THE
SCRATCH SHEET VOLUME #18
IN
THIS ISSUE:
A.
JON NEWTON ’56 RETIRES FROM THE STEEL & GARNETT
B.
C.
CLASS GIFT UPDATE
D.
THOUGHTS ON THE CLASS GIFT
E.
THE
F.
TOURING THE GIRARD COLLECTION: FRIDAY MAY 21, 10- 11:30 or 4-5:30
G.
JIM SWANTEK IS FOUND
H. CORINTHIAN II AND THOSE NASTY
PROFILES: A REPORT FROM THE
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
I.
SOME OTHER THINGS
CONTACTS FOR THIS ISSUE:
BOB CULVER: 973-628-0786; fabo2@verizon.net
ROCCO D’AMICO: 301-229-0834; rdamico@ihsm.com
ED DIROMALDO: 215-365-5965;
pomodon@comcast.net
JOE FRIGIOLA: 609-702-0503; joefrigiola@comcast.net
JOHN KANE: 215-343-5769; jjkgc60@verizon.net
A. JON NEWTON
’56 RETIRES
FROM THE STEEL & GARNETT
Most
of you have recently received the Winter 2010 edition of the Steel &
Garnet, the Alumni Association’s quarterly magazine. In that issue Jon Newton announces his
retirement from the position of Editor of the magazine after 12 years of
service. During that time Jon has been
responsible for two issues a year. (We
believe the Alumni office has been responsible for the other two issues each
year.) Over the years we have received
many favorable comments from classmates praising
In
it you will find:
- An
interview with Jon with the questions posed by Jon, recapitulating his
years in the position, pp2, 33, and 35.
Jon takes on his friends, enemies, and those in the middle in this
piece.
- A piece on
the installation of Autumn Adkins as President of the Hum, pp 3-6. Many of the items referenced in that
section, but not published, are available in SS#13 dated 11/12/2009, Girard1960.com, including Pete
Shoemaker’s introduction of the new president, the articles/interviews
with Ms. Adkins in the Inquirer, and Philadelphia Magazine, and Ms. Adkins
acceptance speech.
- A letter
from Gil Bunker ’53, the Hum’s volunteer archivist, on the derivation of
the words, Hum and Hummer. (p.
7) Mr. Bunker is currently
supporting our efforts on Corinthian II
in helping us to find photos for inclusion.
- A letter
from Tom DiFillippo ’44 objecting to some of President Adkins thoughts in
the Inquirer interview, along with Ms. Atkins response. (p. 8).
- A piece on
Pete Shoemaker’s ascension to the Chairmanship of the Hum’s Board of
Managers. (p. 9).
- The
conclusion of
- Two
articles dealing with Stephen Girard’s life and reputation. One on the Toussaint Louverture affair,
where Girard was accused of stealing the Haitian rebellion leaders’ funds
p.28, and another on Girard’s treatment of his mentally ill wife, Mary,
p.30.
So
guys, get into those piles, and dig it out, and read it cover to cover. Your editor will miss
B.
Attendees:
Baji, Caplan, D’Amico, Evans, Frigiola, Gries, Kane, Mills, Phillips,
Shoemaker
Once again, Pete
& Roz Shoemaker were the perfect hosts.
This was our third
Winter meeting
at their home in
Judy Gries, Roz
Shoemaker, and Shawn Mills were also in attendance and were helpful
in
contributing their ideas.
Along
with dinner together Friday night, the golfers in the group spend Saturday
morning lying to each other about their skills.
We hear Toby had a miracle round.
The non-golfers headed off to
We
now have 52 returns from Survey 3. The
Class Dinner, Chapel Services, and Saturday lunch will draw the highest
attendance with 45 classmates signed up for each. The number of additional guests for these
events ranges from 33 to 65. We still
have not heard from 9 guys whose attendance we have estimated to be ‘highly
probable’, and another 19 ‘needing encouragement’, so these numbers are sure to
increase. .
We’re
still undecided as to whether we should move the class dinner from the Library
to Founder’s Hall because of our numbers.
The decision must be made by May 1st. Also since the numbers indicate that we may
have as many as 70 people at the Hospitality Suite at some points, we need to
ensure that we will have adequate space.
