The Challenger+50

Troy High School  Troy, New York

      April 2010

50^th Reunion Plans Jelling for October 1-3

A retired Army Airborne Crew chief and Vietnam vet now living in California; a successful businesswoman in New York City; a semi-retired entrepreneur, event-planner and real estate guy from Florida; and a teacher at a small college in Ohio — what better mix for a self-appointed committee to plan our 50th Reunion in Troy? What fun we’ll all have starting Friday evening October 1.  In fact we have already begun the fun — hearing from old friends and, even after all these years, making friends among ourselves since we four really didn’t know each other very well before this.

We have tried to plan some main events that each of us classmates can make into what we want — with lots of flexibility, choices, and down-time. We expect we all want to count our blessings, tell our stories (most of them happy, but not all), renew formative friendships, remember those who have passed, and be glad we are together again.

There aren’t many of them left, but our teachers from back in the day will be our guests at dinner on Saturday evening. And one by one we’ll remember classmates who have departed this life.  Let’s share our recollections of them and raise a glass, as the spirit moves us.

Events - pick and choose:

 Friday evening, 6 p.m. Meet at the Red Front –   where else?

 Saturday morning, 10 a.m. Tour of THS – what’s happening these

  days? (Group picture)

 Saturday afternoon, Troy’s history – with Tom Carroll (see page 4)

   At the Daily Grind on Third St – a coffee shop and restaurant

 Saturday evening, 6 p.m. drinks & dinner at the Hilton Garden on

  Hoosick Street          

 Sunday noon, Cruise and brunch on the Hudson,               

  aboard the Capt. JP II

Connie Rapp on deployment to find ALL his classmates

My Contribution – Connie Rapp

My involvement on the planning committee goes back many months when I sent an email to Ronnye (Berg) Shamam and asked her if she had heard of any plans for a 50^th Class Reunion.  Ronnye said she hadn’t, but suggested that she and I try to get one organized.  My quick response was “no way….I live much too far away from Troy to try and plan a reunion”.  Finally after a few more emails over several weeks, maybe even a month or more; I relented and told her I would try and help as much as I could……That was last November.

Meanwhile, she and Steve had been online and Ronnye got him involved using the same persuasive tactics. Here it is almost six months later. We have been lucky to add Bobby to the group, and he knows stuff about parties (as you all may remember!) - Now professionally. We all live a good distance from Troy so it hasn’t been an easy project toundertake. Luckily Ronnye, who runs a business in New York City, also has a house inTroy, so she has up-to-date information and many local contacts.

Our hats go off to those who organized previous reunions! We now know how hard you worked. Your efforts gave us a starting point. In March Steve and Bobby made a special trip to Troy to finalize plans with the Hilton Garden Inn, the Red Front Restaurant, Captain J P cruise ship, and people at Troy High.  All this was done in a one day trip with Steve driving in from his vacation home near Cooperstown (not an easy drive with snow still on the ground) and Bobby flying in from Florida for the day.  Thanks to them and to Ronnye, I’ve been able to sit at home in sunny, warm Southern California and do all my work via the computer. 

I’ve sort of been the private eye of the group: it’s been my responsibility to try and track down all of our class members from 1960. This was no small task, but with the vital help of some old address lists from prior reunions, furnished to me by Pat (Slocum) Goyer and Barbara Primeau, along with some detective work by both Howie Teal and Jim Budrakey; I was able to track down about 200 of our class members.  Unfortunately, we still have about 60 members on the MIA list. Some postcards just kept coming back, undelivered.

One other job that I undertook was to find out who from our class is no longer with us….this was the toughest part of the entire planning endeavor and one that I don’t wish upon anyone.  As of this writing I have found that we have lost 29 members of our Class of 1960.  All were gone much too young and several were extremely young when they passed…these classmates will all be remembered fondly – above all as 17 and 18 year old kids from our days at THS. I look forward to seeing you all at the reunion in October.

 _________________________________________  

“These classmates will all be remembered fondly — as 17 or 18 year old kids at Troy High”

  Arnold Raphel 1943 - 1988 

Arnie and I lost touch sometime during college, but when I read he had been appointed by President Reagan to be Ambassador to Pakistan, I contacted him through a retired State Department guy I knew at my office. I was working in New York City at the time. Arnie and I corresponded and made a plan to get together when he was next in New York — for the opening of the UN General Assembly that fall. Of course I was looking forward to it. But one day that summer I picked up the paper and read that he was dead. He was in a plane with President Zia of Pakistan that went down under still unexplained circumstances. Arnie’s many obituaries described him as a truly outstanding career diplomat and an especially gifted linguist, a huge loss to the Foreign Service. I remember him as a gifted and witty friend, and feel proud to have known him when we were young. He was given too few years and I kick myself for not having stayed in touch – with him and with so many others.        Steve Thomas

                                                Arnie in 1960

Bobby DeFriest plans to make them card him at the Red Front. It’s all part of the Plan. He’ll tell us the secret formula for his non-stop energy and optimism.

The Hilton Garden Inn

The Hilton Garden Inn on Hoosick is a new hotel with a perfect space for us in their cheery breakfast area set up for dinner. The adjacent lounge has a piano, a fireplace, and a cash bar.   

Suggested dress for our dinner: dressy casual.

You’ll find the menu for our dinner enclosed. Some rooms are available for out-of-towners. Call soon - 518-272-1700 - and tell them you’re with the THS 50^th Reunion. Rooms go at $149 a night - until Sept 7.

We’ll dance, if we feel like it (oldies, anyone?), but there will be no loud music or lengthy program. We’ll mainly want to talk with one another, and laugh – lots of time for that. Connie Rapp will be MC.

The Capt. JP II – Hudson Cruise

A perfect way to top off the weekend. Who would have wanted to get too near the Hudson back in the 1950s? But times have changed and so has the river – for the better. It’s a three-hour cruise past Albany and back, with brunch.

“Rivers are highways that move on and bear us whither we wish to go.”  Blaise Pascal

The Instigator

Ronnye (Berg) Shamam

Ronnye at play

The Capt. JP II on the Hudson