Summer 2011 AAUS Newsletter

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY SCHOOL SUMMER 2011 NEWSLETTER ANNUAL JULY REUNION

Next, we conducted our annual election of officers and welcomed Alan to the AAUS board:

We had a wonderfully fun, well attended reunion in July. We met in Rm. 100 of Ramseyer Hall and AAUS President, Skip Woodruff, began the meeting with us all singing “Alma Mater.” This song and the room always bring back such fond memories of music class and Mary Tolbert. Yes, Mary, we still had some pretty good harmony going. You taught us very well!

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.

Our main business consisted of voting to move the annual meeting/reunion to occur the last half of June instead of the second weekend in July. Since OSU is now going into a semester plan, they will now begin summer semester in midJune, so we can meet a little earlier in the year. Mark this on your calendars now…Saturday, June 30th, 2012, Ramseyer Hall, Annual Meeting.

President: Skip Woodruff, ‘59 Vice Pres.: Alan Stickney, ‘65 Membership/Treasurer, Steffanie Haueisen, ‘64 Recording Secretary, Julie Nusken, 55

(Many thanks to Pat Von Jasinski ’66 who filled in as secretary during the meeting in Julie’s absence.)

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.

After this we took some group pictures, had a wonderful tour of the building, and socialized a great deal. It is still so beautiful and full of memories. I also want to thank Bob Fowle, ’39 who attended the reunion and donated sports pictures from his junior year, 1938, with all players identified. He also included the information that no sports pictures were taken his senior year. Interesting facts and well done donation. Thanks so much!

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(Front Row: Steffanie Woodruff Haueisen, ’64, Barbara Thomson Showalter, Vic Showalter. 2nd Row: Pat Von Jasinski, ’66, Virginia Merryman Schlitt, ’52, John Schlitt, ’48, Harvey Minton, ’52 and wife Jane , Skip Woodruff, ’59. 3rd Row: Garry Brown Sr., ’66, Gary Page, ’66, Coach Stahl and wife Shirley, Jon Hazelbaker, ’67, Pete Reynolds, ’56, Rodney James, ’56. 4th Row: Ralph Wilson, ’57, Marysue Jettinghoff Wilson, ’58, Alan Stickney, ’65, Carole Hardy Moyer, ’64 , Paul Jacobs, ’60, Susan Hess Pittner, ’61, Deborah McClung Tracy, ’66, Maribeth Evans Watson, ’61, Harcia Hardy Gaiters, ’61(partially obscured), Mary Ellen Anderson Tyus, ’61(standing), Harriet Williams, ‘61(standing). 5th Row: (seated) Marcia Lehoczky Gillette, ’59 , Hal Pepinsky, ’62, Dan Reuter, ’62. Back row standing: Robert Fowle, ’39, Peter Thorp, ’61, Neil Richardson, ’61, John Cowan, ’61, Ed Violet, ’61, John Lehoczky, 61, John Jacobs, ’62, Bob Parsons,’63. (Not in picture, Cynthia Coon Lambarth, ’61, Janet McCray Clarke,’49, Sally Porter Rae,, ’49, Barbara Craig Thatcher, ’49.)

FAREWELLS UPCOMING REUNIONS

Our deepest condolences and sincere sympathies go out to the family and friends of: *Jane Anderson Grunewald, 47

If any classes are planning on reunions in the near future or next year, please send in any news or information about it.

Also, for those classes who have held reunions recently, please send us the reunion summary, pictures, or anything.

We would like to include the info in the November newsletter.

And also to Keifer Newman, ‘54 and his family on the passing of his mother.

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CORRESPONDENCE

gas tank, 4 wheels and a seat for Eddie.

He would roar through town and park at school, the envy of every kid in the county. She remembered how he could “gun” it and raise the front wheels right off the ground to show it off. So, if you thought that “wheelies and funny cars” were a California invention of the 50s and 60s, you are very sadly mistaken.’ ****************************** QUESTION…has anyone been able to help answer George Hinoki’s question from the last newsletter regarding who “paid” for his tuition to University High School. We would really like some information about this query.

From Bruce Batchelor, ’39, “I really enjoyed your Kudos article (in Winter, 2011) on my younger brother, Richard.

It gave me the idea to tell, as they say, “the rest of the story.” I’m 90 and Richard is 75. When I became an Air Corps Pilot in 1943 Richard was 8 years old. From then on he was determined to become a pilot and by golly he did, and still is, as you have so clearly described.

I am including two interesting paragraphs from a “Feature Article” I had published in the USAF Museum, Dayton, OH, Friends Journal. (Vol 29 No 3 Fall 2006 “Growing up with Aviation.”)

