Alumni from Lima High School reminisced at the 2023 Lima High School Alumni Banquet last Saturday (July 8) at Lima Country Club.
In the photo at the top, Dana Schillinger (left) and Louise Nowack Dolliver (right) represented Lima classes from the 1940s. In the photo below are members of Lima classes from the 1950s and their spouses: Barbara Farrell Jones, Joan Madigan (wife of Lima alum Bob Madigan), Betty Ann O’Brien Hanna and Mary Recktenwald Blazey (seated, left to right) and (standing, left to right) Don Mastin (husband of Lima alum Susan McNeilly Mastin), Susan McNeilly Mastin, Bob Madigan and Ed Blazey (husband of Lima alum Mary Recktenwald Blazey). Both photos by Donna MacKenzie
This was the second banquet post-COVID and 64 alumni attended, not bad since the school saw its last graduating class in 1969 (although last year the banquet celebrated what would have been Lima’s Class of 1970 but for the fact that Lima merged with Honeoye Falls during the summer of 1969 and that Lima Class of 1970 joined with the Honeoye Falls Class of 1970 to form the first graduating class of the newly-combined Honeoye Falls-Lima Central School District).
With no incoming class celebrating its 50th reunion, the head table instead featured alumni from the earliest classes attending, which was from the 1940s and 1950s (Lima High School was open from 1919-1969). They were Louise Nowack Dolliver (Class of 1946), Dana Schillinger (Class of 1949), Barbara Farrell Jones (Class of 1953), Bob Madigan (Class of 1953), Susan McNeilly Mastin (Class of 1953), Mary Recktenwald Blazey (Class of 1958) and Betty Ann O’Brien Hanna (Class of 1958).
After welcoming remarks from Dolliver, Roy Moses (Class of 1964) recognized the military veterans in attendance and led the Pledge of Allegiance. Laurie Dechau Wolf (Class of 1969) gave the invocation prior to the buffet dinner. After dinner, Jones introduced Dolliver and Schillinger and her own class of 1953. Hanna introduced her 1958 class. Shirley Franskavish Caccamise (Class of 1960) read off the names of those alumni who have passed away since July 2022: Mary Jane Cullotta (Class of 1939), Ellen Storke Gillette (Class of 1940), Elizabeth Sackett Hayward (Class of 1944), Marion Concannon Abbey (Class of 1945), Rita Concannon Hayes (Class of 1946), Robert Yorks (Class of 1948), Walter Pennington (Class of 1953), Mary LaMount Matthews (Class of 1955), Beverly Peters Rogers (Class of 1956), John Lancer Sr. (Class of 1962), Fred Lancer (Class of 1969) and Mary Kay O’Grady (Class of 1969). Blazey then presented the Roll Class of Classes with the Class of 1966 having the most members present with nine, the Class of 1965 with eight and the Class of 1968 with seven. Class of 1965 members Sharon Dechau Neenan and John Recktenwald talked about the HF-L Hall of Fame which accepts nominations for graduates from Honeoye Falls High School, Lima High School and HF-L High School. This year, a Lima High alum, Tom Reynolds (Lima Class of 1959), the son of a Lima High alum, Randy Hurley (HF-L Class of 1985), along with Amo T. Kreager (Honeoye Falls Class of 1917) will be inducted. They are the only three inductees this year. The evening closed with a 50-50 drawing and the singing of Lima High’s Alma Mater and God Bless America.
Lima High’s Alumni Committee is seeking information on the whereabouts of 10 alumni whose invitations came back in the mail. They are Bruce Storke (Class of 1953, last known address Hemlock, NY), Rosemary Schwartz Keegan (Class of 1955, last known address Mt. Joy, PA), Lois Simpson Myers (Class of 1956, last known address Canandaigua), Beverly Hanna Sawyer (Class of 1957, last known address Largo, Florida), Sandra Peterson (Class of 1966, last known address Stockton, California), Megan Doran (Class of 1967, last known address Denver, Colorado), Jacqueline Ostrander (Class of 1967, last known address in Rochester, NY), Andrew Telarico (Class of 1968, last known address Dallas, Texas), Frank Beare (Class of 1969, last known address in Livonia) and James Cornell (Class of 1969, last known address of Rotonda West, Florida). If you know the whereabouts of any of these folks, contact Blazey (eblazey@earthlink.net).
The next reunion will be July 13, 2024.
