ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY SCHOOL LATE FALL 2011 NEWSLETTER News from the ANNUAL JULY REUNION We had a wonderfully fun, well attended reunion in July. There were about 40 people in attendance, along with some spouses, and several more came later. We had class representatives from 1939 through 1967 as well as faculty members, Jim Stahl, Vic Showalter, Barbara Thomson Showalter, and Marysue Garlinger Wilson. We loved to see so many members of the Class of 1961 celebrating their 50th reunion as well as so many members of the 1960s sports teams, especially 1966, celebrating our special teams of the 1960s. We voted to move the annual meeting/reunion to occur the last half of June instead of the second weekend in July. Mark this on your calendars now…Saturday, June 30th, 2012, Ramseyer Hall, Annual Meeting. At our annual election of officers we welcomed a new Vice President to the AAUS board: President: Skip Woodruff, ‘59 Vice Pres.: Alan Stickney, ‘65 Membership/Treasurer, Steffanie Haueisen, ‘64 Recording Secretary, Julie Nusken, 55 After the business discussion, Coach Stahl was introduced. He and several of the basketball players from the mid1960s, had saved some of University
School’s trophies. They have been loaning the trophies to the players on these teams on a rotating basis and he presented one of them to Alan Stickney, to now have his custodial enjoyment of it. If anyone of you knows where any other University School trophies were sent when the school closed, we would appreciate any information you have. In all likelihood, they are gone. We owe a huge thank you to Coach Stahl for saving these. But, the best thing to come out of our annual meeting was a discussion of what to do about the website since our common e-mail address was awkward to use at best. So after some hard work on the part of a couple of dedicated people…
NEW WEB SITE FOR AAUS There is a new web site for former students of The Ohio State University School and is the replacement for the AAUS.NET web site that went off-line in 2008 due to denial-of-service attacks. The new site is www.tosus.org and already contains much of the content that was on the previous AAUS web site. More is added daily as the web master converts information from the old web
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To continue to make all of this possible, AAUS would appreciate any donations you can make toward the website operational costs. AAUS will also provide financial support and can include some earlier website donations which have been in limbo since 2008.
site and as former students suggest changes after viewing the web site. We encourage everyone to view each page and suggest changes, corrections, or additions. A special thanks to Robert W. Butche, Richard H. Evans, Keith Bemis, Mark Voutyras, Bill McCormick, Steffanie Haueisen and John Haueisen for their many years of hard work and thousands of hours in researching, collecting, editing and organizing the large collection of information and pictures used on the new website. Without their dedication to the preservation of this important historical data and the development, maintenance, and operation of the previous website, the new website would not be possible. We wish to thank Steve Moore of Simple Design Websites in Nashville TN for all his time and effort to make this new web site a successful entity. www.simpledesignwebsites.com
UPCOMING REUNION 50th REUNION FOR CLASS OF 1962 Hal Pepinsky, Dick Baker, and John Jacobs make up the committee to plan the upcoming 50th Reunion for the Class of 62 --- June 29 and 30, 2012. The reunion will center around the annual meeting of AAUS at noon on June 30, 2012. Accommodations will be available at the Holiday Inn Worthington. Friday evening will feature an informal gathering at the homes of Hal Pepinsky and Dick Baker who live near each other in Rush Creek Village in Worthington. The Class of 62 Reunion for the evening of June 30 will be hosted at the Holiday Inn Worthington with early cocktails and a dinner to follow --- ending with music selected by Rick Morris from his vast collection. A web site outlining the event is located at http://www.wix.com/johnfj44/class-of62
As a continuation of the website effort‌ DIGITIZING OF THE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL COLLECTION (OSU ARCHIVES) Dick Baker is spearheading an effort, with some of his classmates (Class of 62), to seek permission to digitize the University School Collection currently located in the OSU Archives. He has contacted the archivists who have indicated that the resources do not exist in the archives to physically scan the material at the Archives. However, they have agreed to loan the materials back to AAUS sponsored personnel to scan the materials off-site. Dick will soon know of the ground rules to accomplish this task and where the resulting material will be made available for viewing on the web.
ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP DRIVE 2012 Yes, it is that time again: the kick-off of the annual membership drive of AAUS. Our yearly membership period runs a calendar year. Please read the enclosure for more membership details. LIFE members will not have an enclosure nor will those whose membership is currently up-to-date and who don’t have to renew their membership this year. If
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*Donald Prebus, ’63 brother of Allan Prebus, ‘58 and Cynthia Prebus, ‘69
you are not currently a member, please consider becoming one now. We greatly value each and every member.
