| E-Notice |
Hello Hornets:
Here are some items that might be of
interest:
1.
SEPTEMBER 5 GOLF OUTING BENEFITS
FOUNDATION!
In connection with the upcoming
Class of 74 Fortieth Reunion, an All Classes Golf Outing is being
planned with proceeds benefiting the Foundation. Here’s the
info:
-
Who: Open to all Classes, family and friends; Register yourself or your team.
-
Format: Four-Person Teams, Captain’s Choice
-
When: Friday, September 5, 1:00 PM Start (awards to immediately follow the golf)
-
Where: Twin Shields, Dunkirk, Maryland
-
Cost: $65 per Person (due in advance, no later than August 27)
-
50/50 Raffle: Will benefit the SHS Scholarship Fund
Deadline for Registration: August 27,
2014; send golfer names and payment to Lauren (Foley) Johnson, 105
Tarragon Lane, Edgewater, Maryland 21037; register early to ensure
your spot as participation is limited.
For More Information Contact:
Lauren (Foley) Johnson (lmfriley@comcast.net
or 703-980-2032).
Organizers:
Lauren and Alan Johnson
Many thanks to the Class of 74 for its
support of the Foundation, and to Lauren and Alan for their
organizational efforts!
2.
EXTRAORDINARY VALEDICTORIAN FEATURED IN
WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE.
Some of our readers may have seen the wonderful, and lengthy,
Washington Post article by Ovetta Wiggins about this year’s
Surrattsville valedictorian, Montel Medley. (Thanks to my Mom
for sending along a copy!) Here’s an excerpt:
“High School Valedictorian has 4.0 GPA, and
Autism: Montel Medley’s valedictory speech covered many
standard themes … . Then, Montel delved into something rarely heard
from someone with a 4.0 grade point average, standing before his
graduating class, preparing to head to college in a few months.
Montel, 17, spoke about his autism. ‘Having a disability
doesn’t mean you have a disadvantage,’ Montel, the valedictorian at
Surrattsville High School in Prince George’s County, told the
audience. ‘Sometimes it can be an advantage.’ For
Montel, graduating at the top of his class was part of a difficult
journey that began with the realization at age 3 that he was nearly
non-verbal, then continued through special education classes in
elementary school and ultimately into academic independence and
success. … [F]ewer than 60% of students with autism earn a
diploma. … Alisha Clark, the coordinator of the autism program at
Surrattsville, said Montel matured during his four years in high
school and grew not only to accept his autism but to embrace it. …
Montel said the autism program taught him to deal with controlling
his anger and addressing peer pressure. It even helped him to
learn to organize notes and keep track of his assignments, he said.
… [Montel’s mother] Roberta Medley becomes
overwhelmed with emotion when she thinks back on Montel’s past and
his accomplishments, including an almost unthinkable 4.0 grade point
average and an acceptance to Towson University. ‘I dedicated a
great part of my life to see that he flourished,’ said Roberta
Medley, a single mother, choking back tears as she talked about her
only child. ‘I worked with him a great deal to make him the
person that he now is.’
This month, Montel and his mother met with a
disability staff member [at Towson] to discuss what accommodations
the school thinks he might need. Montel said he plans to
follow the same rules that he used at Surrattsville: ‘I followed
directions, I paid attention to my teachers, and I did the work.
And I’m planning to do well in college, too.’”
Congratulations to this extraordinary young
scholar, his devoted mother, and Alisha Clark and the rest of the
great staff at Surrattsville.
[The entire article, with a great
photo of Montel in the halls of Surrattsville, can be found at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/high-school-valedictorian-has-a-40-gpa-is-headed-to-towson-university-and-is-autistic/2014/06/14/076442a2-f0ca-11e3-914c-1fbd0614e2d4_story.html]
2.
FOUNDATION YOUTUBE PROGRAMS NOW NUMBER 12.
The Foundation’s youtube channel now features a significant amount
of varied content, all of it interesting and some of it fun!