Frigiola and Kane will revisit the Hotel to take a closer look at the
rooms we have reserved.
Fund
raising for the Class Gift and Administrative costs is going well. So far, we stand at approximately $167K
toward our $200K goal. Of this amount
$7500 has been designated for the Admin Fund, and $1700 for the Help Fund.
We
also reviewed all anticipated expense items in order to establish a budget for
the admin charges. The biggest items are
the meals (i.e., the Class Dinner, Saturday Lunch, and Sunday Brunch). Also included with these are beverage and
refreshment costs for the Hospitality Suites, the Dance, and the cocktail
hour. After these are video editing for
the DVD take away, potential AV charges from the Hum, and the production costs
of Corinthian II. It seems we are pretty
much on track, but still need to be mindful of what we are spending. It was suggested that we might charge for
alcoholic beverages at the Class Dinner – say $2/drink. It remains a possibility.
We
discussed options for the dinner favor.
The current front runner is a combination paper weight/ magnifying
glass. However, we questioned the
necessity for any favor at all. We may
eliminate this expense altogether.
On
the subject of the Class Gift we noted that 8 options have been identified so
far. (See SS#17). We decided that we should consider something
in President Adkins’ expressed vision for the school that could be attributed
to our class. Pete will arrange a second
visit with Autumn to identify
specifics. Following that , a
subcommittee of Shoemaker, Caplan, Evans, and Frigiola will make a recommendation. At the end of the Scratch Sheet are photos of
the “beautiful people” in attendance.
Class
speaker nominations stand at three.
Selection will be made at the next meeting.
We reaffirmed our preference for having honorary
diplomas granted to non-graduated classmates at the chapel service.
The
hum tours were discussed. It was decided
to keep the Friday tours (Stephen Girard collection) at
The
fact that the
The
plan for Corinthian II was briefly discussed.
It was noted that Bob Kutchera’s piece in SS #17 was very well
received. It is exactly the
self-authored profile approach that would make Corinthian II most appealing to
classmates and other readers. We should
all follow suit and send Rocco our own profiles.
Written by Joe Frigiola.
C. CLASS GIFT UPDATE
44
Classmates and Climbing
We now have contributions from 6
additional classmates. The newest
additions to the list are Bob Consavage, Harold Cohrs, Charlie Ellis, Frank
Rieg, Bruce Seaman and John Tait. Thank
you, guys.
$157,000 and Climbing
We now have approximately $157,000 and
commitments for an additional $12,000. Here
is the summary, by category:
$15,000 and above_____________________________________________________________________
Toby
Caplan
Don
Ratajczak
Pete
Shoemaker
$10,000 and above_____________________________________________________________________
Rich Adams
Rocco
D’Amico
Joe
Frigiola
Rich
Page
$5,000 -
9,999_________________________________________________________________________
Bruce
Singer
$2,500 – 4,999_________________________________________________________________________
Dennis
Bevans
Bob
Culver
Dennis
Gries
John
Myers
$1,000 – 2,499_________________________________________________________________________
Anonymous
Joe
Baji
Harold
Cohrs
Ed
DiRomaldo
Bill
Evans
John
Gearhart
Ed
Hill
John
Kane
Matt
Mills
Nelson
Mishkin
Dave
Phillips
Rich
Popella
Frank
Rieg
Dave
Ross
Ron
Saracini
$500 – 999____________________________________________________________________________
Art
Garfein
Leland
Giannini
Byron
Orrs
Bruce
Seaman
John
Tait
$1 – 499______________________________________________________________________________
Joe
Alberici
Al
Bullock
Bob
Consavage
Charlie
Ellis
Dan
Ferro
John
Hagerty
John
Houghton
Garry
Jakoby
Ed
Koch
Mike
Quinn
Carl
Sehl
John
Woods
Memorials
Ron
Barath Kane, Kathy (John)
Ed
Coccagna Dave Paulson
Sterling
Gedraitis Paul Register
Walt
Grey Jim Ritchie
Bob
Himmelrich Carl Sehl
John
Heaney Jim Stidham
Judd
Johnson
That’s
the good news. However, we still have a way
to go to hit both our objectives. We’re
coming down the home stretch and we want to hear from all of you. Our mantra will not change. If you’ve already given, thank you, but
please consider giving more. Here’s how
you can do it. Why not give another gift in memory of one of our classmates who
is no longer with us. Specifically, we
do not have a gift in the memory of the following classmates:
Rich
Collins Ed Mitchell
Bob
Corrigan Jim Rule
Joe
Diorio Mario Rullo
Bob
Kelly Manny Sheitelman
Bob
Killen Bob Siren
If
you plan to give, please give NOW. If
you don’t plan to give, please reconsider.
