In the April 11, 1963 edition of the Franklin Transcript, the following article appeared:
“Beginning next fall, high school students in Andover will be sent to either Franklin or New London high school on a tuition basis. The decision was made Tuesday night when residents of Andover voted by almost two-to-one majority to discontinue the operation of Andover High School and to send its students to Franklin or New London.
“Parents of approximately 60 high school students will have to choose the high school, either Franklin or New London, that their children will attend, while the Andover School Board will have to decide if transportation is to be furnished to Franklin only, to New London only, or to both.”
This year, 2013, marks the 50th anniversary of the closing of Andover High School, and the Class of 1963 is celebrating our 50th reunion on Sunday, July 21, with a champagne brunch aboard the M/S Mount Washington. Of the 14 seniors, three classmates have passed away, but 10 of the remaining 11 classmates with spouses or guests plan to sail away the afternoon around Lake Winnipesaukee.
We never had a 10th reunion, but our 20th was dinner at the old Cat & Fiddle restaurant in Concord. Somehow we skipped our 30th, but we enjoyed our 40th at Highland Lake with a barbecue.
We have been working on a new mini-yearbook with biographies describing our further educations, marriages, occupations, military service, travels, retirements, hobbies, and organizations. Pictures and mementos are being collected to be included in our new book.
After all items are gathered, each of us will have a copy, and an additional one will be gifted to the Andover Historical Society for its collection. The mini-yearbook should be completed before fall. One classmate will be unable to attend the reunion and has not responded yet with bio information.
From the questionnaires sent to classmates so their biographies could be written, some interesting facts came to light. Eight of us went on to further our education: Lee Stevens, Nancy Stevens, Jim Hersey, Milton Thisell, Barbara Jewett, Janet Stafford, David Jewett, and Sandra Harding. Seven of the eight men in the class enlisted in the service – Jim Hersey and David Jewett, Army; Ralph Frost, Marines; Dick Powers, Air Force; Milton Thisell, Don Corliss, and Lee Stevens, Navy.
Only two of us still live in Andover. Some of us stayed in other towns in New Hampshire, some have lived elsewhere and came back to New Hampshire. One is in Massachusetts, one in New York, and one in Georgia. Every one of us has traveled to many states in the US as well as to several countries in Europe, Scandinavia, Asia, and the Caribbean.
Two of us are widowed, two have remained single, three are divorced, one is divorced and remarried, one is divorced twice, three of us are still married to our first spouse, and three are deceased. Only one classmate continues to work full-time, another is semi-retired, and the rest of us are enjoying our leisure with our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
Our high school years – September, 1959 through June, 1963 – saw many changes and upheavals: the Cold War; Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson all sent soldiers to Vietnam; Fidel Castro “liberated” Cuba; Nikita Khrushchev visited the US; Congress authorized food stamps; Payola; sit-ins by blacks in restaurants in the South; U2 pilot Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union while photographing missile sites; the pregnancy prevention pill; the first televised presidential debate with John Kennedy and Richard Nixon; Freedom Riders; in Alabama the KKK was given permission to attack the Freedom Riders without fear of arrest; in Birmingham the riders were severely beaten while police stood by; in Montgomery the police disappeared and the riders were attacked with baseball bats, pipes, and sticks; Federal Marshals were sent in; the Berlin Wall was erected; President Kennedy proclaimed we would be the first on the moon; Alan Shepard was our first man in space, John Glenn our first to orbit the earth; the last atomic bomb tested above ground in Nevada; James Meredith, the first black to register at the University of Mississippi; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the Bay of Pigs; Governor George Wallace of Alabama proclaimed “segregation forever”; federal troops forced Wallace to allow black students to enter the University of Alabama; the US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 to strike down rules requiring the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer or reading of Biblical verses in public school; Martin Luther King made his “I have a dream” speech; the ZIP Code was created.
Our class motto was “Work Today for the Gains of Tomorrow.” The Class of 1963 dedicated our yearbook to Arnold Gross, who was our class advisor for three years and had been our teacher of American History, Problems of Democracy, and Civics. He was always enthusiastic while discussing current events. Mr. Gross left for another teaching job before we started our senior year, but his influence and guidance during our first three years of high school made a lasting impression.
For a very small class from a very small town, we have all been successful in our own fields and served our country proudly.