To Me, This Is Better Than Our Diploma!

The warm glow of our recent Reunion weekend together remains, especially after receiving a thank-you note such as the one I have just gotten from our former teacher Ed Johnston and his wife Sarah.

He asked me to share it with everyone:

Dear Pat,

Want you to know how much we enjoyed the Class of 69's reunion and deeply appreciated the invitation to be a part of it.

What a great class and such a credit to your families and to Father Ryan. Nothing means more to a former teacher than to see former students having such an impact on their families and their community. The class of '69 is truly outstanding and each of you will always be a major part of my happy memories of Father Ryan.

Thanks too, to Jimmy and Sarah for their hospitality and, again, to you, Pat, for all the work on the blog site and all you do for the community and especially for Father Ryan.

God bless each and everyone one of you in the Class of '69, it was great to see you again.

In Christ,

Ed & Sarah

Continuing Our Photo Essay

Here's still more photos to remember our Reunion 2009!

Pat Watson talks it over with our former teacher Jim Zraleck while Pat Cook looks on.

Mike Jumonville greets classmate Mike Grant for the first time in many years, while Bill Carver and his wife Chris look on.

After all these years, Scott Brunette is still ready to go!

Bill Carver and Terry Shelton try to figure out exactly how they did our PANTHER YEARBOOK when we were seniors.

Ann Shugart Carter was one of 20 wives and significant others who put up with us for our 40th Reunion weekend. Thank you, ladies!

Yours truly and Tim Quirk take a moment to check out the blog.

Baron Harmon, Bill Carver, Pat Nolan, Patty Nelson, Bob Nelson

Tommy Daugherty, Mike Grant, Joe Holzmer, Baron Harmon, Chuck Scruggs, Randy DuBois and David Adams

To sum it up....



It was a night and a weekend that none of us could stop smiling and laughing. We met each other again, some of us after many years apart. We found how we'd changed over the decades, but we also found how we had stayed the same, and in many cases, could still finish each other sentences.

We are a Class again, 40 years later.

More Photos From Our Special Evening Together

Courtesy of Baron Harmon, Pat Bauer and Tony Greene, here's a brief photo essay looking back on our Reunion Party last Saturday night at the the Wilsons (thanks again to Jimmy and his wife Sarah for hosting us).

The Class of '69 fills up the Wilsons' home.

Our host Jimmy Wilson spends some time with Baron Harmon

Pat Bauer, in one of the few moments he wasn't taking pictures himself, while Carlton Crutchfield waits for his closeup.

Here's Carlton!

Joe Hobbs, Randy DuBois and Kevin Wilkinson catch up on the porch

Mike Curley talks with one of his former teachers, Ed Johnston.

Like the rest of us, Bubba Thurman had a smile on his face all night!

So did Mike J. Carter.

Our classmate Bubba Donnelly and his wife, Chris. Thanks to Bubba and his firm, Athens Distributing, for providing our libations for the evening!

Richard Conditt remembers old times with one of his former teachers Pat Langdon. Mr. Langdon still teaches at Father Ryan.

As the evening moved on and dinner was served, our conversations continued.

There are still more photos to come. So visit this blog site again soon.

Roll Call

Here's one of our classmate Toy Greene's photos from our 40th Reunion Party at the Wilsons' last Saturday night (June 6).

It shows Joe Holzmer, Terry Shelton, Mike Curley and Mike Grant enjoying each others' company and remembering old times.

Here's a roll call of the members of the Class of 1969 who participated in our Reunion:

David Adams
Frank Baltz
Pat Bauer
Scott Brunette
Mike Carter
Bill Carver
Richard Conditt
John Conners
Carlton Crutchfield
Mike Curley
Tommy Daugherty
Will Forte
John Goetz
Baron Harmon
Joe Hobbs
Joe Holzmer
Phil Jones
Mike Jumonville
Bob Nelson
Pat Nolan
Nick Rosa
Chuck Scruggs
Terry Shelton
Bubba Thurman
Bubba Tucker
Pat Watson
Jimmy Wilson
Pat Cook
Bubba Donnelly
Kevin Wilkinson
Tim Quirk
Randy DuBois
Mike Grant
Phil Mattingly
Tony Greene

That's 35 classmates present Saturday night. Make that 36 with Harold Plemons and his wife who came by the Friday night reception at Father Ryan. Meanwhile, Mike Hansom made an RSVP for the Saturday party, but I did not see him there. Does anyone remember if Mike made it and I just missed seeing him?

We had a total of 20 spouses join us either Friday or Saturday. They deserve our thanks for coming. We also had 4 former faculty members and their spouses attend:

Ed Johnston
Jim Zraleck
Pat Langdon
Jim Langdon

We really appreciate them coming to our celebration. It was their guidance and help that made a lot of difference in our lives while we attended Father Ryan and in the years since we left.

That totals 64 folks who either came to the party or the reception which is probably close to double the number we had at our last Reunion five years ago.

Hopefully, we can all get back together again with even more of our classmates for our 45th Reunion the first weekend of June, 2014.

Mark it on your calendar or in your long-range Outlook today!

MORE PHOTOS STILL TO COME!

And I am working on the address and e-mail contact list we asked everyone to sign Saturday. Unfortunately a few folks forgot to sign up or didn't leave their e-mail addresses (John Connors, Frank Baltz, John Goetz please contact and send me yours). I will send everyone else the information we put together so we can all stay in touch!

