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Former Band Director Hal Meurer Dies
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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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CAPT Paul Hass ('80) Assumes New Duty as Deputy Commander of Carrier Air Wing
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On 31 July 2008, Howe alumnus CAPT Paul Haas ('80) assumed duty as Deputy Commander, Carrier Air Wing NINE (CVW-9), at Naval Air Station Lemoore, CA. CVW-9 consists of a mix of eight carrier-based Navy and Marine Corps squadrons of strike fighter, helicopter, electronic attack, and airborne early warning aircraft. CVW-9 deploys on the aircraft carrier USS JOHN C. STENNIS (CVN-74) from the Pacific coast.
CAPT Haas joined the Navy in 1985 after graduating from Purdue University. He has accumulated nearly 4000 flight hours and 700 arrested landings in FA-18E/F Superhornets, F-14A/B/D Tomcats, A-4E/F/M Skyhawks, and F-16N Falcons over a 23+ year career, and has participated in Operations DESERT SHIELD, SOUTHERN WATCH, ENDURING FREEDOM, and IRAQI FREEDOM.
CAPT Haas is pictured above with his wife Kelly Ann, next to an FA-18F Superhornet from the VFA-154 "Black Knights," one of the Air Wing squadrons, at the CVW-9 Change of Command ceremony; below, in the cockpit of an FA-18F during training earlier in 2008.
2008-08-14
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Husband of Hornet Kristie (Shaw) Dellinger ('86) Entertains American Troops Overseas
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Kris Shaw, husband of Howe alumni Kristie (Shaw) Dellinger ('86), is a stand up comedian who recently returned from a tour overseas. Kris traveled to Iraq and Kuwait in June and entertained our military troops stationed there. Kris tours all over the country and internationally doing stand up comedy shows.
Kris is managed by Kristie, who does his booking and public relations. You can check out his website for tour information at www.krisshaw.com.
2008-08-12
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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.
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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 James L. Sommerville
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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
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Their mother Judith A. Haboush, passed away on August 3, 2008.
- Family of Tracy (Johnson) VanOsdol ('77)
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Tracy's brother Jon P. Johnson, 44, died on friday, July 4th.
- Matthew T. Schwier
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Class of '88
submitted by: Sister, Shannon Roberson (Schwier)
- Family of Teacher Warren Dressler
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Mr. Dressler passed away June 25, 2008
Teacher at Howe during the 80s and 90s.
- Family of Lisa Gomez
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Lisa died unexpectedly during the third week of May, 2008.
Class of '77
submitted by: Cathy (Clark) Thoman ('77)
- Family of Jack Gilfoy ('58)
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Jack passed away on Friday, May 2, 2008
Class president for the class of 1958.
submitted by: Class of '58 50th reunion committee
- Nan Bultman
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Mother-in-law to Tobi Elmore ('81)
submitted by: Tobi Elmore ('81)
- Ron Finkbiner
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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
- Julie Bultman Cassidy
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Sister-in-law to Tobi Elmore ('81)
submitted by: Tobi Elmore ('81)
- Carla Attebury
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Stage IV breast cancer
sister-in-law to Kelly Attebury (81)
submitted by: Kelly Attebury (81)
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| 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 |
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Some Memories of Howe
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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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By: John Ervin
Photo by:
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"Laud of the Ring"
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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).
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Charles DeBow, Howe teacher, one of the original Tuskegee Airmen
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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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