The main page is at
http://www.youtube.com/user/SurrattsvilleFDN.
Please consider viewing the short programs and subscribing to the
channel.
3.
WRESTLING TEAM REUNION SET FOR SEPTEMBER
14.
As previously announced, a reunion of
Surrattsville’s wrestlers and coaches from the Coach Lew Jenkins era
is being planned for Sunday September 14. Please send me an
email at
hsmith@smithdowney.com
if you’d like to be placed on the email list for information about
that event, or if you know someone who might like information about
the event.
[Ed. Note: We're trying to track down
the following AWOL members of the 1970-1971 squad: Jim
Bradshaw, Curtis Crane, Bernie Green, Tim Olinger, Mike Todish, Bill
Endres and Larry Hoying. Please send me an email at
hsmith@smithdowney.com if you
have any information about these Hornets or members of their
families.]
4.
HORNET SHARES ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS AND
MEMORIES.
Many of our readers enjoyed the beautiful Memorial Day piece by Bill
Crawford (62) in the last e-Notice. (Bill can be reached at
bcraw44@gmail.com.)
Bill’s Memorial Day reminiscences were informed by his experience as
a rifleman and later a combat photo-journalist in Viet Nam.
The following is an epilogue to Bill’s
Memorial Day thoughts: “Epilogue: I put down my cameras
and stopped reading anything about the Jungle War in 1980. I
continued to write but I mostly focused on advocating for the poor
and powerless. I tried to forget the Nam and what happened there.
Then last year something stirred inside of me. I arranged a
Mississippi reunion with some Army journalists from my days at Fort
Hood after the war. They all became serious writers, poets, and
scholars. I re-engaged with the War, caught up on everything that
had been written in the decades since, and bought some new Nikons.
I even began writing about the Nam again. One day I was
reading Keith Nolan's book, Death Valley, which chronicled one of
the biggest battles of the war centered around LZ West. As I read
the lurid details of those fateful days in the summer of 1969 I came
across words that were all too familiar. I thought to myself: "This
is some good stuff! I could have written this. I did write this!"
I turned to the back of the volume and the citations jumped off the
the page: Specialist 4 Bill Crawford, etc. I was a scared
inexperienced kid in '69 but I was mentored by the best. I operated
under the constraints of the Army and the odious shackles of
censorship. I began to see the Nam in new light. I was mentored by
the best and I came to be able to do my job with a measure of
professionalism. I helped the photojournalists who mentored me by
leading them to the truth. They could never give me credit directly
in their stories but when I read a line written by me on the front
page of the NY Times: "August can be a searing Hell for the infantry
soldier operating in the Que Son Valley," I didn't mind in the least
that the line was buried in a story written by the Big Boys. They
often gave a nod to the skinny nerd on LZ West in this fashion. I
had played a very small part in great work by giant writers and
lensmen. I even met up with the Hawk, Sgt. George Hawkins, last
year in San Francisco. He got me my job as a photojournalist on LZ
West. By the end of 2013 I was mostly free in my mind of the Nam.
Now I am writing a short story which is historical fiction. It is
about grunts, lensmen, and the horrors of the Jungle War. Most of
the characters and events are true because reporting truth is what I
learned from the giants who were my mentors. The plot reflects both
good and bad. But the story hinges on a combat radio transmission
from the grave. The working title is: "I Hear You Lima Charlie, How
Me?" Stay tuned.”
5.
HELP NEEDED WITH FALLEN HEROES PLAQUE.
As previously reported,
thanks to the efforts of Bob Jeter (64), the Foundation is preparing
a Fallen Heroes plaque to hang in the Legacy Hall that will contain
the names and Class years of Hornets who died while serving in the
military or as first responders (or later from service-related
injuries). Bob is now putting the finishing touches on the
text for the plaque, and needs our readers’ assistance in providing
some missing information. The working text of the plaque is
included at the end of this e-Notice. Please contact Bob at
his new email address at 904jeter@gmail.com
if you can provide any of the needed information, or if you know of
any Hornets who should be honored in this way.
