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Distinguished Alumnus Howard Caldwell ('44) Honored with Inclusion in IPS Hall of Fame
Photo by: Carol Yeager
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Jack Boeldt ('56) Member of the IPS Hall of Fame Committee, Howard Caldwell ('44) IPS Hall of Fame 2008 recipient, Roger Marchal ('60) Howe Alumni Association President. At the annual Indianapolis Public Schools Hall of Fame Lunch held at the Indiana Roof on October 8, 2008, one of Howe's own, Howard Caldwell was the recipient of this great honor for his many years as a renown journalist and news anchor for WRTV-6. Also attending in support of Mr. Caldwell's honor were Frank Tout, retired Principal, Marcia Clark Strader ('58), Errol Spears ('60), Charlotte Schultz McLane ('57), Jean Morgan Koelliker ('55), Carol Yeager ('57), Dan Kaga ('57) and Loren Seils ('58).

2008-10-07

Second Annual Howe All-Alumni Block Party is Huge Success
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Bald Boys (from left to right: Kevin Friedly ('77), Gary Houston ('77), Eddie Davis ('77) and Mark Watkins ('69). It was estimated that close to 300 people attended the second annual All-Alumni Howe block party held around the corner from the Irving theater (in front of the Lazy Daze Coffee Shop). Food, drinks and books were available for sale by Lazy Daze, The Legend, The Bread Ladies, Jockamos Pizza and Bookmamas book store. All indicated it was great success and they are all ready to participate next year. Music was provided by Michelle Haddix and "Audio Diner."

2008-09-28

Former Band Director Hal Meurer Dies
Born: May 03, 1925 Died: August 24, 2008 Services:Services 10:00 a.m. Thursday, August 28, 2008 in Wright Chapel at the Franklin United Methodist Community - 1070 West Jefferson Street - Franklin, Indiana. Graveside service 2:30 p.m. Thursday at Oak Hill Cemetery, east of Riley, Indiana Visitation:Friends may call from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at Wilson St. Pierre Funeral Service & Crematory, Vandivier-Tudor Chapel - 951 North Main Street, Franklin and one hour prior to services in Wright Chapel at the Franklin United Methodist Community Hal A. Meurer, age 83, of Franklin, passed away August 24, 2008. Hal was born on May 3, 1925 in Terre Haute, Indiana, the son of the late Robert and Helen Meurer. During World War II, Hal was a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Band (1943–1945), playing numerous engagements in New York City.

2008-08-28

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"Laud of the Ring"

In late July of 2003, I (your webmaster, Kevin Friedly) received an email from a Pam Chavis concerning a high school ring she had in her possession. Her mother had just passed away and in the process of going through her things, she located the ring. Her mother had told her about the ring but her mother didn't know who the owner was. She indicated that she kept it hoping to someday locate the owner.

Pam contacted me through the website because the ring was inscribed with the words "Howe High School," the year "1948" and the initials "PRG." The ring was gold was a shield on it whose colors were blue and red (or orange). She searched the web for Howe high schools around the country and located 4. She attempted to contact each of them, thus the email to me. I checked our on-line database and found a Paul R Grissom listed with the class of 48. I passed this information on to Pam and wished her luck.

Ten months later, I received another email from Pam indicating she had finally been able to contact Paul and that, amazingly, the ring was his! I then contacted Paul and had a very friendly conversation with him concerning his amazing ring.

I have to say that this is a very heart-warming story and I am so impressed with the hard work that Pam, Jesse and Kyle put into finding the owner of this ring. Many thanks to all three.

Paul's Story

He told me that he was in the army during the Korean war. He finished his basic training in Breckenridge, KY when he and a good buddy Glen Stanley went to visit Glen's parents in the Leesburg, FL area. He remembers that they went to a root beer drive-in and met up with some young ladies. He says they returned to one of the girls' home for drinks and some TV. After he left he noticed that he had lost his ring. To the best of his memory, he took his ring off to show it off and set it on a table. Since he had already left the Leesburg area, he figured his ring was gone and he put it out of his head...for 52 years...until the call from Pam Chavis.

Paul was thrilled to get his ring back so many years later. Paul mentioned a number of his classmates including Howe favorite, Jim Stutz.