‘The great day I had dreamed of for years was upon me. I would soon be a 2nd Lt. Pilot Officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Dec. 5, 1943 (Pilot training Class 43K) came and went in a hurry. It was, however, a most memorable event!

Our base commander, Col. David Peterson had flown with Eddie Rickenbacker in the American Lafayette Escadrille in WWI in France. He invited Eddie (then president of Eastern Airlines) to preside over our cadet graduation ceremonies. Rickenbacker was scheduled to speak for ten minutes before he gave us our “Silver Wings.”

However, 30 minutes later all 300 of us still stood in total silence. We were spellbound by what this famous flier had to say!

Being from Columbus, I probably knew more about Eddie than the others. You see, the mother of my good friend Clyde Miller grew up with Eddie in Gahanna.

Mrs. Miller told us how Eddie, at age 14, had cut a wrecked car chassis apart and shortened it to ½ normal length. All the body metal was removed as well as the exhaust system. It was only an engine,

WE SECOND THE MOTION! A nice article about the wonderful contributions Larry Larson, ’61 has given our community recently appeared in the Columbus Dispatch.

COMMENTARY (Front Page Sports Section Sat. July 30, 2011)

Whatever it was, it worked for Larson

By MICHAEL ARACE

The WTVN radio website has a video tribute to Larry Larson, who is retiring to California to open a new chapter in his life. Midway through the video, one of Larry’s colleagues, John Corby, says: “You started, you didn’t know anything about radio. You ended, you don’t know anything about radio.”

There is a glowing ember of truth in this good-natured barb.

Larry has spent the past 20 years reading the morning scores over our car radios and reporting from the Horseshoe, Nationwide Arena, Value City Arena,

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school and college students who were interested in broadcasting. More often than not, he had a student in tow at whatever big event he was covering.

Lori Schmidt of WBNS (97.1 FM) got her start tagging along with Larry. So did Kelsey Webb of the Morning Zoo crew on WNCI (97.9 FM).

“He has just blessed so many people,” Webb said. “I don’t know anyone more deserving of some good fortune than Larry Larson.”

Larry’s wife of 25 years, Jeannie, lost a wicked fight with cancer in August 2008, and Larry’s world has been atilt ever since. Ultimately, he felt compelled to leave his hometown and settle in southern California, to be near his stepdaughter, Liza; her husband, Glenn; and their 6-year-old son, Jack.

“Liza is the closest thing to Jeannie that I have left,” Larry said. “For nine months, I have known it was the right time to go. There is also something to be said about going out on top.”

Larry will sign off from WTVN (610 AM) at the end of his Sunday morning sports show, of which he is co-host with Dave Maetzold. Larry’s last three scheduled guests, in order: *Dario Franchitti, whom Larry counts among his favorite interviewees. The international jet-setter/ Indianapolis 500 champion shares a wonderful rapport with the Chuck Taylor-wearing/bowtieclad Mr. High School Sports. Seriously. *Dave King, the former Blue Jackets coach and Larry’s erstwhile jogging mate. The two forged a friendship during those early years of NHL hockey in Columbus. *Faith Washington, Reynoldsburg High School All-America hurdler, who once said to Larry, “Track is just like life. There is a starting line — and there is a finish line.”

Muirfield Village, wherever there was a game. Most notably, he has been the voice of fall Friday nights, running down high-school football scores far and near.

He is known as Mr. High School Sports. He is more like Uncle High School Spirit. Either way, he is a stylistic nightmare. He barks through the speakers like a hoarse camp counselor.

He sounds like Don Pardo in intensive care, or like a high-school football coach.

Of course, he was a high-school football coach, as well as a teacher and athletic director, before he went into radio. And he did not truly go into radio.

He assumed it. Somebody pointed him at a microphone, and he did Larry. He picked up his yellow legal pad, put a smile on his face, opened his mouth and assaulted us with enthusiasm. Who needed to know this business? If the job was to sound as un-phony as humanly possible, well, Larry has filled that bill since he came into this world, on July 27, 1943.

He was raised in the shadow of the ’Shoe and, save for the few summers he spent in New York City when his mother was trying to make it on Broadway, he has lived his entire life in Columbus. It has been quite a relationship.

Larry touched thousands of young lives during his 32 years as a teacher/coach, mostly in the Grandview Heights system. He moved easily to radio, if not journalism. If you have ever heard one of his motivational speeches, you understand his power (and you have an inkling how little Grandview went 90-1 in 1979).

