Knights in Celebration
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the Founded on Faith. Preserved with Pride. FALL 2017 Sustained by Spirit. RoundA publication for alumni, current parents, parentsTable of alumni, and friends of Alter High School KNIGHTS IN CELEBRATION VISION & STRATEGY ALTER LIFE ALUMNI NEWS ANNUAL REPORT From the Principal/CEO School & Athletic News Alumni Giving pages 18-19 2017 page 2 pages 10-13 Reunions page 20-22 pages 32-50 Celebrating Graduates Arts Wing News Hall of Fame pages 23-26 Fiscal Report page 51 pages 4-9 page 14-16 Class Notes pages 28-31 Open House page 52 VISION & STRATEGY From the Principal/CEO Lourdes Lambert It’s Where You Belong Dear Alter Knights: Alter Knights are hard workers in all areas of our lives, and, as you know, that hard work certainly Welcome to our fall edition of our Roundtable pays off. Who better than all of you to tell others Magazine. I hope you find it full of useful what a difference Alter has made in your life? updates for you to enjoy and reconnect with Don’t be afraid to share your good news about your school. our school - your memories, and what continues to draw you to Alter with our community at large As we bid farewell to the class of 2017, – those individual testimonies mean the world and welcome the class of 2021, our school to parents facing a choice for their child’s high enrollment is just below 600 students, and we school education. feel so blessed for all of them and all of you! This is an incredible time to be part of the Alter Archbishop Alter High School continues to be community. Our alumni are more engaged a relevant, viable and competitive option in than they have ever been, and our students our community. Our students consistently score thrive by their connection with them. Our long above the state and national averages on awaited Conservatory for the Arts is finally standardized tests, they continue to perform coming to fruition, and that will house the the most service hours in our region, and incredible talents of our students. I can hardly they continuously earn incredible amounts wait to have facilities that will finally match the of scholarship dollars to continue their caliber of our faculty, our curriculum, and our educational journey- $19.5 million to the class students. I am so excited to see it all completed of 2017 alone. this Spring! There is no better time to share your Alter pride, and tell others why you think your school is where they belong. Our product, all of you, is the most tangible proof of all that is good and right at Archbishop Alter High School. Thank you for your unwavering support, and for keeping us at the forefront of Catholic education in Dayton. May God bless you all always and GO KNIGHTS! With a grateful heart, Lourdes Lambert Principal/CEO Lambert pictured at The Knight of Gratitude reception with freshmen Katie Cool, Aidan Plate Cassie Eckert, and Taylor Thornburg. 2 the ROUNDTABLE ARCHBISHOP ALTER HIGH SCHOOL IT’S WHERE YOU BELONG 82% of 2017 graduates offered students all students enrolled in equipped with a million in one or more $ scholarships 269 AP classes 570 computer tablet 19.5 over Every Alter hours of Student takes the % community ACT test with a service composite of: 100 14,000 26 participation in Christ-centered retreats Only Catholic school The top Catholic school in Ohio with a Conservatory for # as ranked by The Washington the Arts program & five Post Most Challenging High Marching Band Class A Schools List 10:1 1 student teacher ratio State Championships 1 over %of seniors were admitted National Merit 87 to their first choice school Finalists in 2017 4 Team State Championships s t e m in nine sports One of four Ohio Catholic since 2000 100% 19 All Alter students are schools to compete at the required to complete State Science Olympiad two semesters of Fine Arts credits FALL 2017 3 CLASS OF 1967 GRADUATION One of our classmates – Mary Anne Sharkey – says it’s funny how we can remember all the feelings we had over 50 years ADDRESS: ago… but can’t remember what we had for dinner last FROM THE CLASS OF 1967 night! Mary Anne also went on to say how she wrote for the Jack Fiala ‘67 student newspaper at Alter – is it still called the Sword? And that her writing career at Alter was the first step in her career of writing for newspapers in Dayton and Cleveland and on into politics writing for elected officials and serving Good morning and on behalf of my classmates here today… as Communications Director for the governor of Ohio. She and the others scattered around the world I’d like to offer went on to become the first woman elected president of the our congratulations to the class of 2017. Ohio Press Corps. But the seed was sown at Alter. My classmates and I grew up expecting to go to the fa- One of my favorite activities at Alter was writing funny skits mous Chaminade High School for the guys and the famous for pep rallies. And I certainly never thought that would Julienne for the girls where many of our parents and older lead to any kind of career. But guess what? A big part of siblings went. Then in 7th grade we were told we had to my professional career has been writing comedy sketches go to this place called Alter which was just a school in the for employee meetings and sales meetings and corporate middle of a corn field that nobody ever50 heard of. But it all events for clients like General Motors, WalMart and McDon- turned out okay in the end. ald’s. Who knew there could even be such a career? We sat at our commencement 50 years ago and thought to Our classmate Dan Schneble loved basketball and tried ourselves – like you probably are right now - that we were fi- out for Alter’s team but got cut on the last day of tryouts nally going to leave Alter and get on with the really import- four years in a row. Senior year he had Mr. Petrocelli for ant things in life – college, careers, all that grown-up stuff. English and on the last day of tryouts Petro called Dan up after class and told him not to come to practice because he But in a lot of ways the really important stuff in life had wasn’t going to make the team. Bullheaded as he was, Dan already happened to us at Alter. And the same is probably showed up at practice anyway just to make the coach cut true for you. Even though you may not know it…yet. him in front of the whole team. Dan says he learned at Alter that you had to work for something in this life and nothing Leading up to our 50th anniversary many of my friends is going to be given to you. So he graduated from Alter, have been sharing recollections of our time at Alter. And, still bullheaded and determined to prove himself, earned a yes, after 50 years many of my closest friends are still my couple degrees and has had a storied career at Ford Motor friends from Alter. But it’s funny how vivid our memories are. Company. Classmate Rick Fersch tells another interesting story. Rick transferred into Alter his sophomore year – which is difficult for anybody - and was painfully shy and introverted most of that year. Then one day Father Charles Rehling – our music teacher – invited Rick to join the choir. Rick hesitated but Fa- ther insisted, and Rick did indeed join the choir. Rick says it was at that point in his life that he realized he could choose to be extroverted, to get involved in life, to take the initia- tive and make the most of the gifts God had given him. Rick continued singing through college and was elected pres- ident of the Villanova singers, a 150 member semi-profes- sional choir that toured the country. And these successes set him on for a career path that led to being President and CEO of a two billion dollar company – Eddie Bauer – with 10,000 employees and 600 stores. Thank you Father Rehling. We’ve got a bunch of stories like that. Our valedictorian Dave Bradley, a math and science guy who went to work for IBM. Any time you hit control-alt-delete to restart your laptop remember Dr. Dave. He invented that. Or Tim Maloney, a charter member of the Alter math club who since graduating from M.I.T. has spent his career in Silicon Valley at Intel and holds over 30 patents in the field of electronics. At Alter Nancy Ferneding Campbell was a member of Alter’s first French Club and earned a degree in French in college then went on to continue her studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. Not too shabby. John Missall recalls a single conversation with Father Donovan that changed his attitude and to this day has helped shape his spiritual life. All these things took root at Alter. Not to mention the classmates who met the person who would have the most important impact on their lives, those who met their life partners at Alter. Tom and Mary Ann Pratt Shultz and Doug and Donna Wilson Merrill are here today. One final thought. In the world we grew up in – the 60’s - when you went to a doctor, he was a man.