60th Reunion Dinner, October 26, 2024
APA Hotel Ballroom, Iselin, NJ
%202024-10-26.jpg)
%202024-10-027.jpg)
Classmate Comments, Saturday
Reunion Dinner
Neil Suss: “I want to thank everyone here for taking the time to come and
join us for this wonderful get together.
We were a special community growing up and had something unique that I
am not sure many people could understand.
We should probably do this more often, but life gets in the way. We all have family and other friends and in
many cases have moved away. It seems
like the time just flies by. When we do
get together it is as if we have never missed a beat.
“That we can
do this is unbelievable and the reason we are all together is because of one
person. Mark was relentless and
determined to make sure this happened.
Let me repeat that this or the previous reunion would never have
happened without him.”
Mark Sarver: “I have
lived in Washington, DC for many, many years and had the good fortune of
working a block from and within view of the White House for 14 years. While I love living in DC, my heart and roots
are still here so getting a chance to reconnect with you means a lot to
me. I don’t think there will be a 70th
reunion, so I’m glad that you are here for the 60th.
“Since our 50th reunion in 2015, many of us
have stayed in touch, visited with each other, spoken on the phone and
communicated via email or Facebook.
These relationships, some renewed, some new, restored something once
lost. Let’s continue to build on that.
“Thank you
for being here with us this weekend.
While we are a smaller group this time, the feelings of kinship are
there still. Time takes its toll and we
have lost some very dear friends since we last gathered. Also, a number of classmates who planned and
fully expected to be here had to withdraw for medical reasons. We owe it to them and to ourselves to
remember how Maple Avenue School shaped us from a wonderfully and diversely gifted
student body to ‘grownups’ with a rich assortment of achievements and
experiences.”
Eben Loewenthal: “I think this is a very different period for our classmates
and I think we are very special people who make differences. I think our future is going to be different,
don’t take the future for granted. The
positive thing is take that in and see what you can do to add some sanity to
the world. For me the word is clarity,
find your clarity.”
Harvey Mantel: “I remember you all like it was yesterday and hope you enjoy
many good tomorrows moving forward. I’m
glad we could schlep all the way out here from Chicago. [Harvey
drove to NJ with his fiancée, Rose Soto, and spoke of his beloved late wife,
Tita, who attended the 50th reunion.] I know you remember Tita, our tragic loss
almost five years ago. There’s a very
special connection with Rose. I’m happy
to say I have both a heavenly angel and an earth angel.”
Jeff Price: “I live in Holland, Pennsylvania which is in Bucks
County. It’s great to see everybody here
and hope everybody enjoys themselves.”
Matthew Lieff: “I live in Massachusetts but I’m not from there, I’m from New Jersey. I lived in Massachusetts for 10 years, then
from 1981-2014 in Philadelphia. Then unfortunately
I got divorced, the dog died and the kids moved away, we sold the house. So I moved to a little town called Montague
in western Massachusetts. It’s great to
see all of you again. I got confused in
my twenties and lost track of all you wonderful people and then reconnected 10
years ago thanks to our reunions. I’m
looking forward to seeing all of you again tomorrow.”
Robin Zeiger Fellanto: “I didn’t graduate with everyone, we moved after 7th
grade to Colonia. I always kept in
contact with a few classmates and did a get together several years ago at my
house. It was so nice to see everyone
and I have been looking forward to the reunion here. It’s a really great experience.”
Jody Dubman McNally: “I’m Jody McNally. I
used to be Jody Dubman. I left after 7th
grade and live now in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with my husband, son (one of
two), daughter in law and granddaughter.”
Lu Foley: “I’m Lu Foley. I used
to be Lois Flagg but I dropped that like a hot potato. Once I started taking Spanish I said ‘ooh,
Luisa’. I’m a Jersey girl but went to
college in Pennsylvania. After four
years of college and six years of marriage there, we built a house in south
Jersey and had three children. Around
our 33rd anniversary I decided it was time for a divorce. Now I live in Voorhees, New Jersey. I’m retired from teaching Spanish in Cherry
Hill. My youngest child, who will be 30
in a few weeks, has lived with me since Covid hit, so I have a roommate. And she came with a cat, so when you hear me
talking about Mimi, that’s my grandkid.”