[Ed note: Photos of the Legacy
Wall can be found on the Foundation's web site at
www.surrattsville.org.]
6.
CLASS OF 95 PLANS REUNION.
The Class of 95 will be celebrating its 20 reunion in June 2015 at
the Colony South and is looking for our classmates. Please send an
email to Kenya Samuels Gray at
Kenya.Gray@gmail.com if you
have any information on 95 grads or members of their family.
The Class also has a Surrattsville Class of 1995 group on Facebook.
To kick-off the "countdown to 20," on June 11, 2014 from 5 p.m. – 9
p.m. the Class’s planning committee is hosting a celebrity scoops
night at Rita's in Clinton (the old Pizza Hut near the intersection
of Woodyard Road and Brandywine Road).
7.
CLASS OF 75 PLANS REUNION.
The Class of 75 is considering plans for a reunion. (Note that
the Class of 75 reunion is not part of the upcoming Class of 74
reunion as was previously mentioned.) Please contact Lorraine
Frank Kerr at
lorraineefrank1@gmail.com,
or Cindy Shaffer Kluth on Facebook, if you are interested in the
Class of 75 event.
8.
CLASS OF 79 REUNION UPDATE.
We received this update
from the Class of 79 Reunion planners: "Mark your calendar for
Saturday, August 23, 2014 for the Class of 79 Reunion, and
surrounding classes are more than welcome to join in the fun.
The event is planned to be at the Hilton Garden Inn in Waldorf, MD.
To sign up and buy tickets go to:
http://www.surrattsville79.reunionmanager.com/ Or
email Marilynda Orange Macquade at
mmacquade@verizon.net
to sign up.
9.
CLASS OF 74 REUNION UPDATE.
And we received this update from the Class of 74 on its reunion
planning: “Invitations to the Class of 1974’s 40
year reunion on September 6,
2014 at The South River Golf Club in Edgewater, MD (7 p.m. start
time) have been mailed out. Please go to the “Surrattsville Class of
74” Facebook page to get more details on the reunion and to review
comments from your fellow alumni on the reunion. The Facebook
link to the Class of 74 site is
https://www.facebook.com/groups/117993451552383/.
If you have not received an invitation yet and would like to attend
the reunion please contact Paul Myers at
prmyers@aacc.edu.
Related to this, about 20 invitations have been returned due to
non-current Linkins Twiford, Richard (Rick) Gehrman, Jr., Cynthia
(Cindy) Miner Gehrman, Keith A. Armstrong, Bill Simpkins, Harry
Carter, Elizabeth (Betty) Endres Raimondi, Tim Shanahan, Brenda L.
Murphy, Robert Cornett, Charles (Charlie) Disharoon, Rosemary Harris
Duke, George Sheppard, Fred Selby, Lisa Fugate Southerland, Joy
Griffiths Taylor, Laurie Nichols Rhatican. If you know of the
whereabouts and/or are in contact with any of these fellow alumni
please let them know that an attempt to send them an invitation to
the reunion was made. If they would like to attend please
request that current contact information be forwarded to Paul Myers
at the email address shown above. Finally, there is a
substantial list of alumni for which the Reunion Committee has no
contact information. We intend to post the list on the Class
of 74 FB site. This will hopefully yield additional contact
information for these alumni. Hope to see many of you in September.
In the meantime, have a great summer – the Reunion Committee.”
10.
CLASS OF 64 FINALIZES REUNION PLANS.
And we received this latest reunion update from the Class of 64:
“The class of 1964 is holding their 50th reunion in Ocean City the
weekend of 9/26-28/2014 at the Commander Hotel (1401 Atlantic
Avenue, OC, MD, 1-888-289-6166). If you have not made your
plans to attend, please do so by 9/1/2014. Dress is beach casual
and the cost for the dinner/dance, t-shirt, and memory
book is $64. The hotel has set aside a block of rooms and is giving
a 20% discount - you just have to mention SHS reunion and book your
room 24-hours in advance. If you stay in the hotel Friday and
Saturday, a brunch is included "free" on Sunday (9/28) morning.
