School Story:
[From 50th Reunion Yearbook...]
BA 1961 Oberlin
Allstate Insurance Company - 41 years - most recently as agency owner - now retired and working as a Long-Term Care Consultant with CLTC designation
Wife Susan T. Babos, Oncology Group Clinical Administrator; son Bret T. Babos, partner in mobile notary document service business; son Todd T. Babos, free-lance photographer, and father of Boden, my grandson
My father's vision was clear - get this boy a good education, period. The rest will follow, he said. How right he was. (Thanks Pops).
After leaving Hermon I went to Oberlin as they had no SAT requirements and the coach needed a goalie (a no brainer!). College was an amalgam of various experiences - choir, lacrosse (honorable mention All-American) - (thanks Mr. Scheffer), some studies, worked as a waiter and manager - (thanks Mr. Petschke), found me a wife (still my sweetheart), and joined the USMC after graduating. Tours in California and Japan were enough - got captains bars and missed Nam. I came back to California, ended up in grad school - but not for long, as statistics got to me (thanks Mr. Burdick). A job with Allstate led me into the sales field with my own agency and spent over 41 years with some great experiences and a few awards along the way. In the meantime there were two sons, coaching soccer, playing lacrosse till I was 46 (SoCal Hall of Fame), being a cancer survivor, skiing Mammoth and Tahoe, hiking Whittier and the Grand Canyon, a momentous trip back to Hungary and my roots, singing in church choirs (thanks Mr. Raymond), serving on church boards and on community projects, woodworking and mosaics, having a grandson, vacations with the family, tending to the house, taking care of my aging parents and finally retiring a few weeks ago and finding I am not yet finished (I am consulting in the field of Long-Term Care). Thank God that I have my health, my family, and my faith to sustain me.
How did I get here and what did I learn? Going through the pages of the 1957 Gateway and reminiscing and the answers come right out at me. I learned that life is not a spectator sport - that getting involved IS life. I learned patience and forbearance. I learned tolerance and discipline (thanks Mr. Donovan). I learned to appreciate the arts and culture (thanks Mr. Weber). I learned that hard work was honorable. I learned the value of friendship and trust (thanks to my classmates and my long-suffering roomie Grease). Remembering - Christmas Vespers, Sacred Concert, Wednesday night organ concerts (thanks L'Hommie), choir, TQ, Glee Club, parents visits, West Hall, the bus rides across the river for dates, Monadnock, Gilbert and Sullivan, hoping your PO box showed you got a letter, the fall colors and sights and smells of the New England countryside, cider nicely festering outside your Crossley window sill, the Northfield Benediction sung by the combined voices of all our classmates - these, and other experiences, are cherished forever.
I came here as a chubby and naive boy. I still have problems with gravity and I don’t think I am the brightest planet in the solar system and I am a bit older now - but I have learned a few things. Mt. Hermon was a place of principles (thank you Rev. Moody) - and these principles have been a guiding force in my life. I was blessed to have had the opportunity to be a part of Mt. Hermon, and hopefully Mt. Hermon felt the same way.
Be well, class of 1957!
