New Paltz High School Class of 1954 celebrates 60th reunion

The New Paltz High School Class of 1954 held its 60th reunion last week at Pasquale’s Restaurant in Gardiner. Pictured top row left to right: Wayne Wilson, Ron Tosti, Cami Tamburello, Gert Dippel, Joyce Ellis, Fran Tantillo, Rod Dressel Sr., Alice Murphy, Bill Lane and Tony Moriello. Bottom row left to right: Lorna Lohrman, Gail Park, Jane Bracken, Liz DeGraff, Katherine Siegel and (not pictured) Cathy Lawlor. (photo by Alice Wilson)

Approximately 20 members of the New Paltz High School Class of 1954 met last week at Pasquale’s Pizza in Gardiner for their 60th reunion. Big smiles and friendly banter didn’t stop flowing.

For Wayne Wilson and his classmates, a lot has changed. Back in the 1950s, when they went to New Paltz High School, he attended classes downtown in what’s now New Paltz Middle School.

Prior to high school, his peers attended the Campus Practice School at the college — an experimental elementary school taught exclusively by an ever-rotating cast of student teachers — or they went to the rural schoolhouse in Gardiner. The schoolhouse in Gardiner now serves as Town Hall.

Fran Tantillo, another classmate, noted that her elementary school days in Gardiner are such that most modern students probably can’t even imagine them.

“It was a two-room schoolhouse, with outdoor bathrooms and no running water — the whole six years I was there,” she said. “And no bus. My dad used to pay someone $0.25 to drive my sister and I to school.”

Gardiner’s rural grade school was a part of the New Paltz Central School District back then. It only went through sixth grade, and then kids would transfer to the Campus School in New Paltz.

Some Class of ’54ers went through kindergarten to senior year together. Most of them are still friends. Roughly half of them (and their spouses) consistently come out for class reunions.

“It was a lot simpler. We were a small class,” Wilson said. “We started out in freshman year with, I think, 75 kids. I think we ended up with 38 or 40 graduating.”

Wilson played baseball back in high school — he once hit a homerun, by driving a grounder all the way past the outfielders — and he still has an athletic frame. He continues to play ball with the Legends of Baseball league in Cooperstown.

As a class, the 1954 graduates worked hard and stayed active. Because their grade was small, most of them played sports and participated in extra-curricular activities.

Wilson’s classmates Tantillo and Joyce May Ellis remember fondly how high schoolers had the freedom to leave 196 Main Street to explore New Paltz or grab a bite to eat during lunch break.

It was a different world.

Now in their late 70s, the Class of ’54 is mostly retired. But they’d gone on to make a name for themselves as teachers, nurses, IBMers and farmers. New Paltz and Gardiner’s big farming families — the Moriellos, Tantillos, Wrights and Dressels — were all represented in that class.

Wilson has organized the class reunion — one every five years — since 1964 for their tenth. He noted that it’s pretty special to him.

“Our 50th reunion was probably the best attended,” he added, noting that the Class of ’54 also had a lot of interaction with younger grades. “We got to know each other in our class, but we also got to know the freshman, sophomore and junior classes as well.”

Roger Thorpe, Class of ’55, is one of those underclassmen. He’s remained firm friends with those who graduated the year before. Gregarious and full of energy, he’s been gate-crashing their reunions for years.

People loved him back then, because he was the band leader. Thorpe was also a bit of a local celebrity. At 16, his trumpeting chops landed him a TV spot on “Ted Mack & The Original Amateur Hour” — a talent show, which was the “American Idol” of its day. Thorpe also organized music for the school dances.

That musical talent lead Thorpe to play horn for the Glenn Miller Orchestra — and he eventually become the band leader of the Sammy Kaye Orchestra. “We were inducted into the Big Band Hall of Fame in 1996,” he said.

Fran Tantillo remembers that — as small as their class was — there were still cliques. However, cliques or no, they got along collectively. Despite being separated — some graduates moved away to Florida or Vermont, for instance — that fondness has kept the Class of ’54 coming to the reunions year after year.