Pam's Story

Following is the story sent to me from Pam Chavis. This story is in her own words.

As a long as I can remember the ring was in my Mom's jewelery box. I was sometimes allowed to sit down with her and hold the things in it. Among them was this high school ring. When I asked where it was from I was told that my Dad had found it. I asked her why they didn't try to fing the owner and she told me she just wouldn't know where to start.

After she passed away in 2000, being her only daughter, I was given her jewelery box with the ring still in it. I thought of trying to return it lots of times, but just never did. Then last summer, I asked 2 of my sons, ages 10 and 11, if they would like to try using the internet to find the owner of the ring. They thought it would be fun.

We started by searching web sites for lost and found articles like class rings to see if anyone was looking for it, but found nothing. Next we searched for any Howe HS's in the US and found 4. We tried to contact each one by e-mail and received replies from 2. One of the repies we received was from Kevin Friedly. He told me of that the ring I had described could possibly be from his school, but the colors on it (blue and either orange or red) were not the school colors. He also gave me the name of Paul Grissom, a man from his school with same initials as were in the ring; they were PRG.

We search online for his name and found 2 Paul Grissoms believe it or not, about 2 hours from our own home in central Florida The boys and I suspected that the 2 Paul Grissoms were one because of the similarity in both phone numbers. We settled on the one we thought was probably the most recent and tried to call it. We never got a response, and after several tries we sort of gave up. I kept the information in my desk thinking I would try again soon, but the days turned to months. Three weeks ago while doing some cleaning I saw the paper again and decided I would give it 1 last try, but this time I would write instead of call.

The boys and I wrote 2 short letters and sent one to each address on April 22, 2004. The following Saturday my husband and I had gone out for the evening and left a babysitter in charge. After arriving home I scrolled through my caller ID and saw Paul R Grissom had called my house. I couldn't believe it! All my babysitter had told me was that "some guy called for you and said he would call back tomorrow" I really felt like I had missed one of the most important calls of my life. The next day I stayed by the phone and finally at 6:30pm on Sunday, I picked up the phone and called him. His answering machine picked up so I left a message. At last, the phone rang about 10pm and it was him. As I began to introduce myself he said "I know who you are, and yes that is my ring." He had the same sound of disbelief in his voice that I did.

Apparently, he had lost it on a trip with a friend to the Lake County FL. area, where I was born and raised. He even mentioned an old root beer stand. My mom lived about a 1/4 mile from an A&W root beer stand and it was the "hot spot" for the young people in the area. I'll never know if that was where it was found, but I'm only glad it eventually ended up with me. I was too excited to sleep, so I stayed up and e-mailed Kevin Friedly, whom I hadn't contacted in the better part of 8-9 months before. He sounded as shocked as Paul.

Today I mailed the class ring back to its rightful owner, 52 years later. It was strange sending away something I had wondered about my whole life, but it means a lot to hear that excitement in the voice of a total stranger and know that we had a part in bringing a smile to his face.
Thoughts and Prayers

Please keep these people in your thoughts and prayers
Click HERE if you wish to submit a name of someone to include on our Thoughts and Prayers list

Click the symbol next to an entry to see more details
  • Family of Patti (Walker) Schultz ('69)

    • Patti passed away December 12, 2008 of Lou Gehrig's disease.


  • Chuck Flowers ('79)

    • Chuck was the first handicapped student in IPS who was main-streamed. Chuck was regularly zipping through the halls in his wheelchair pushed by one of many hornet friends. Chuck has cerebral palsy which limits his physical movements but has no effect on his mental capabilities. Chuck attended Ball State and received his degree in Social Work. Chuck is currently in the hospital for the third time in 8 months for an intestinal issue. Doctors are trying to figure out what is causing his issues.


  • Kasey Branham ('81)

    • Kasey's 19-year old daughter is having surgery to remove a breast lump.


  • Family of Tammie S. (Childs) Wilkison ('79)

    • Tammie passed away November 15 from pancreatic cancer.


  • Family of Teresa (Barger) Haboush ('80)

    • Teresa died wednesday, November 12, 2008. Husband Jeff Haboush ('80) and several other in-law Hornets.