Girard and your classmates need your support. We need $31,000 more to hit our goal of
$200,000 and we still have not heard from approximately 40 classmates. We’ve already established the reputation of
being a stellar class. We are the talk
and envy of the Alumni Association.
Let’s really give them something to talk about. CAN WE
COUNT ON YOU?
Checks can be sent to Myron Caplan,
Thanks
for your support.
Toby
and Peter
D.
THOUGHTS ON THE CLASS GIFT
In
response to the eight gift recommendations which were detailed in SS#17 we
received the following 5 responses:
1, Thinking about the Gift and the
recommendations. I kind of like the Capital Campaign, GCAA, Pete's "French
Connection," and the idea for bricks for all the classmates.
2.
While I greatly appreciate Pete Shoemaker's generosity in providing an
international experience to current Girard students, I believe that is
his endowment and not that of the class. I really would prefer something
that is easily identified as the class's gift and not an addition to an
existing endowment.
3. I would vote for something tangible that
mentions our Class –that is of ongoing use to the students. I don’t think bricks have any real impact and
Pete has already left his legacy with his and Roz’ generous donation. Maybe an annual lectureship on Race in
4. Class Gift--I think that maintaining Pete and Roz
Shoemaker's gift for kids to experience international travel is a real
opportunity that may never again present itself. Money should be set
aside to sustain this project, and reinforce the concept that we are all
citizens of the world.
5.
I believe:
One
shot deals should not be included;
The parties idea
is not productive;
Supporting
counseling is a good idea;
That we should
provide some money for the alumni association;
That we
shouldn’t provide money for the development fund. That’s the responsibility of all Alumni.
That we might
consider funding a lounge area/meeting room in the library, and support efforts
to bring in experts to speak in-depth on career choices.
There
is still time to give your opinions.
Review the 8 ideas presented in SS#17, and those directly stated or
implied above. Get any thoughts you have
to Joe Frigiola, (see Contacts list above.)
It’s your contribution, so get involved.
E.
THE
As
we planned the reunion we were conscious of a number of factors. We wanted to
establish many events during the 3 ˝ day period as possible in different types
of venues to give classmates many opportunities to meet and get
reacquainted. We also wanted to keep the
costs down so that everyone could participate.
One approach which was developed to meet both of these goals was the
administrative fund. In a meeting early
last year Rich Adams suggested that the Class Dinner on Friday night should be
free to each classmate and one guest, and provided $2500 for those
purposes. Since then many other
classmates have followed Rich, and the class gift administrative fund has gone
up to around $7000. Along with the Class
Dinner, the fund is there to cover all costs associated with increasing the
Class Gift including costs of the various committees, printing and mailing of
the Scratch Sheet, printing of Corinthian II, the costs of various DVDs, and
CDs to be distributed at the reunion, services provided by the Hum and other
service providers who support our efforts.
In
December last year we sent out Survey 3 listing all the planned events of the
weekend with the associated individual costs for classmates to attend each
event. In that mailing we estimated the
costs of the Saturday lunch in the D&S at $7, and the Sunday Brunch in the
D&S as around $10. Both were open to
any number of classmates and guests. In
response we got reservations for the Lunch of 110 classmates and guests, and 48
for the Brunch. In the following reunion
committee meetings we were attempting to plan on how the charges for these two
events could be collected. The committee
decided that almost all proposed approaches presented a logistical
nightmare. Consequently, it was decided
that we should make these events free and pay for them out of the
administrative fund. First, the numbers
were only half developed as to how many people planned to participate in these
events, and second we felt that these would encourage those who are living on
fixed budgets to attend. The downside
was that the residual of the administrative fund would go into the Class Gift,
and would not be available for those purposes.
