One last hurrah
CHICORA — Despite the gathering on Saturday, Sept. 27, being billed as a “farewell reunion,” the life of the former Chicora High School was held up and celebrated with joy and laughter, beers and good food by those who attended in the 1940s and ’50s.
More than 80 former students of Chicora High School, which closed in 1959 and merged with Karns City High School, reunited at the Chicora Moose Saturday to celebrate the place that helped shape them.
The classes represented in the crowd ranged from those who graduated in the 1960s, years after the school merger, to Peg Kerschbaumer, who graduated from Chicora High School in 1949.
Nearly 20 married couples who attended the high school together have now been together for at least 50 to 60 years also showed up to remember their beginnings. Others who had the most grandchildren or great-grandchildren, or other life accomplishments, garnered some cheers.
“This is amazing. A lot of these people attended the school in the ‘40s. There’s such a big crowd here today, it’s just so good to see everybody,” said Dan Cunningham, a class of 1965 alumnus and one of the main organizers of the reunion.
Cunningham is one of four brothers who attended and played basketball at Chicora High School.
The school stood at its original Center Avenue location from 1874 through 1939, before a new school opened in 1940. The new building continued to hold grades one through 12 until the merger with what was then the Fairview Township Karns City Joint School.
Part of the reunion included meeting up later in the afternoon at Chicora Elementary School, a Karns City Area School District building which is at the same location as the former high school. The Chicora alumni were honored with a plaque celebrating the memory of the former students and faculty from Chicora High School.
The spirit of Chicora High School — and it’s championship winning basketball teams — were a big focus of Saturday’s celebration. It’s boys team, which won Class C championships in 1938, ’51, ’53, ’57 and ’59; as well as the girls team, which won in 1928, were recognized. Alumni reminisced about big games, such as going up against their rival, Penn Township.
At the Moose Lodge gathering, some of Chicora High School’s more notable graduates, both living and deceased, who have contributed to their communities in a number of different ways were recognized.
This included Norman Campbell, a Class of 1951 graduate and highly decorated veteran who served in the Navy from 1958 to 1989, achieving the rank of rear admiral.
It also included Art Collier, a Class of 1959 graduate whose saxophone and comedy skills led him to perform worldwide and work with figures like Johnny Carson.
Other graduates of Chicora High School who were specifically mentioned during the reunion included Paul Doty, a 1937 graduate who became a Harvard chemistry professor and worked on arms control with American and Soviet scientists; and Jack Gaisford, who graduated in the early 1930s and founded the West Penn Burn Center in 1969.
“There’s so many people who graduated from Chicora High School over the years, this small community, and its just absolutely amazing what some of them went on to, what they have done after attending here,” Cunningham said.
It has now been 66 years since Chicora High School closed its doors. But for the school’s former students who are still around, memories of their times in grade school live on.
“This is terrific, it’s great to get everyone together. It’ll probably be the last time,” said Linda Hemphill, a member of the Class of 1965. “The academics were unbelievable. There was such a good focus on education back then. The teachers were the best back then.”
“And basketball, that gym was packed, no matter what. Those guys were so successful. It was amazing,” her husband, Richard, added.