Class of 1961 50th Reunion
FAREWELLS
by Mary Ellen Anderson Tyus The Fall newsletter includes a recap of the names of our University School “family” who have passed away during the past year or whose passing we only found out about this past year. Unfortunately our ranks continue to dwindle. Once again we wish to recognize the passing of:
The 50th class reunion was a huge success! The event began on Thursday, July 7th with a delightful cookout at the home of Maribeth Evans Watson. Her son Bill manned the grill and after much feasting and conversation the evening ended with fireworks set off by her daughter and family. Friday featured a lunch for the ladies at Morgan House Restaurant, while the guys explored the Good Guys Car Show. Next, there was a guided tour of the renovated OSU Library and new Student Union, conducted by professor Jack Rall, a friend of classmate Larry Larson. The evening featured a picnic at Scioto Park, as more classmates arrived in town. On Saturday we enjoyed the All-School meeting and Reunion followed by a tour of University School/Ramseyer Hall. Many changes have occurred as the building has been repurposed. Everyone enjoyed seeing the photos of classes taken over the years, displayed in the 1st floor hallway, and the showcase exhibit of books written by University School alumns. Saturday evening featured a banquet at Embassy Suites. Photos of our school days were displayed and a video of The Big Games! was shown. The festivities closed with a brunch at the OSU Golf Clubhouse, a tradition with the class of 1961. Throughout the weekend about 35 classmates, spouses/significant others attended, and a good time was definitely had by all!
*Jane Anderson Grunewald, 47 *Lloyd Frank, ‘43 *Eleanor Smith Kimball, ‘46 *Ted Van Fossen, ‘36 *Myron W. Frederic, ‘49 *Mary Baggs Tweet, ‘40 *James C. Nissen, ’57, brother of Carl Nissen, ‘48 *Dorothy Friedman Willis, ‘41 *Mary Elizabeth Strong Brennan, ‘57 *Kenneth W. Treadwell, ’69 brother of David Treadwell, ‘57 *Della Panos, ’62 sister of Anne Panos, ’59. *Hortense Kohn Cobey, ‘39 *Dick Bennett, ’44 brother of Ann Bennett Hamilton, ‘46 *Dennis Mellman, ’62 brother of Diane Mellman Israel, ‘66 *Carol Edmonston, ‘62 *Larry Mendes, ‘67 To our list we must add the following new members of our “friends now gone” list. Our deepest sympathies go to the family and friends of: *Martin Vorys, ‘46 *Ann Cupoli Vollmer, ‘46 *David Treadwell, ‘57
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We posed for a picture Sat. evening…
(L-R) Maribeth Evans Watson, Tom McManaway, Susie Hess Pittner, Ed Violet, John Cowan, Neil Richardson, Bruce Kay, Cynthia Coon Lambarth, Mary Ellen Anderson Tyus, John Lehoczky, Marcia Hardy Gaiters, Peter Thorp, Cheryl Teaford Scott, Harriet Williams, Carlo Wolff)
CORRESPONDENCE
certainly qualifies as a mentor…someone everyone needs and few are lucky enough to have. God knows, I could have benefitted numerous times in my quirky and often calamitous life from the right guidance at the right moment.”
Received Dec. 2, 2010 from C. Rodney James, ’56, “I am certainly glad I made the visit to see Jane Stewart last summer. She was in good spirits and her mind was in fine shape. I gave her the verbal version of my ups and downs. She seemed rather irate at the “not college material” note on my senior letter and stated (emphatically) she was never consulted nor had any input to that. She had always been one of my favorites and started me off in the direction of film and broadcasting, and was a key person in turning me into a reader; which eventually let to my becoming a writer. Her reading my 7th grade class through Huckleberry Finn hooked me. I have read it at least three times since. She
Speaking of University School’s incredible faculty, I received this from Duey Guerin, ’39 “on August 23, Bea Van Til celebrated her 100th birthday with all of her family with her at their favorite site, Lake Lure. Most, if not all of our group sent her something to let her know we were with her in spirit if not in person.” An enduring friendship with the family of their class mentor, Bill Van Til.
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From Leslie Hauck, ’64 “In September 2010 Oprah did another show in inner city kids, black and ethnic, who are involved in Charter Schools, and other amazing experiences with school that have as their goal 100% college acceptance for their students. I suspect U-High had very good statistics on college attendance. But, the show also, of course, brought up sad feelings of the narrow thinking and political hands that closed University School. These new schools are small and very like ours. Oprah’s guests were not only educational experts but people who’d excelled because of schools like these and they all spoke of the need to go back to small is beautiful. I know all of us who experienced University School would agree.”
read to the classes. I wonder what became of him? 3) Dr. Laura Zirbes gave many pieces of art to University School. I remember newly received artifacts on display in the Rotunda and 1st floor showcases. Previous gifts were displayed in the Teachers’ Lounge or stored in the closets there. Does anyone know what became of those pictures and sculptures?
