THE SCRATCH SHEET Vol.6,
OCTOBER 1, 2007
Contents
A. News and Notes:
1. Caplan Wins Award; 2. Founder’s Day 2007; 3. Honorary Degrees; 4. Norm Chachkin; 5. Pete Shoemaker; 6. Ed Shockowitz; 7. A Dinner in Bethesda; 8. Eugene Daub; 9. Classmate Artists; 10. John Myers; 11. John Gearhart
B. “Till Ours Hearts Be Still”: 1. Carl Sehl, 2. Jim Stidham
C. Communications from Classmates
1. Toby Caplan; 2. John Few; 3. John Heaney; 4. Dennis Lambrecht; 5. Pete Shoemaker; 6. Bruce Singer; 7. Chet Snyder, and 8. Anonymous.
D. Who Are These Guys?
E. Other Business and Requests: Corinthians, 50th Anniv Gift to the Hum, Movies, Chapel on Founders Day
The Scratch Sheet is published by the Girard College Class of 1960. For even more trivial information see our website: www.Girard1960.com.
Editors, writers, researchers, go-fors (some self-appointed, others dragooned):
Toby Caplan 412-821-4256 (h) 412-681-2400 (w)
Rocco D’Amico: 301-229-0834
Adam Deveney 610-783-7165
Ed DiRomaldo 215-365-5965
Dennis Gries 941-927-3757;
John Kane 215-343-5769
Ron Saracini 352-237-9690
Leo Michaluk Publisher Emeritus
The News
A. News and Notes:
1. Myron (Toby) Caplan to be awarded the Alumni Award of Merit
Myron Caplan has been awarded the Girard College Alumni Award of Merit. He will be presented with this award on Saturday, October 13 at a dinner in Founder’s Hall. He will be the second member of our class to receive this award. Don Ratajczak received it in 1989. Classmates are invited to attend. The form to register for the dinner is appended to this Scratch Sheet. At this moment, we know that D’Amico, Frigiola, Kane, Myers, Page, and Saracini plan to attend.
Additionally, on that date we would like to have a luncheon of his classmates to honor Toby.
In brief, when Toby left the Hum, he was unable to afford a college education, even though he had been an outstanding student. Through an alumni contact he was able to secure a position with Blumcraft, Inc. of Pittsburgh. Blumcraft is the leading manufacturing of museum display cases in the U.S. If you have been to a museum in the U.S., you have probably viewed exhibits in a Blumcraft display case. Over 43 years Toby rose to the position, which he currently occupies, of CEO of the firm.
Toby has also been instrumental in the building of the Pittsburgh chapter of the G.C. Alumni Association. One of the Alumni’s most dynamic chapters, Pittsburgh hosts an annual trip to the Pittsburgh area for the Hum’s boys’, and girls’ basketball teams, where they play in tournaments against Pittsburgh’s finest high school basketball teams.
Toby recently lost his wife of many years, Carol. They have two sons.
If you would like to join us at the luncheon to honor Toby, please let Rocco know. We plan for it to be around 2PM, which would allow those who are also going to the dinner enough time to freshen up and get to Founder’s Hall. We have not settled on a location yet, but it will either be at a restaurant in the Fairmount Ave. area, or in the King of Prussia area. Please let Rocco know if you plan to attend: , or 301-229-0834. Also indicate which of the two locations would be most convenient for you. We would expect that you will be able to have lunch for under $20 in either venue.
2. Founder’s Day 2007
On Founder’s Day this year a small group of our class got together. John Houghton, Ed Hill, Toby Caplan, John Tate, Charlie Ellis along with one of his sons, and John Hagerty accompanied by his ex-wife, current girlfriend, and two daughters were present. (Hagerty spent most of the day breaking up fights, and not between his daughters.) On the previous day, Toby, Joe Frigiola, and John Kane participated in the annual alumni golf tournament. All three stink so if you’re a golfer you should feel free to challenge them next year. Gary Jacoby, who many of you will remember Gary Jacoby (he left after 9th grade) reintroduced himself to his old classmates.