Larry has for the past 20 years mentored select high-school studentathletes and sent them forth to spread positive messages to younger children. It also has been his habit to tutor high-

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FOLLOW-UP

Larry said, “I have had a wonderful, wonderful tenure here. And now, in the parlance of Faith, I am on to the next event.”

In the last newsletter we received a lovely note, from Judi Becker Rioch, ’67, with a photo attached of a bracelet that was given to her mother, Eleanor Becker, by the cheerleaders she advised when she was a phys ed teacher at US (along with Helen Stevens). At the July reunion, we were given the full names of the young ladies on the charms. They are: Betty Wolfrom ’56, Karen Kelley ’57, Donna McDaniel ’56, Susan Littlefield ’56, Alice Shuff ’58, Nancy Delor ’56, Sondra Young ’57, Lynn Goorey’56, Carol Garrett ’58, Anne Wolfrom ’56.”

These comments reflect exactly the way Larry was at University School. We will certainly miss hearing his voice and seeing his picture on sports highlights pages. But, he is on to a wonderful new place and new start, “the next event.”

We are certain California will be very welcoming of his talent, spirit and energy.

DIRECTORY I had planned on printing a new directory this fall. However, I have decided that my current lack of time and need for as much correctness of content as possible, dictates that I publish it in January. I will have an order sheet in the Fall newsletter I am still hoping that someone in each class will help me. I would like to send you as updated a copy of your class as I have, if you would pursue looking into verification of current addresses and finding the missing. Since the Fall newsletter goes to everyone in our records, this would help reduce the number of letters returned as no longer available. Some members of the class of 1962 got busy and with some work and collective searching of memories and contacts, have located almost everyone and even some we didn’t have before.

Thank you so very much!

If you are planning to move, or change any of your information, please let me know. Also if you are aware of any of your classmates whose information has changed, please inform me. jswhaueisen@yahoo.com.

REMEMBERING… Sometimes we look back at friends and faculty members of University School who are no longer with us. Recently, Cynthia Coon Lambarth ’61 gave me the several print items from her father’s funeral service. I particularly liked the obituary. Many of us have very fond memories of Herb Coon, both in and out of the classroom, for he made himself very accessible and had a keen interest in us as people as well as students.

“Herb graduated from Bluffton College and earned both M.A. and Ph.D degrees from the Ohio State University. In 2007 he was awarded the Lifetime Service Award from Bluffton University. He taught in the Ohio public school system prior to joining the OSU faculty in 1943.

He was a teacher and principal of the University School before joining the faculty of science education at OSU, from which he retired as an Emeritus Professor in 1978.

During his professional life he served as visiting professor at Michigan State and the University of Louisville. He was 5

deeply and dearly by his family and friends. We all take great comfort that our lives are better for knowing him and having his life touch ours—whether as parent, grandparent, uncle, cousin or brother-in-law, friend, professor or principal.”

a consultant to the Territorial College of Guam, and spent two years in India as a specialist in secondary education working on a United States Agency for International Development project. He was involved in many evaluations of local school systems and a survey of the Minnesota public schools. During his work with the Educational Resources Information Center, he developed many environmental education activities for elementary, middle and high school classes.

These are the facts of Herb Coon’s life and profession. But Herb’s incredible spirit was what most we will remember about him. We remember a father and grandfather who was always learning new things and was able to challenge our thinking. We remember a devoted student of his adopted Northwest and the many friends he made there during the last 15 years. We remember a citizen who, up to a few weeks prior to his death, lead a current events class, “In the News,” for his friends and neighbors at the Brookdale Trillium Place community. We remember a man who supported innumerable local, national and world-wide causes. We remember an educator who in his nineties continued to volunteer his time to help elementary and middle school students in the Columbus Public Schools learn to read and do math. We remember a creative thinker without boundries who worked to create an intergenerational program between Trillium residents and local high school students. We remember a competitor who loved his OSU Buckeyes, card games, pool, golf, and bowling. We remember a man who was impatient with unfairness, poverty and inequality in our world.

Most of all, we remember a man of great integrity who loved and was loved

We students at University School were so fortunate to have had such quality people as teachers, mentors and friends.

At all of our reunions and gatherings we marvel, and do appreciate, that we were so privileged to have been embraced and taught by as many of the truly great teaching minds and caring people which comprised the faculty of University School. For those of you wonderful faculty people still with us, we THANK YOU SO MUCH for enriching our lives in so many ways.

BE A CONTRIBUTOR I do need some more articles for the newsletter. 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 to: AAUS, 587 Fox Lane, Worthington, OH 43085 or via e-mail – jswhaueisen@yahoo.com

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