The
true costs for the two meals are now known.
They are a little higher than expected, on average of about $13 for each
meal served. A number of committee members
volunteered to pay the costs for themselves and their guests for these
meals. Upon reflection we have decided
to suggest the following. Anyone who can
afford it should calculate the costs of bringing themselves and their guests to
these meals, and make an equivalent contribute to the Class Gift to offset
these costs. This is of course a totally
voluntary contribution and should be handled as described above in Section B
and designated as a part of the Class Gift.
If you can’t afford to do it, we understand.
F.
TOURING THE GIRARD COLLECTION FRIDAY MAY 21, 10-11:30 or 4-5:30
One
of
The
Stephen Girard Collection is among
The
tours will be conducted by Elizabeth
Laurent, the Director of Historic Resources at
We will start at the Girard sarcophagus in the front
hall of Founder's Hall, and proceed to the first-floor Board Room focusing on
the remarkable George Gibbes murals for an orientation to Girard's life.
The group will ascend up the 48 (!) steps to the second floor museum, including
the two large rooms filled with the nationally significant household artifacts
of Stephen Girard's
Note on the steps.
Yes, that’s 48 between floors.
For those who haven’t been to Founders recently, those steps are not the
rutted marble they were in our day. They
have been repaired, but it’s still a haul for our old bones.
G.
JIM SWANTEK IS FOUND
Last
week at our reunion meeting (to be reported on in the next Scratch Sheet), it
was decided that we would abandon our efforts to reach out to those classmates
who have remained silent through all of attempts to reach them. Yesterday, Joe Frigiola received a call from
one of them, Jim Swantek. Jim must have
ESP. Jim indicated he plans to come to a
number of the reunion events. Great!
You
all remember Jim as one of the quietest members of our class. Our Corinthian noted: “Swan is quiet but not
withdrawn. He has a friendly nature and
facility for comradeship. He expresses
his conscientiousness in whatever he does and particularly in the Concert Band
and Glee Club.” Jim served in Vietnam
and was wounded twice resulting in him being blind in one eye, deaf in one ear,
and sustaining a broken jaw, nose, and elbow.
He spent his career after that in the printing business. He has two children, and four
grandchildren. He says he mostly spends
his time in backyard gardening.
H. CORINTHIAN II AND THOSE NASTY
PROFILES: A REPORT FROM THE
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
The
communications committee, Bob Culver, Rocco D’Amico, Ed DiRomaldo, John Few and
Dennis Gries, is working hard, but slowly losing its collective mind. Along with getting out Scratch Sheets,
tracking down families of the deceased so that they know what we’re doing, catalogueing
photos, developing CDs and DVDs as keepsakes to be distributed at the reunion,
we are also trying to put together a publication, Corinthian II, also to be
distributed at the reunion.
So
here’s the deal. Corinthian II is
visualized as a printed and bound hard copy document reflecting our lives in
the Hum and beyond, along with profiles of each person who was at sometime a
member of the Class of ’60. It will
have two major sections plus an addendum.
The first section will be a chronology of our lives, year by year. We’ll start at West End and move to Allen
Hall with a few subsidiary sections which are not chronology related, i.e. the
Chapel, the library, health care in the Hum, etc. The second section, The Profiles, will be a
collection of individual portraits of all of our classmates: their feelings
about their experiences in the Hum and its’ impact on their lives,
recollections of what happened to them after June 16, 1960, education, jobs,
marriages, children and beyond, what they are doing now, the pills they take,
and the body joints that ache (please not too much of that). The addendum will include many photos, and
miscellaneous items that bring us back to our existence 50-60 years ago.
Right
now our major undertaking is the Profiles.
There are three classes. One,
those we receive from all of you who have been participating in our
communications over the years. Two,
those about our living classmates who have chosen to ignore us, and are
unlikely to send us any materials.
Three, profiles on our classmates who have passed away. Dennis and Rocco have the ball on the third
group, and will have to rely on 50 years of newsletters to reconstruct profiles
of the departed. This may involve some
contact with family members of our classmates, and also information that all of
you can provide. We will contact you if
we feel you might have some information which would help in constructing these
profiles. We have attached one such
profile to this Scratch Sheet, John Heaney’s.