  • Herbert C. Barnard ('45)

    • Herb passed away suddenly from an aneurysm on November 1, 2008. Herb was wife to Hornet Jennie Beth (Taylor) Barnard ('45), father to Hornets David ('73), Tom ('75) and Steve ('77) and father-in-law to Nora (Gonzales) Barnard ('77).


  • Famly of Monica (Mertz) Pryor ('89)

    • Monica passed away October 27, 2008 at her home in Greenville, SC. http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=OBITUARIES&pagename=obittext&id=110306


  • Family of Sheryl (Perkins) Petree ('67)

    • Sherry was a member of the class of '67. She died on September 18 after a long, courageous battle with cancer. Her children, Melisa (Petree) Duffy ('85), Butch Petree ('87), and Angela (Petree) Jones ('93), her sister Susan (Perkins) Spear ('70) and brother Steven Perkins ('78) also attended Howe.


  • Family of John DuChemin

    • Mr. DuChemin was a custodian/maintenance worker at Howe. John passed away Tuesday, September 16.


  • Family of James L. Sommerville

    • Jim passed away peacefully Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Jim was the Husband of Janet (Lewis) Sommerville (Class of 1947), Father of Steven Sommerville (Class of 1987), and Father-in-Law of James L. Jones (Class of 1977). submitted by: Steven Sommerville ('87) - son


  • Family of Gregg ('77), Jeffrey ('80), Anna ('82) and David ('84) Haboush

    • Their mother Judith A. Haboush, passed away on August 3, 2008.


  • Family of Tracy (Johnson) VanOsdol ('77)

    • Tracy's brother Jon P. Johnson, 44, died on friday, July 4th.


  • Family of Teacher Warren Dressler

    • Mr. Dressler passed away June 25, 2008 Teacher at Howe during the 80s and 90s.


  • Family of Lisa Gomez

    • Lisa died unexpectedly during the third week of May, 2008. Class of '77 submitted by: Cathy (Clark) Thoman ('77)


  • Family of Jack Gilfoy ('58)

    • Jack passed away on Friday, May 2, 2008 Class president for the class of 1958. submitted by: Class of '58 50th reunion committee


  • Ron Finkbiner

    • Ron's wife, Judy Finkbiner ("The Gorilla") passed away on March 14 of brain cancer. Ron was a social studies/history teacher during the 70s, 80s and 90s


"Musings" by John Ervin
Popular, Long-time English teacher and English Department Chair John Ervin has kindly agreed to provide us periodically with some musings about his time at Howe. Those are featured here in our "Musings" column
Some Memories of Howe
My first memory of`Bruce Beck is when on the first or second day at Howe in 1964 when he invited me to his and Ruth’s home for a cookout. Tom and Joanne Totten, along with Phil and Joellen Brown were there. It was very thoughtful of Bruce to acquaint me with others of my age group, although I was the eldest of the group and have remained so. I didn’t seem to get any younger. They all did. Ruth could always put on a good meal and still does. I hate to count the number of grilled hamburgers I have scarfed down on their screened-in porch; however, at that time they were living on Washington Street across from the Howe bridge with Gretchen Scotten who had taught English at the old Manual High School; she always said she taught 35 years behind the huge smoke stack. She was a blessing to Bruce and Ruth and they were a blessing to her as they took care of her for the rest of her life.

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Special Reports
"Laud of the Ring"

Pam Chavis (shown with sons Jesse and Kyle) spent many months trying to locate the owner of a high school ring which her mother, who had recently passed away, had kept for 52 years. In the end her amazing search was successful and she happily returned the ring to its flabbergasted owner, Howe high school graduate Paul Grissom ('48).

Click here for the full review

Charles DeBow, Howe teacher, one of the original Tuskegee Airmen

This is a picture of the original Tuskegee airmen. It was submitted to me by Howe alumnus, James Neel from the class of 1958. James posted a message on the board asking whether a teacher who taught in the 50s at Howe named Charles DeBow might be the same Charles DeBow who was one of the original Tuskegee airmen. He and I both started researching and found that the Charles DeBow from the airmen was listed as being from Indianapolis, IN!

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