An Evening To Remember!

Courtesy of Pat Bauer, here are some photos of our special night together last Saturday (June 6) at Jimmy and Sarah Wilson's home to celebrate our 40th Class Reunion.

As you can see Pat also created a special template for the photos including the ones below.


I think it is safe to say that our Reunion Party was the largest gathering of the Father Ryan Class of 1969 since our graduation day of May 25, 1969 when 165 class members got their diplomas.

By my records at the Saturday night party we had 35 classmates present, 19 spouses, along with 4 former teachers and their spouses for a total of 62 people at the party. I know we had so many folks, we had to put the spouses on the second floor porch of the Wilson's home to get everyone in one picture. And even then a few folks arrived later and so they are not in the photo below that Pat Bauer's wife, Pam, took as a part of the montage.

I have some other photos taken by our classmate Tony Greene, who made it to the Reunion despite being on our class "lost list." We sure are glad to be back in touch with him and other classmates who we re-connected with while planning this Reunion. I will posting Tony's photos next and more from Pat Bauer later.

Thanks to both of them for sharing these photos.

What A Great Beginning!

It was quite a Friday night reception for the Father Ryan Class of 1969 as we began our Reunion Weekend festivities. Here are a group of us posing in front of the old front doors of the Elliston Place Father Ryan campus. The doors are now the entrance to the beautiful, new Library Building and are dedicated in memory of our FRHS Principal, Father James Hitchcock and our Vice Principal, Father Edward Arnold.

It a very appropriate place for us to come together. And we may
have had the largest turnout of any class present for the All-Class Reunion reception which was held in and around the courtyard on the new (at least for our class) FRHS Norwood Drive campus in Oak Hill.

Some of us got a chance to walk around the back part of the campus where the new FRHS Athletic Complex is rising impressively out of the ground. Construction is set to be done by early August in time for an Open House August 8, and then the first home football game ever in a permanent stadium on a Father Ryan campus in its 80 year-plus history. That game is set for August 28 against Hillwood.

With the goal posts and the field turf already in place and the Father Ryan crest in the center of the field, it clearly won't be long before the Irish will truly be at home on their football field for the first time in our school's long history.

Much of the evening was spent visiting with one another, remembering old stories and good times together, and even getting re-acquianted with former teachers, such as Pat Langdon, who spent some time with Harold Plemmons as you can see from the photo above.

By the way, Mr. Langdon ("Fat Pat" as we called him to distingush him from his brother, Jim Langdon who also taught us) will definitely be coming to tonight's (Saturday) Class Party at our classmates Jimmy Wilson's home. Both Pat and Jim Langdon still teach at Father Ryan believe it not. Another favorite teacher Ed Johnston will also join us tonight. Unfortunately, our classmate Harold Plemmons will not be there.

One other thing members of the Class of 1969 got the chance to see and visit is this statue in the Father Ryan courtyard dedicated to another of our favorite teachers, Father William Fleming.

Among our classmates attending Friday, many with their wives, and almost all of them attending Saturday's night party are:

Pat Bauer (thanks to Pat for all these great photos!)
Mike Carter
Pat Cook
Pat Nolan
Terry Shelton
Mike Curley
Bob Nelson
Jimmy Wilson
Mike Jumonville
Carlton Crutchfield
Harold Plemmons
Kevin Wilkerson (who arrived late when the reception was almost over)

This morning a small group of us (including Tony Green and Tommy Daugherty) met for a late breakfast, then walked over to the old campus on Elliston Place. Besides visiting the memorabilia display at the Hampton Inn now on the site, we also managed to slip inside the fenced off portion of the old school grounds and tried to remember where various buildings were located, in what is now a very large, vacant field.

Like the Friday night reception, I think the visit to the old Father Ryan site brought back a lot of memories and got us even more in the mood for tonight's party.

See in a few hours!

Reunion Is Just A Few Hours Away....

I hope to see several of you in just a couple of hours out at the All-Class Reception at Father Ryan to begin our weekend Reunion activities. It begins at 6:00 PM.

A couple of updates....Bubba Donnelly and his wife Chris McCann Donnelly will be joining us Saturday night for the party at the Wilsons. Bubba is donating the booze for the event, so tell him thanks!

It also appears there is a still good possibility that Mike Grant will be joining us. That will be wonderful as well.

Some of us are planning to gather Saturday morning at 10:00 at the Panera's Restaurant on 21st Avenue near Vanderbilt if you want to drop by.

One word of caution about the area interstates through town this weekend:

The Tennessee Department of Transportation is closing the westbound lanes of I-40 from exit 211B (where I-24 splits off to Clarksville) to Exit 210B (where I-65 splits off towards Brentwood).

Since the Wilsons home for the party is off I-65 South make sure you don't get caught in this closure (although there are detours around it).

The closure begins Friday night at 8:00 PM and ends no later than 5:00 AM Monday morning.

This is the second weekend in a row that portions of the interstates here have been closed for repairs. This time it's repairing the concrete for the bridges over Lafayette Street and 2nd and 4th Avenues.

The East bound lanes of I-40 in this area will remain open at all times. Just the westbound lanes are to be closed.

Stay safe!