A Weekend of Reminiscing for Carmel High’s Class of ’59

Grace Kalina Klutschkowski and Tom Kemmer celebrate. What a blast! Members of the Carmel High School Class of 1959 returned to their alma mater for a weekend filled with fun, reminiscing, and old fashioned camaraderie.

Eight-five students comprised the Class of ’59 and more than half returned to Putnam County for the special event—the majority from out of the area, including California, Texas, North Carolina, and Florida.

W. Bruce Newman, who now resides in Claverack, was the main organizer of the affair that included tours of the new Carmel High School, a mixer at McCarthy’s Family Restaurant in Lake Carmel, a picnic at the home of fellow graduate Paul Stitch in East Fishkill, and a special visit to last week’s meeting of the Carmel Board of Education, when school trustees presented the class with a special plaque and proclamation commemorating the reunion.

Names of the class were read to the board members, including the 16 who have passed away over the years and the 13 others unaccounted for.

Remembrances of a 1959 charter bus tragedy on Stoneleigh Avenue in Carmel were shared, about how the vehicle returning from a school trip to Washington crashed in front of classmate Robert Hall’s home. No one perished

in the mishap, however several students and faculty chaperones suffered injury requiring hospitalization.

Members of the Class of ’59 were also lauded for their part in Carmel’s prowess on the football field in the mid to late 1950s, when the CHS Rams had undefeated seasons, culminating in an amazing 20 wins in a row—a record that remains to this day.

Classmates handed out souvenir books to the football heroes of the day and announced that Bill Howell, a member of the Class of ’59, will be traveling from Texas this fall to become the latest member of the CHS Hall of Fame.

In June, representatives of the class, including Newman, Michael Whelan, and Joan Johnson Haun, attended the Carmel High School commencement at Western Connecticut State University and presented graduate Colleen Stone, who is now enrolled at Hunter College where she is studying media relations, with a $5,000 scholarship.

Newman thanked his classmates and the current Carmel school community for its interest that made the weekend “one to remember. A high school reunion is always a special event. Our get-together was the World Series, Super Bowl championship, and Stanley Cup all rolled up into one.”