3. Honorary Degrees
The Hum has instituted a policy of granting honorary degrees to those who attended the Hum but did not graduate. The certificates are awarded at a ceremony on Founders’ Day. Those who might be interested can contact Charles Kalata, Alumni Director at the Alumni Office at 215-232-8882.
4. Norman Chachkin
Norm has been little seen since he graduated from Penn in 1964. Since we last met, the editor of the Girard News in our senior year, has become one of the most prominent civil rights attorneys in the US. In the last few decades virtually every NAACP school desegration case has had the hand of Norm on it.
5. Pete Shoemaker
We have previously reported that Pete retired as COO of ACopyAmerica, moved to the Philadelphia area, unretired to take the position of CEO of Global Imaging Systems, and moved to Tampa, FL that company’s headquarters. Global has now been purchased by Xerox. Pete has agreed to stay with Xerox through the end of 2008 to aid the transition. Who knows where he will move to next? Pete has been on the Board of Directors for the Hum for many years, which requires a quarterly trip up to Philadelphia to attend board meetings. He apologizes to Toby that he will not be able to attend Toby’s Award of Merit dinner, since his daughter is getting married that day.
6. Ed Shockowitz
It was rumored that Ed had become a “mountain man” in Shasta, CA. Well we received a communication from his daughter which dispelled that myth. That communication is below:
“Hello, I'm Susan Shockowitz Ricci, Ed's daughter. I found your update sheet online. You can contact me at this email address: .
Ed and wife Rae still live on a large ranch outside Redding, CA and are happily retired. Ed's oldest son, Chris still lives with his wife and 2 kids in Santa Clara, CA. I live in Oregon with my husband Phil Ricci. And the youngest son, Nathan lives in Redding, CA. We are all luckily happy and healthy.
So there's the latest update for your website. Thanks for the interest and hope this message finds all of you well.
--Susan”
7. A Dinner in the Washington DC Area
Joe Frigiola, and John Kane recently visited for two days with the D’Amicos in Bethesda, MD. On one evening they had dinner with Dennis Bevans, who lives in Alexandria, Va. John Gearhart was also planning to attend, but could not make it. Joe and John then opted to forego golf, and ended up visiting the entire Washington D.C. Mall in one day. It was John’s first time back since our senior class trip. Last year Art Garfein and his wife, Anita had dinner at the D’Amicos. Art was in town for the annual American Psychiatric Association meeting, representing the Colorado Psychiatric Association, for whom he was serving a term as President
8. Eugene Daub
Many of you will remember Gene Daub who was our classmate. He entered the Hum in February 1950, and left at his mother’s request in 1953. Gene is a world renowned sculptor and with his firm recently dedicated a sculpture of Thomas Jefferson at the University of Virginia, which of course, Jefferson founded. Below isan edited press release announcing the dedication ceremony:
“The Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia is pleased to announce the dedication of its monumental bronze sculpture of Thomas Jefferson in the act of founding the university. The sculpture will be dedicated on September 22, 2007.
The 9-foot bronze sculpture depicts Jefferson completing his July 18, 1817 survey of the university’s future grounds. His image is caught at the moment when he decides to add “some principal building” to the north end of The Lawn. Jefferson stands next to his precision-surveying instrument, holding his architectural plans for the school for comparison with survey measurements. The sculpture helps define the extraordinary energy of Jefferson in his seventies: thoughtful, rational, ignoring conventional expectations of advanced age
The Daub Firmin Hendrickson Sculpture Group (DFH) of Berkeley, California, researched, composed and sculpted the Darden-Jefferson. DFH is devoted to the creation of public-art monuments that commemorate, in bronze or stone, our society’s most noble values and achievements, with refined aesthetics.
Thefollowing link will get you to more info on Gene and his firm.http://www.dfhsculpture.com/
This is a photo of Gene (c) and his partners, and a photo of the Jefferson sculpture, obviously before it reached its’ final resting place.