You will note in the last paragraph that Rocco added a personal note
about John. You’ll will help us get
ahead of the game, if you have any thoughts on one or more of the deceased
classmates, and can forward them to Rocco for inclusion in those classmates’
profiles.
With
the non-responders we will do the best we can, and contact individual
classmates where we suspect that they may have information which would be of
value. If you have info or thoughts on
any of these classmates, please feel free to send it along to Rocco.
Finally,
we get to all of you who have been in touch over the years. At this point we have most of the information
we need on about 20 of you. But the rest
of you are still sitting on your hands.
If we don’t get some help from you, we are not going to be able to
finish Corinthian II in time to have it available for you on the reunion
weekend. Here’s what we need guys:
- A text,
hopefully in Word, which tells us whatever you would like included in your
profile. You can concentrate on
your life after the Hum, or include material on life in the Hum, or even
before. You can write it in the
first or third person, whatever you’re comfortable with. Handwritten is also OK. Or if you would like you can dictate it
to Rocco.
- Photos. We would like one shot of you from which
we can extract a headshot. Bob
Culver can do this from almost any photo be it digital, or hard copy, as
long as your head is not too small in the photo. This photo will appear close to the
photo of you taken from Corinthian I.
Then any photos you would like added at the bottom of the text, for
example, you with your spouse, and/or kids, your Great Dane, or whatever
else you would like. Hopefully all
the shots, including the head shot, will be of relatively recent vintage.
- You can
send the material described above to either Bob or Rocco. If you are sending hard copy photos they
should go to Bob. He will return
them to you once he has digitized them.
We
have attached three additional profiles to this Scratch Sheet as examples,
Bertino, Fiore, and Phillips. You should
feel free to choose your own ideas.
Certainly these three concentrate on “after Hum” events, but you should
not feel constrained to restrict yourself to that aspect of your life
alone. The next Scratch Sheet, coming
out shortly, will have more examples for your perusal. But please guys, take the two or three hours
which will be necessary to get your material in ASAP.
And,
by the way, Ed DiRomaldo is pulling his end by continuing to collect and
catalogue photos to fill out the other sections of Corinthian II. He is well over 400 photos all of which will
be put together on a CD for you to take away from our reunion weekend. So please get those photos of our lives in
the Hum to Ed.
I.
SOME OTHER THINGS
- Memorabilia. We received in a plain brown paper
package a photo album. It included
92 unique postcards depicting Founders Hall. Most are from the early 1900s, even then
they are in mint condition. The
sender? John (Herm) Woods. John and
his wife, Mildred, are collectors of salt and pepper shakers, and frequent
flea markets, and antique shows in their pursuit. John always takes the time to go to the
“postcard” table to seek out Founders Hall postcards. (Well, they’re not photos of babes in
bikinis, but they do show the days when Founders was a world wide tourist
attraction.) Ed DiRomaldo will be
setting up displays of both John’s postcards, and Rich Page’s memorabilia
so that they can be viewed at the two dinners on reunion weekend. John and Rich have both agreed to gift
their collections to the Hum historical office after the weekend.
We also received
a treasure trove from John Tait. He sent
us a complete collection of The Girard News from our Senior Year. We hope to include them in Corinthian
II. John also sent the first two years
of the Michaluk Scratch Sheets, which means we have now collected all the
newsletters of the last fifty years.
John Few is indexing these latest and all the 20th century
communications will soon be on the website.
2.
Hotel. There is only one of the original block
of rooms available from the hotel. The
hotel will
provide rooms at
the negotiated rate beyond that one until April 15, assuming there are still
rooms available. So if you’re coming and
need a room, don’t dwaddle. Call John
Kane for help.
3.
Name Tags. Bob Culver has produced name tags for all
classmates who have indicated they are
coming, along
with their spouses or significant others.
However, if your wife’s name is not listed on the Class List no name tag
has been produced. So if your wife’s
name is not on the Class List let Bob
know, and he will get it done.
4.
Photo from
Florida Committee Meeting is on the next page.
One
of Herm’s postcards.
The boys, from
The Girls: Linda O’Hara, Karlyn Phillips, Elizabeth Baji, Judy Gries, Shawn Mills, Anna Evans, Roz Shoemaker