Due to increasing spam received in the editor's account, we have closed the mailbox we've been using for several years. To contact Alumni News, please use the contact form linked below. Thanks for understanding.

Here's a general tip for email users:

1. When sending email to multiple users, DO NOT put long lists of recipients into the TO: or CC: fields. This causes the entire list to be revealed to all the recipients, and if they forward the message to others, the chain of exposure of your friends' addresses is pyramided, which benefits only spammers.

2. Instead, send the message to yourself and put your other addresses into the BCC: field of the email header. (Some email programs require that you activate the BCC field.) That way, (a) you will automatically get confirmation that the message was sent, and (b) each recipient will see only his own address and think you sent the message individually.

By following these simple steps, you will be helping reduce the benefits of sending spam, and all those poor fools will starve. Do not, we emphasize, hunt them down and kill them. As Richard Nixon said, "that would be wrong."

To The Editor Form

List pages in our Directory now have additional information and one functional change, installed today, April 18. Each listing now shows a document icon linked to the listings brochure or personal page. The envelope icon now takes the user to the brochure page and is no longer linked to the email form. Finally, a small red question mark indicates that contact data are missing.

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The TCHS Class of 68 40th Reunion Boomers Blow-Out will be a three-day party starting with a casual “after dinner” ice breaker on Friday, continuing through a dinner event Saturday evening and finishing with a Sunday morning breakfast in the hotel restaurant to say au revoir to our friends until next time.

When: August 29, 30 and 31, 2008 - Labor Day weekend

Where: Pasadena Hilton, 168 South Los Robles Avenue

Costs:
• $20 Reservation fee per classmate for the entire weekend ($25 after June 1)
• Friday night will be “No Host”
• $75 per person for Saturday night dinner
• Sunday Breakfast will be ordered off the menu at your own expense.

Who: Reply to Janice Helmer at JMHelmer at earthlink.net.

How: Registration forms can be printed from tchs68.com.

Details, forms, info...

Jo Ann (Rodgers) Olsen, Class of 1960, passed away April 13, 2007. The news was reported to TCHS Alumni News this week by her former daughter-in-law, Loraine Olvera.

Jo Ann was instrumental in early class reunions in 1970 and 1980 and will be missed by her friends and classmates. C/60 leads in registrations on our site, no doubt in large part due to such efforts by a few key people.

Beth Orellana writes "i wanted to let you know that Timothy Mancuso class of 1970 died october 24th, 2007.

"For the last seven years he was assistant coach at Pasadena High School for the JV and Varsity Baseball teams under Robert Barens. He loved "his" kids and loved baseball to the ends of the earth."

Judy Million Pirrie '60 sent along this link to a useful computer maintenance tool. We find it achieves her intent perfectly.

Screen Cleaner

Richard Veit reports "Roger Epps (1965) died in San Antonio, Texas, on April 4, 2006, after a short battle with lung cancer."

After many years teaching in Temple City, Dr. Bill Schmidt moved to Lone Pine, CA, where he became Superintendent of Schools. In the 1950s and 60s, being a blind teacher made one an instant celebrity, but most students came away understanding Schmidt's star qualities transcended his disability.

Ray Watters '62 notes: "Bill Schmidt was my 8th grade teacher at Oak Avenue School from '57 to '58.

"The accompanying photo of (us) was taken in 1995 when I roasted him at his retirement in Lone Pine, CA. At that time, he was Superintendent of Schools in Lone Pine and I lived in Ridgecrest, which is just a bit south.

"I had the speech all planned, but had to intervene when I said, 'Bill...you haven't changed a bit!' There was going to be some reference to Grecian Formula, but he spoke up and said, "Geez Ray, I thought I was blind!" That brought the biggest laugh of the evening."

(The editors invite registered users to submit their Bill Schmidt stories. While you are signed in a comment form appears below this article. We suggest you write your story off line and paste it to the form, lest all those good grammar teachers from TC schools arise and castigate you for your spelling.)

Where is Lone Pine?

Jean Petrillo has passed away at the age of 82. Jean was the founder of Mama Petrillo's restaurant in Temple City.

She and her husband Angelo also operated Petrillo's on Valley Blvd. in San Gabriel They were married for 63 years.

(Reported by Janice Helmer '68.)

Our new Forums tool, which has been in final live testing, is now active. Registered users can ask questions, post ideas and get feedback. We've salted the mine with some initial topics in three forums: general, classes, and looking-for; registered users can add topics to each and answer questions and comments posed by others. We hope you use and enjoy this feature. Comments To The Editor, please.

Go to the Forums

Tira (Moderow) Young and Myrriah (Pfister) Diebold have started the ball rolling for a later summer '08 reunion of the class of '88. They ask that classmates contact either of them to help with planning, or go to GreatReunions.com after Christmas '07 to purchase tickets and fill out an online biography.

Several alumni have asked about postcards purportedly from TCHS "urgently" requesting contact and other personal information from alumni (image; click for larger view). We do not know whether these are legitimate, and we urge caution in responding. We will be checking with TCHS after the holidays to see if there is any connection to the school.

(Since TCHS is not in Chesapeake, VA, perhaps this should be a tip-off. We also wonder how "urgent" an alumni address update could be. Our skeptical antennas are up, and we anticipate more junk mail with something other than glee. We'll keep you posted. Ed.)

UPDATE - JANUARY 31 - It's a commercial directory service

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YouTube makes it easy to embed videos in other sites. We've found some examples featuring the TCHS marching band at a 2006 event on North Field and a teaser for Eric Bauer's 50 year retrospective from 2004. We'll add more over time, and we encourage you to send suggestions - family-friendly, please - to the editor.

See the video(s).

Here's an update from Carol Poole '60: "I retired from working full time as a nurse in 2001, and after a year I was really bored. A friend asked if I would like to go on a Alliance for Smiles (AS) mission to China. The reason they needed me is that I'm an experienced recovery room nurse.

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Alliance for Smiles

Sherrie Ervin Palmer '69 informs us that David Schilling '69 has passed away. David was a registered member of Alumni News since 2004.

Members can add their own memories of David below.