Plans include a meet and greet (BYOB) on Friday night beginning at
7pm at the hotel and cash bar/dinner/dance on Saturday night
beginning at 6pm. This is truly a once-in-a- lifetime event so
please plan to attend. Call one of the following people for
more information: Phil Foster, 301-254-1946,
fosterphilip6@gmail.com; Bob
Fowler, 443-550-3142,
robertfowler401@comcast.net,
Ginger Trapanotto, 301-318-6544,
gingersnap699@gmail.com, or
Barbara Schlosser, 301-373-9648,
mandbmc@md.metrocast.net.
11.
CLASSES OF 83/84/85 REUNION.
And we received this
notice from the Classes of 83, 84 and 85: "Mark your calendar
for Saturday, October 11, 2014 for our Classes of 83/84/85 Reunion.
Please email Debbie O’Clair MacKenzie at
Debbiemackenzie45@yahoo.com
to be placed on the mailing list (if you have not already received
the “save the date” email). If you have questions about the
event, contact your Class representative:
1983—Becky delVillar Levin:
bdellevin@gmail.com
1984—Gary Stallings:
gstallings@yahoo.com
1985—MaryBeth Klick:
mbklick@aol.com"
12.
SEEKING WEB SITE VOLUNTEER.
The Foundation is still seeking an individual who might be willing
to volunteer time to post items to the Foundation’s web site from
time-to-time, and perhaps to update the website with more modern
technology. Please send me an email at
hsmith@smithdowney.com if you
would consider volunteering your talents to this noble undertaking.
13.
NEW PHOTOS CONTINUE TO BE ADDED TO
FOUNDATION'S FACEBOOK GROUP.
Thanks to the on-going work of Foundation Historian and Archivist
Shelby Lee Oppermann (79) and a number of members of the
Surrattsville community, the large collection of wonderful
historical photos with Surrattsville themes on the Foundation's
Facebook Group, "Surrattsville Alumni," continues to grow.
(Naturally, the Foundation would love to have any Surrattsville- or
Clinton-themed historical photos or videos you might wish to share.)
The Group now has over 1820 members.
Here's hoping
you are enjoying a wonderful summer!
All the best, Henry Smith (71)
In Memoriam
HOMER REVIS (56) died on June 23.
Homer and his wife Joan Penn Revis (61) were great supporters of the
Foundation since its establishment in 2000. This lovely
remembrance was submitted by Joan: “After fourteen years of
dealing with cancers, and a strong and valiant fight, Homer Revis
(Class of 1956) passed away on June 23, 2014. A lot of people,
including Surratts schoolmates, attended the funeral in MD, and
there will be a Memorial Service in PA where we live. Homer,
the oldest of six children, was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1938.
At 6 months of age, they moved to the MD/DC area, and to Clinton
when he was 6 years old. All the kids, Homer, Harry,
Phyllis, Ina Jean, Claude and Roy (all SHS graduates), worked hard
on their “farmette”. Homer attended Surrattsville (grades 1-12) and
graduated in 1956. He enjoyed learning, and took classes at U
of MD, and PG Community College. He was gifted mechanically
and became a journeyman Steamfitter (belonged for 56 years).
He sometimes worked for others, but had several of his own
businesses.
Homer married Joan L. Penn (SHS Class
of ’61) in 1962 and they raised 2 daughters, Dawn and Doreen Renee,
and a son, Darin in Clinton. They were 3rd
generation to graduate from SHS (Joan’s Dad, Thomas Alan Penn,
graduated in 1925). Homer loved his children and we did a lot
of traveling and camping, including a 7-week trip around the States
in 1976.