HELP WITH A QUESTION Earlier this year I received an e-mail from George Hinoki, a long time AAUS member, who has a very interesting question for us. This is a repeat article for members, but it needs to be seen again. There may be some of you who have had unique experiences such as George’s or remember other students who attended U-School only a brief time under unusual circumstances. Please share any of these memories - -it will help us glean more information regarding events we as students were not always aware of.
MEMORIES by Mary Ellen Anderson Tyus, ‘61 1) When I was in kindergarten and 1st grade, many of my classmates pleaded for a return visit from Roscoe, the ventriloquist’s puppet. I’m not sure I ever saw him or only heard about him, but he was a precursor of Howdy Doody by several years. Roscoe may have been manned by a teacher’s spouse or a parent – I think someone described him in a previous newsletter. To my young mind he was a bit creepy (as were clowns) and I was relieved he never paid us a return visit. 2) Lee Wong was a Chinese boy “adopted” by our Student Council. I was in the early primary grades and I don’t know any of the details about him, but I remember votes being taken to continue sending him money, and the thank you letters received from him which were
From George, “There aren’t many U-High students who know or knew of me as I attended U-High a long time ago (67 years to be exact) and also I was a student there for only my senior year back in 1944-45 just as World War II was coming to a close. I would like to determine whether someone can or could assist me in discovering who “paid” for my tuition, if any, to allow me, an outsider from California to be admitted as a senior to University High School back then when, I understand, there was a waiting list of those students more worthy than I who wished to matriculate at U-High. While I was fortunate to be admitted at that time over those who were not accepted, I 5
I heard from George recently, “a few months ago I did receive a snail mail from Sue Hunter Beall who was unable to answer my query be we did have a good “snail mail” reunion. It really would be a miracle for anyone to “know” or even discover the answer to my question, but at least I’ll have the satisfaction that I tried to obtain the answer (from any source) to a question that brought me the good fortune of having been able to be a student of such a prestigious school in Columbus, Ohio as it was at that time in the history of University School.
hope you understand my plight and query. I was probably the first Japanese American student at University School who had just been released from an Internment Center (the US Style Concentration camp in Colorado) in 1944 and relocated to Columbus with my older sister, who had been hired by the US Government to be an aide to Carl Spicer, who was at that time, the Director of the US War Relocation Authority of the State of Ohio at Columbus, Ohio. Carl Spicer’s son, Pete Spicer, had just graduated with the Class of 1944 from U-School and it was his father who may have had something to do with my being admitted to U-School ahead of the many other prospective students who wished to attend. I had thought at the time, that my sister had something to do with my acceptance to the school but she has since informed me that she had absolutely nothing to do with it. Accordingly, I had the pleasure of meeting Ada Pennington, our English teacher, the venerable Miss Willis, John Ramseyer, Coach Coon, among many others whose names escape me for now. My classmates in the senior year were Jack Havens, Jim Justice, Bob Stonecipher, Jerry Jones, the Marple twins, Adolph Ackerman, Tom Thatcher, Elyse Evans, Barbara Buckingham, Alice Bland, Charles DiCarlo, Bob Love, and a host of others too numerous to name at this time. We were all post-World War II youngsters and eager to serve our country which many of us did later after graduation in mid 1945. I hope there is someone who will help in solving my curiosity as these questions have puzzled me for well over sixty years.”
BE A CONTRIBUTOR I do need some more articles for the newsletter. These memories, remarks and stories will be the stuff that future generations will study, and hopefully learn, about how truly unique our educational experience was; how caring and meaningful the relationships were between classmate, teacher (mentor) and the life lessons we learned through these experiences. Some of these caring teachers/mentors/ coaches are still with us. If you want to contact any of these wonderful folks, please contact me at the address below. Please send any stories about University School life and activities you remember, any classmate stories, any teacher story. You are the writers of the newsletters and we need to keep your thoughts, memories and activities coming in so others can share and enjoy them. The newsletter is to keep us in touch with each other, let’s do so! Send your writings or inquiries to: AAUS, 587 Fox Lane, Worthington, OH 43085 or via e-mail – jswhaueisen@yahoo.com.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR
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