Middletown HS Class of '62 Takes A Tour Down Memory Lane

Middletown Township High School on Tindall Road is not how some remembered it 50 years ago.

The high school now bearing a new name and expanded exterior houses new technology that would not been seen in the former high school which offered classes such as industrial art classes, typing and home economics. 

“There was no Middletown North or South High School back then,” said Rae Fetterolf Neice, who now lives in Michigan.

About 30 members of the graduating class of 1962 gathered this morning at the , formerly Middletown Township High School, front entrance, an entrance that alumni James Murphy recognized as the familiar structure from 1962.

Alumni traveled from as far as Belgium to as close as Port Monmouth and Belford to take part in the four-day alumni celebration including a Friday evening buffet and cocktail party to an open-air picnic Saturday afternoon, a Sunday brunch, to a tour of the high school on Monday morning lead by Middletown High School North principal Dr. Patricia Vari-Cartier.

Beginning in the foyer of the high school, alumni filed through the school reminiscing on memories had within the school.

Irvin Beaver, one of the alumni event organizers and Middletown resident, remembered back to his high school days where Beaver’s father, a teacher, not only scolded him for playing hooky but gave him school advice that lasted him a lifetime.

“My sophomore year, as an elective, my dad told me to take Typing II,” Beaver said. “When I went to into the Navy, I was routed into the office.”

The Class of 1962 was the first class to graduate from remodeled high school, which was previously a middle school housing grades 6th, 7th and 8th before becoming what is know known as alumni to Middletown High School on Tindall Road.

The class of 1962 also had the first international student, Dr. Pierre Dehout, to graduate in Middletown.

Dehout flew from Belgium with his wife to attend the reunion. Dehout remembered journalists and reporters coming to interview him during his early high school days.

“I remember journalists coming up and interviewing me because I was the first international student,” Dehout, now a general physician in Belgium. “One headline read 'International Student Walks From Home.' I would laugh. I guess they thought international students didn’t walk. I only lived two miles away.”

As the tour ended in a conference room in the main office alumni sang the school song and reflected upon their time at the high school.

“I received a very good education here,” said Peggy Cramer, now a Connecticut resident and event organizer. “I was not only prepared for college but for beyond college and I am really thankful I came here.”

Middletown Township High School graduated 381 students June 20, 1962 in Middletown Township High School gymnasium. The event originally scheduled for the athletic field was moved to the gym because of rain.