Homer played SHS and American Legion
baseball. He always loved music and played in the SHS band,
and sang— in school, a lot in churches, groups, etc. He
enjoyed hunting, fishing, and later camping, traveling and
cruising (got to all but 4 states), went on 2 mission trips to
Guatemala, one to the Netherlands, and a pleasure trip to the
Mediterranean and Holy Lands. He served in the Air Force
Reserves for 8 years. He loved flying—got his pilot’s license
in 1962, and enjoyed flying for pleasure, travel and business.
He loved family and people, especially his grandchildren Jennifer,
Taylor and Jacob, and loved attending their activities.
After 40 years living in the home he built
in Clinton, we moved to Mountain Top PA in 2005 to be near the
family and grandchildren. Renee lives in NYC, 2-1/2 hours
away. Most of all, Homer loved God, and served in many
capacities in the churches God lead us to, even preaching a funeral
one time. He wanted everyone to know their salvation, and he
wanted to help people whenever he could. He will be remembered
and missed by many.”
MANY THANKS TO THESE EARLY DONORS TO
THE 2014 CAMPAIGN!
-
Steve Profilet (71)
-
Nancy Miller (67)
-
Pat Becker Oles (71)
-
Debbie Cox Marr (72)
-
Bob Marr (71)
-
Joe Capone (79)
-
Vicky Simontacchi Young (57), In Honor of the Classes of 57 and 84
-
Kurt Aktug (88)
-
Linda Dorsey Blum (66)
-
Coach Lew Jenkins (former faculty)
-
Melissa Gilcrest (69)
-
Vera Twigg
-
Nancy Oursler Maynard (65), In Memory of Bill Millios, husband of Diana McCormick Millios (65)
-
Rick Torrecarion (74), In Loving Memory of Patsy Torrecarion (76)
-
Lee Hessberg (68)
-
Lois Barrett Hessberg (70)
-
Tom and Sally Travis (72)
-
Larry Romjue (57), In Memory of Lois Marie Osgood (57) – “If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight),” Fontane Sisters
-
Donna Rae Sturtevant Smith (70)
-
Henry Smith (71)
-
Dave DeCenzo (73)
-
FALLEN
HEROES PLAQUE TEXT
Jim Anderson Class of
1965
- DOB?-Died 1968
need mo/day
-
DMZ in South Korea. U S Army?
Cleveland, Robert & Mabel, also lost
their oldest brother in WW II.
Name? Classmate?
No data at all
Sgt. David Dickinson
No data at all
J Paul Duke, Jr. Class of 1939
-
7/16/1922—9/26/1944
-
U S Army
-
WW II Netherlands
Richard Ellis Class of 1965
confirm class year-I
have 3 different ones!
- Need DOB & DOD
-
U S Army
-
Cold War- Germany
Captain
Jeffrey Lyndol Harris
need
details
James Herbert 1953 Class of
1971 need
details
-
X/X/1953 – 10/23/1971
-
Clinton Volunteer Fire Dept
Vernon Kennedy Class 1964
details?
Robert Edward Knadle Class of 1963
-
10/19/45 - 10/9/67
-
Viet Nam
-
Distinguished Service Cross
Jimmy (James) Lange... not sure of the
spelling
need details
-
-
Viet Nam
Bill Miller (65)
need
details
Dean Gilman Owen
-
2/15/47- 4/6/68
-
SP5 Army
-
Viet Nam?
William Racca – Class of 1965
-
3/26/47 - 4/17/69
-
U S Army
-
Viet Nam
-
Silver Star
William Talbert Class of 1965
-
6/14/1947-1/27/2012
-
Montgomery County Police Dept
Marthell Traylor, Jr Class of 1964
-
8/24/46 - 9/16/68
-
US Army
-
Viet Nam
Daniel J. Vaughan, Class of 1968,
- XX/XX/XXXX -
XX/XX/1970
-
U S Army
-
Viet Nam
-
Richard Whittington Class of 1968
-
XX/XX/1950 - October 23, 1971
-
Clinton Volunteer Fire Dept