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9. Other Classmate Artists
Apparently most of us did not recognize the quality of the Hum’s Art Department when we were there: old “Bucky” McCormick and her colleagues. Along with Gene Daub, a number of our other classmates have had some success in the art world. Most of you will remember Alex Markauskas, who was part of the group of five who had to leave after 10th grade because they would reach age 19 before graduation day. He was a champion fencer, undefeated varsity in the 8th grade. A few years after we graduated I accompanied Ed Coccagna up to New York City to visit Alex. At that time Alex was already a practicing painter with his own studio. Unfortunately we have not kept up with Alex, and don’t know his whereabouts. As will be discussed later in this Scratch Sheet, Carl Sehl was also a sculptor, when not a driving instructor, though his work was very different from Gene’s. Upon retirement, both Rich Friebel, and Joe Frigiola have taken up the painting they excelled in at the Hum. Rich is a multi-commissioned portrait painter, and Joe has sold much of his work. He works in acrylics on an eclectic blend of topics.
10. John Myers
John has recently remarried. He and his wife Georgina have moved to the Savannah Georgia area. They have had a long relationship, commuting each weekend: he from the Seattle area, and she from Vancouver, B.C. He had retired from the U.S. General Services Administration a number of years ago, where he worked from the time he graduated from Penn. She just retired from the Canadian Immigration Service, where she spent her time protecting us from all those mad bombers. They can be reached at or 912-236-2875.
11. John D. Gearhart
It is difficult to keep you up to date with John. If you Google him, you will find over 300,000 entries. However we have found two websites which will give you a snapshot:
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/gea0int-1
This site will give you a biography, a profile, and an interview conducted with John where he reflects on his Hum experience.
http://streaming.americanprogress.org/events/2006/2006_08_04_stem_cell/6.gearhart.320.240.mp4.html
This site will show John giving a speech at American Progress, and show the little acknowledged importance of Archie Andrews in all of our lives.
B. “Till Our Hearts be Still”
Since we last communicated with you, two classmates have passed away: Carl Sehl, and Jim Stidham. You will recall that they were Allen Hall roommates along with John Houghton, Jim Kelly, and John Kostelnick. The following sections present material we have been able to gather on both of them.
1. Carl Sehl
Carl had in the last two years reappeared and sent us a number of humorous and heartfelt remembrances of his life in the Hum. They were featured in Vol. 5 of the Scratch Sheet, and labeled “The Sehl Chronicles.” On May 25, 2006 we received an addition to that opus. On June 7, Carl suffered a massive heart attack, which took him away. Below you will find that addition, along with published information on his death, and John Houghton’s remembrance of his best friend. Though Carl spent his entire career as a driving instructor, he was an active sculptor, with a number of one person shows in the Philadelphia area, and was a supporter of the performing arts. Some photos of these interests wrap up this section.
The Final Sehl Chronicle
Sehl Chronicles –May 25, 2006
“Thank you for the last two pieces of correspondence. For brevity sake I’ll put in list form some comments.
1. Matt Mills – take time to smell the flowers, play golf, or if that doesn’t suit you, get back to work – just get well!
2. I was impressed by Bruce Seaman’s remarks and what a good sport he is. Bruce was a classmate who chose a path less traveled and I’m sorry I never got to know him better.
3. Few’s piece drove home the compassion issue, and how left out some of our classmates must have felt if they weren’t sports oriented. When you’re young it isn’t easy being green. If it’s any consolation John, the people I most admire today are writers, musicians, and artists.
4. Gearhart’s 140 points was quite a feat even though the opposition left the court at halftime.
5. So “Boner” Evans called me a Luddite – I’ve been called worse. It’s not that I’m adverse to new technology, but the older I get the more I crave the human touch. I’ve used computers at work and had my own P.C. and fully realize how indispensable they are, but the defining moment for me was when I received a computerized birthday card – too cold, too impersonal Maybe in my next life I’ll become a Shaker: “Hands to work, hearts to God”, and after all anybody who invented the clothespin can’t be all bad.