able to travel extensively over the years with my famliy and I have made many trips to Greece, following my first trip in 1954, which was life-altering, since I witnessed the effects of the 2nd World War and the Greek Civil War on the Greek people.
Over the past 12 years os so my travel has been a part of my spiritual journey to places like Sotu Africa and Namibia visiting hospice and AIDS programs, and to India, Nepal, Thailand, Bolivia and Peru, Mt. Athos and the Island of Patmos for spiritual retreats. My plan is to return to India this fall.
So, why is any of this important? My guess and perhaps my belief is that each of us in the Class of 1961 are vastly different people that we were on graduation day. Now, we are at the stage of our lives where we are assessing our lives and attempting to gain perspective and recocile all that has happened in the interim. Hopefully, the discussion at the reunion will facilitate that process. At least, that is my hope. Best wishes to all. Nick

Nick passed away on August 26, 2016. To read his obituary, click here.

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Frank Prudence

Then

Now

Birthday:January 03, 1943 City:Ithaca State/Prov.:NY Occupation:owner F& T Distributing Co. Inc Marital Status:Married No. of Children:2

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Tom Rawski

Then

Now

Birthday:November 23, 1943 City:Pittsburgh State/Prov.:PA Occupation:economist Marital Status:Married What elementary school(s) did you attend?:Fall Creek What Junior high school did you attend?:Boynton Did you attend ninth grade at Boynton or IHS?:Boynton What have you been doing for the past 50 years?:Where is he now? How did that happen? Let me begin with graduation from Ithaca High School. I hoped to skip the ceremony, but was advised that the administration might refuse to hand over my diploma unless I showed up wearing the official regalia (what I always thought of as a “monkey suit”). I knew they could not withhold the diploma for long, but feared delay – and I needed the diploma immediately to enter a calculus class at Cornell that began immediately following our graduation. So I dutifully donned the monkey suit, mounted the stage when my name was called, tripped over the hem of my costume, and slid across the stage on my belly – like a penguin sliding across the ice.
This experience hardened my resolve to avoid graduation ceremonies and monkey suits. I can now report that I have attended a total of ZERO graduation ceremonies since 1961, including ceremonies linked to my receipt of three university-level degrees (my mother asked to attend my Cornell graduation, fearing that her co-workers might tag her as a “bad parent” if she did not show up; I offered to supply tickets for her to attend in my absence; she risked the opprobrium of her workmates and stayed away), as well as annual festivities at universities where I have taught for the past 40 years. I must confess to have donned a monkey suit on one (private) occasion – when my father handed over his own costume from the University of Vienna. I accepted his outfit in the hope that I could lend it to my wife and avoid having her buy her own separate costume – no such luck. So we are now proud owners of not one, but two sets of graduation regalia.
But on with the history. Starting with calculus, I entered Cornell determined to study physics (no doubt propelled by Sputnik envy). This ambition was soon derailed – I spent more time using my math knowledge to try and disprove the physics lessons than learning physics. Result – a quick transfer to the math department. That went well until I encountered Professor Jacob Wolfowitz (Paul’s father). He was an amazing teacher. His class was hilarious. Somehow he mixed enormous amounts of material in with all the jokes. I found myself spending 40 hours each week outside of class trying to keep up. At the end, I know that my grade on the final exam would be zero or 100, but had no idea which outcome was more probable. Although the grade turned out to be 100, I decided to forsake math – what if I landed in four courses, each as demanding as Prof. Wolfowitz??
So I bravely marched across the quadrangle and signed up for Economics (which I had begun to study at Cornell while finishing high school). The dismal scientists welcomed me. I flashed my math credentials at the door (much appreciated by the residents), but neglected to inform them that my plans did not involve much in the way of mathematical economics. I actually decided to link up the economics with Chinese, another long-standing interest. Thanks to the generosity of Governor Rockefeller and his Regents Scholarship, I was able to pay for a Chinese-language program at Columbia in the summer of 1964.
