School Reunion

I am trying to organise a school reunion 60 years after the class was assembled and wondering what this world has done to itself in the process. Apparently even 60 years later it is now not possible for the school to release any information from their records about any individual who was in that class while they are still alive.

So I have a question, there are reunion sites on the web which might be useful but I wonder how they work for older people who most probably don't use computers much and would not be expected to look at those sites. I also wonder if FB is a good way to do this but releasing names on FB seems to be a good way to break privacy laws or is it? I myself know nothing about FB as I have always avoided it so any advice would be welcome. My thinking there is perhaps younger people might recognise a name and mention it to past students, now Grandparents etc.

Why not mention the school(s) here?

You might be surprised if someone does a search for the same school.

In the Melbourne Sunday Herald-Sun there is a column each week called "Desperately Seeking" where you can place a free request. Perhaps the paper/s in your area might have something similar.
I was involved in organising a Centenary reunion of my High School in 2016 at which we had more than 1000 attendees. Many of the younger ex-students were found using Facebook.

The Herald has a reunion column where these requests can be made. You would be amazed and how effective FB can be for stuff like this. I'm on a FB page that is connecting people to my old suburb I grew up in. I've caught up with quite a few of my old mates etc. Most are living in QLD and other parts of Australia and overseas. I was surprised at how many now deceased. I was not keen to return to my old schools 60th reunion though. School and I did not hit it off. :wink:

TT

Facebook is a good way to go.........it can be used as "word of mouth" for the digital age. Our 45th was 2 years ago and the bloke who did the organising started out by creating a Facebook page for the reunion.

He then remembered as many names as he could from school and did a search in Facebook for those names and when he discovered some of the former students he invited them to the page as well as asking if they knew any others. It began to grow as some of the people had kept in touch with others since school and word got around. Females were a little harder due to married names but as stated above, there is always someone who knows the married names of other people from school.

Mind you 60 years is a long time.

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Originally Posted by Twisted Tenon

I'm on a FB page that is connecting people to my old suburb I grew up in. I've caught up with quite a few of my old mates etc. Most are living in QLD and other parts of Australia and overseas. I was surprised at how many now deceased. I was not keen to return to my old schools 60th reunion though. School and I did not hit it off. :wink:

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hi Twisted

A little understood consequence of the life expentancy estimates is what they really mean.
When a person says that average life expentancy is 84 years, what they really mean is that half of the people in a cohort will be dead before they turn 84.

In your case, over a period of 60 years, and starting at age 15 (and ending at age 70), approximately 26% of the males in a cohort will be deceased. For females, the survival rate is approximately 83%

Thanks for the responses and I will think about the FB thing. What surprised me about the whole thing was the privacy restrictions when twenty years ago the class rolls were accessible when we asked for them.

I am perhaps fortunate that my old school has a past student association that organises reunions. Perhaps you could ask the school to assist, maybe a bribe of $x for each old student who attends.
Your class mates might be scattered across the world, but the chances are a relative might still be living in the area. As others have said, a note or article in the local or regional paper can get the ball rolling.

If anyone arranged reunion for my class it would be in a prison somewhere, I think now from a class of 32 boys, there are 4 dead, 6 in mental institutions, ?? in prison, everyone else keeping their head down.

granted this was in New Zealand

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Originally Posted by ian

hi Twisted

A little understood consequence of the life expentancy estimates is what they really mean.
When a person says that average life expentancy is 84 years, what they really mean is that half of the people in a cohort will be dead before they turn 84.

In your case, over a period of 60 years, and starting at age 15 (and ending at age 70), approximately 26% of the males in a cohort will be deceased. For females, the survival rate is approximately 83%

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That would be about right. I went to an all boys school and two of my class mates were dead within 12 months from MVA's, two more were suicides. Have a look on You Tube for "Fail Army". It's no wonder that women outlive men by a ratio of 3:1

TT

I wasn't involved in the organisation but our 50 year country convent primary school reunion was done mainly through FB. A relative of one of the former students was teaching at the school which is how we got the class lists with the approval of the principal. The school were totally on board with the whole thing and they and the organisers found about 1/4 of our class on FB and they in turn managed to find about another 1/4 of the students, and a handful more were found by other methods. Not everyone was able to come but we had just over a 1/3 of the class was preset. We even managed to find a teacher (an irish nun) that taught us in grade 2 during her first year out teaching , she told us she was 70 years old so she would have been 20 at the time. That teacher knew the whereabouts of 2 other teachers including our grade 7 teacher but neither could make it.

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Originally Posted by Tonto

If anyone arranged reunion for my class it would be in a prison somewhere, I think now from a class of 32 boys, there are 4 dead, 6 in mental institutions, ?? in prison, everyone else keeping their head down.

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LOL Thinking about my class. . . .

One I know deceased for sure, name on the Vietnam wall memorial.
A couple that I heard died of overdoses.


And of the rest, but for two, I can't think of any that I would cross the street to see.

Ours was looked on as a special class because we founded the school and as we advanced through the classes they just added classes behind us until we left in high school. When I tell people we had 65 pupils in the class and only one one teacher until at least 2nd year of high school no one will believe me.

I believe you as there were 60 kids in grade 1 when I started in 1945. The teachers then ruled either by respect or downright fear. I was fortunate that I had good teachers right through and kept in touch with my grade 4 teacher right up until she died about 12 years ago.