Jane Weiss Kursh: “I lived in Newark into high school but graduated from
Columbia High School. I was married for a
little short burp to another Maple classmate.
I live now in Wilmington, Delaware and have one son and two
grandchildren. I love to play tennis.”
Diane Smith Gianis: “I still live in New Jersey.
I have two grown children. My son is 44, my daughter is 39 and I’ve been
married for 46 years. I want to thank
Mark very much for finally finding me. I
gave up going to a Chicago concert to come here tonight. But I really am very happy that I came and
happy to see everybody. And what can I
hope for except that everybody continues in good health.”
Lou Grubin: “I live in Colorado, south of Denver. I work in Colorado at the Space Force
base. I’ve had at least 100 different
kinds of jobs, have never been married, no kids.”
Ron Joffe: “I have to tell you I’m really happy to be here. This is my wife, Jane, and we’ve been
together for 50 years. We lived in New
Jersey, we lived in Florida for a little bit and in New Mexico for a little bit
and then we came back here and this is home. We’ve had a wonderful life. We
have some wonderful friends and some very special people in our lives and two
of them are here, Paul (Fisher) and Bob (Goodman) who are just amazing
people. As you get older, you start to
really appreciate having special friends and these two are examples of what everybody
should be like. In Yiddish you call them
a mensch.”
Paul Fisher: “We live in Los Angeles, California. And it’s just great to be seeing everybody
that I’m seeing and to go back to that special place that only we can go to,
and it’s special in that right and should always continue to be special in that
right. I’m glad to be here and I’m glad
to see you all.”
Bob Goodman: “Except for a few years where I did live in New York, I’ve
always lived in New Jersey. My wife
(Patti) and I will be married 48 years in February. We moved to south Jersey because I took a job
at a hospital in Philadelphia where Lu (Foley) worked, so that’s a fun fact
most people don’t know. We still are in
south Jersey, we’re very lucky to have a beautiful daughter who is 31 and she lives
in Philadelphia.” [Bob discussed his
past heart problems – never had a heart attack and arteries were clear but an idiopathic
immune-disease caused a very low heart rate and the implant of a
pacemaker.] “I did a half marathon a few
months later and then it stopped working and my heart rate went completely in
the other direction called ventricular tachycardia, well over 250 at times and
I should have been dead but I wasn’t. I’m
from Newark and you can’t f---ing kill me!
Ultimately, I had a heart transplant in November of 2013. I’m an extraordinarily lucky guy and had good
people who rallied around me, especially that guy over there, President Eben
Loewenthal, who visited me a couple of times in the hospital and at home, so
did Jeff (Price) and Eben communicated with a whole bunch of people on our
behalf, which was really sweet and wonderful of him. Jane Kursh, every year for quite a while now,
makes a donation to the American Heart Association in my honor. I’m back to road racing again, spend lot of
time involved with organ donation and transplants. It’s really a miracle and I do think it’s
because I grew up in Newark.”
Glenn Kuskin: “I am a Jersey boy all the way, graduated from Columbia High
School and then the University of Miami.
I still have roots in Florida, spend at least half the year there or try
to, am married to the same woman for 39 years, an Irvington High graduate, have
two sons ages 38 and 37, two granddaughters ages five and three and a grandson
on the way in March.
I want to say that I was a little afraid about coming tonight because I haven’t seen or spoken to almost everybody in 61 years (since leaving after 6th grade). But I want to thank Mark for having called me up after I initially said I couldn’t make it and said to me, and these words will stay with me, ‘we may not have this opportunity again.’ So I’m very glad I came here. I amazed myself in that most of the names I do remember. It’s so great to see all of you and hear all the stories again.”
Comments
Post a Comment