By Ed Karvoski Jr., Contributing Writer
Hudson – A weekend of activities culminated Oct. 25 at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlborough as members of the Hudson Catholic High School (HCHS) class of 1964 celebrated their 50-year reunion. They were the fifth class to graduate from HCHS and the third that included boys.
They first reunited five years later. Next, they had a 20-year reunion. Among the classmates who attended each is their class president, Ed Lambert.
“Four guys were elected as class officers in our senior year,” he noted. “Guys aren’t as good at planning events. The girls got together in 2006 and we had a 42nd reunion.”
Most of them were turning 60 in 2006, so Nancy (Montecalvo) McCarthy thought it was an ideal time to reunite. She circulated the idea via email.
“We were all happy to get that email,” Lambert recalled. “There was a lot of enthusiasm because we think of our old classmates as family.”
The class had 63 graduates, seven from Marlborough including Patricia Delaney. She later became principal of St. Michael School, where most of these classmates attended from grades one through eight. Thirty-one classmates attended the 42-year reunion.
Many of their shared memories involve teachers, who at the time were mostly Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.
“Everybody has their infamous stories about nuns,” Lambert acknowledged. “Teaching was their life and they really pushed us to develop study habits. Classes were small and the nuns wouldn’t let you get away with anything.”
HCHS had two lay teachers at the time. A history teacher was Frank Chadbourne, brother of Monsignor Llewellyn D. Chadbourne, then-pastor of St. Michael Parish. Paul Hester taught science, and coached baseball and basketball. He attended their 42 and 50-year reunions.
Classmates still reminisce about their senior class trip to Washington D.C. At the 42-year reunion, a chaperone offered videotapes featuring the trip’s highlights. At the 50-year reunion, classmate Rita (Bissonnette) Clark provided a slideshow capturing their evenings there, doing circa-‘60s dances such as the monkey.
Their visit was soon after the assignation of President John F. Kennedy. They went to his gravesite, Lambert noted.
“My strongest memory is laying a wreath by the eternal flame with one of my best friends, Paul Richer,” he said.
These classmates also remember cheering for their “Green Wave” football team when they faced Nashoba Valley Regional High School in Bolton.
“We were always the smallest school playing everybody,” Lambert recalled. “On Thanksgiving Day ’63, in the pouring rain, it was a huge upset that we beat Nashoba Regional. My friend Dennis Pierozzi played in that game and said it was the only time HCHS won a Thanksgiving game in 50 years.”
Pierozzi returned to HCHS as a teacher from 1978 to 1989. After the school closed in 2009, he scavenged some relics including a “Green Wave” banner, which he brought and displayed at this reunion.
During the 50th and final HCHS graduation ceremony in 2009, representatives from each class stood at the altar at St. Michael Church. Representing the class of ’64 were Rita (Bissonnette) Clark and Billy Tate. They awarded a scholarship to a 2009 graduate.
Attending this year’s reunion were 24 classmates and 13 guests. Travelling the farthest was Kathy (Sawyer) Tucci of Glendale, Calif. Ten are deceased.
The weekend get-together also included a cocktail party the previous evening at the Best Western. The following afternoon they met for lunch at the diner at the rotary where they’d go after high school football games. Afterward, they strolled down memory lane, aka Main Street, to the former HCHS building, which is slated for demolition.
“It’s a shame they closed, considering all the intangibles you get from going to a Catholic school,” Lambert said.
The planning committee is already considering possibilities for their next reunion.