After graduating from Cornell, I moved to Harvard’s graduate programs in economics with visions of Chinese this and Chinese that. This approach lasted about 24 hours until my adviser, Dwight Perkins, himself a Cornell graduate, informed me that I would spend two years studying various sub-fields of economics, after which I could “do whatever you damn please for the rest of your life.” This sounded like a good deal, so I followed Dwight’s suggestion. This approach worked. I became a Dismal Scientist, learned some more Chinese (managed to get myself sent to Stanford for this purpose – my first sight of the West coast), began studying Japanese, married Evelyn Sakakida, a Cornell graduate (whom I never met in Ithaca) who came to me seeking statistical advice (that did not work – I recommended trashing the statistics – but other topics worked out better), spent two years in Japan and Hong Kong, completed my studies, and landed a teaching position at the University of Toronto.
I spent 14 happy years in Toronto – a good place both professionally and personally. The only problem was that Evelyn wanted to continue her own academic career at the University of Pittsburgh – which had hired her before we married (she finished her studies ahead of me). Evelyn and her department invented commuting – she flew back and forth to Pittsburgh for most of the 14 years, buying 15 tickets at a time (our travel agent would receive calls from Eastern Airlines: “where is the lady who buys 15 tickets every year in August and January?” Eventually, Pittsburgh made their big mistake by inviting me to join their economics faculty, which I agreed to do. When Margaret Thatcher agreed to return Hong Kong to China, the slogan was “One country, two systems.” That was the objective for Evelyn and me, and in 1985 we managed to achieve it – going one better than Thatcher and Deng by attaining two systems in the same building, with History on the 3rd floor and Economics on the 4th. And as an extra bonus, no further dealings with Canada’s immigration authorities and no more Canadian tax returns!
Twenty-five years have passed rapidly since our move to Pittsburgh. Since China figures prominently in both our work, we have made many trips to Asia – initially mainly to Japan (Americans were not welcome in China before the early 1980s), then increasingly to China (most recently for me in May 2010). You may have seen us on TV around the time of the June 4, 1989 protests and massacre in Beijing (yes – those big feet sticking out from under the bed were probably mine). I have logged a good deal of time, many miles, and learned a great deal while running around China.
Chinese language is an endless struggle. I manage some public speaking in Chinese (can’t imagine what kind of headache remedies the audience requires when I am finished). Fortunately, Chinese is a language with huge regional variation, so the natives are accustomed to absorbing an amazing variety of ghastly non-standard speech. This is my good fortune – my linguistic efforts simply come across as yet another species of horrible Mandarin. My reading is OK – as long as I stick to economic stuff. Fortunately the Chinese have absorbed a good deal of international economics lingo (what I call “World Bank Chinese”) which makes it pretty easy to figure out what’s on tap even if the exact wording is not familiar. My big shortcoming is on the comprehension side. If people speak too fast, too slangy, too or present too much regional accent, my comprehension drops swiftly. Fifteen years ago I lost hearing in one ear thanks to a (fortunately benign) tumor. Now there’s a new problem – first I have to hear what they are saying, then try to catch the meaning.
So there it is: still keeping my nose to the University track, although retirement beckons. No children, no regrets (what if they had turned out like me – yikes). I am a horrible correspondent and have not kept up with classmates – except for occasional encounters with Beth (Bronfenbrenner) Soll, Linda Russo, and Paul Wolfowitz and occasional email trysts with David Browne, Ron Cima, Dixie Dahmen, John David, Loulie Hoffman, George Kent, and Jerry Morgan. I am in occasional touch with members of other classes: Fred Baumann, John Roemer (a fellow dismal scientist, now at Yale) and Marty Whyte (who ran the store at Camp Barton when I was a camper and later became a China-oriented sociologist). Had to give up squash and tennis around 1985 (back problems). Stopped playing hockey when I moved to Pittsburgh (briefly in 1970 – pro hockey kills amateur sport – my last hockey encounter was with a stick in my eye). Actually never put on skates since leaving Toronto in 1985 – looked like a complete fool when I tried to skate this past winter (fortunately no ex-teammate could see the awful spectacle) – suffice it to say that my one and only effort to “step on the gas” landed me flat on my face in 0.5 seconds. Must try again next winter. In the meantime, I stick to more sedate sports – walking, swimming, gardening, and discussing Chinese economic affairs with anyone foolish enough to inquire.

From Tom:

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John Reynolds

Then

Now

Birthday:August 30, 1943 City:Ormond Beach State/Prov.:FL Occupation:Ret. Marital Status:Widowed No. of Children:3 What have you been doing for the past 50 years?:After graduation I played electric bass guitar for Bernie And The Cavaliers, after Vick Newhart joined the navy, and toured with Bobby and the counts when Chuck Chacci was at reserves. In 1964 quit playing in the band went to college got married had 3 children. Ken, Candice and Karen. I Started working at NCR in 1971 where I stayed for 28 years. I Retired from Axiohm, who purchase the NCR printer division, in 2001. I spent 25 years as a firefighter and line officer in the Varna Volunteer fire company and retired a life member after a heart attack in 1995. My wife passed away after 43 years of marriage in 2006. I now live half a year in Ithaca and half in Ormond beach Florida.

From John:

I am looking forward to our class reunion.

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Everett Robinson

Then

Now

Birthday:September 09, 1943 City:Freeville State/Prov.:NY Occupation:Retired Marital Status:Married No. of Children:2 What elementary school(s) did you attend?:Fall Creek What Junior high school did you attend?:Boynton Did you attend ninth grade at Boynton or IHS?:IHS

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Nancy Roe (Newhart)

Then

Now

Birthday:August 12, 1942 City:Rochester State/Prov.:NY Occupation:Homemaker/Secretary Website:www.igmonline.org Marital Status:Married No. of Children:2 What elementary school(s) did you attend?:Brooktondale Elementary School What Junior high school did you attend?:Boynton Did you attend ninth grade at Boynton or IHS?:IHS What have you been doing for the past 50 years?:After graduation I worked for a year at the Tompkins Insurance Co., in Ithaca as Secretary. Married Gary Newhart, also class of 1961, on June 2, 1962, then moved to Johnson City, NY, and worked in a printing company while Gary attended seminary. After Gary's graduated we moved to Ghent, NY and started the Bible Baptist Church, serving as Gary's and the church secretary. Our first baby born 10 years after marriage on May 4, 1972, a boy, died 7 days later, with a severe form of Spina Bifida. We a wonderful daughter and a wonderful son. Our daughter has given us 5 super grandchildren (3 boys and 2 girls). Number 5 grandchild is an adopted China girl. Our son has given us one lovable granddaughter. In 1973 moved to Rochester, NY and started the Henrietta Regular Baptist Church, serving as Gary's and the church secretary for 28 1/2 years. Since 2001 serving as the office manager of Independent Gospel Missions with Gary, who is the executive director. In 2012 we will celebrate 50 years of marriage.

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Carol Ross (Penhollow)

Then

Now

Birthday:February 04, 1943 City:Clarence Center State/Prov.:NY Occupation:RN Retired, Animal Health Technician (L.A.H.T.) Marital Status:Married No. of Children:4 What Junior high school did you attend?:Boynton Jr. High Did you attend ninth grade at Boynton or IHS?:IHS What have you been doing for the past 50 years?:Raising a family - Worked with my husband at our Veterinary Hospital for 25 years.

We live part of the year in Florida.

I worked as an RN until last year, spent the last 5 years part-time with the Visiting Nurse Association.

We have traveled quite a bit - some trips on a motorcycle. We still enjoy short trips.

From Carol:I enjoy volunteering - Church, Library, Homeless Shelter, Red Cross, and Community. I also love to read, do needlework and other crafts.

I regret I won't be able to attend the reunion because of a family wedding in Virginia.

Carol passed away on Jan 11, 2017. To read her obituary, click here.

John J. Rumsey

Then

Now

Birthday:December 01, 1942 City:Blythewood State/Prov.:SC Occupation:court reporter Marital Status:Married What have you been doing for the past 50 years?:Was a teacher of art and German for 12 years, worked in newspaper paste-up for a short while, ran my own audit and inspection for insurance company for many years. Have done extensive art/picture framing and retail photography sales. Now, semi-retired and working at the SS disability hearing office.

From John J.:Happily married to my wife of 32 years. Foster parents to 1 child that we raised. Active in homeless ministry.

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