Shown in the class photo are, from left, first row: Jean Gatti Ragantesi, Paul Dominick, Girard Charney, Michael Clark, the Rev. Louis Grippe, William Falzone, Ted Marmo, Lucille Petrucci Trotta, Norine Drury Gill, Joseph McHale. Second row: Ed Cawley, Frank Orlando, Barbara Yankowski Shatrowskas, Mary Jo Booth Soricelli, Nancy Durling Dombroski, Joanne Bruno Giovannini, Richard Missett, Susan Aquilina Sullivan, Grace Rizzo Missett, Tom Shannon.
Submitted photo
Classmates celebrate at Fox Hill Country Club
Members of the Reunion Arrangements Committee gathered at podium. From left are Jean Gatti Ragantesi, Grace Rizzo Missett, Michael Clark, toastmaster for the sixth consecutive reunion program, Lucille Petrucci Trotta, reunion permanent secretary for many years, and Joanne Bruno Giovannini.
Submitted photo
Graduate Gerard Charney glances right to podium, flanked by his wife Sandra.
Submitted photo
From left, old pals Paul Dominick, toastmaster Michael Clark, and the Rev. Louis Grippe. Father Grippe led the spiritual side of the program, which included remembrance of deceased class members.
Submitted photo
Four classmates and spouses relived high school sports and student life. Seated from left are James Sullivan, class mates Susan Aquilina Sullivan, Ed Cawley, and his wife Stephanie Cawley. Standing from left are Joseph Soricelli, class members Mary Jo Booth Soricelli and Frank Orlando, and his wife Sandra.
Submitted photo
Graduate Gerard Charney glances right to podium, flanked by his wife Sandra.
Submitted photo
Members of the Reunion Arrangements Committee gathered at podium. From left are Jean Gatti Ragantesi, Grace Rizzo Missett, Michael Clark, toastmaster for the sixth consecutive reunion program, Lucille Petrucci Trotta, reunion permanent secretary for many years, and Joanne Bruno Giovannini.
Submitted photo
Four classmates and spouses relived high school sports and student life. Seated from left are James Sullivan, class mates Susan Aquilina Sullivan, Ed Cawley, and his wife Stephanie Cawley. Standing from left are Joseph Soricelli, class members Mary Jo Booth Soricelli and Frank Orlando, and his wife Sandra.
Submitted photo
Shown in the class photo are, from left, first row: Jean Gatti Ragantesi, Paul Dominick, Girard Charney, Michael Clark, the Rev. Louis Grippe, William Falzone, Ted Marmo, Lucille Petrucci Trotta, Norine Drury Gill, Joseph McHale. Second row: Ed Cawley, Frank Orlando, Barbara Yankowski Shatrowskas, Mary Jo Booth Soricelli, Nancy Durling Dombroski, Joanne Bruno Giovannini, Richard Missett, Susan Aquilina Sullivan, Grace Rizzo Missett, Tom Shannon.
Submitted photo
From left, old pals Paul Dominick, toastmaster Michael Clark, and the Rev. Louis Grippe. Father Grippe led the spiritual side of the program, which included remembrance of deceased class members.
Submitted photo
Graduates of the 1961 St. John Evangelist High School in Pittston gathered at Fox Hill Country Club for the sixth decade observance of the class graduation from a school building that closed more than two decades ago.
Staffed by the members of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, known forever as “The IHMs,” the freshmen class began in September of 1957, during a four-year period of international and local noteworthy events.
During the freshman year, the Communist Soviet government launched its first satellite, Sputnik, waking up America to what became the space race.
The year 1960, the Junior class year, became one not to be forgotten. On Friday afternoon Feb. 19, the entire St. John’s 12 grade class assemblage dashed from their classrooms shortly after 1 p.m., as afternoon sessions began. On the internal public address system, Principal Sister Ann declared news of a fire on the top third floor and instant evacuation for all was ordered. There were no fatalities or injuries, but student life soon became inconvenient.
Pews were ripped away in the big church basement, where eight-foot high artificial classrooms were built under a 12 foot ceiling. Many rooms in the next-door convent served as the makeshift elementary school. The class of 1961 would never return to the renovated school structure, with pressing day to day class conditions for months to come.
By fall of its senior year, Presidential politics was going big time. On Friday evening, Oct. 28, candidate John F. Kennedy, in a triumphant political scene recorded by national news outlets, headed his motorcade over the Water Street Bridge to the Junction section and on to Scranton.
Police estimates of total Pittston motorcade watchers was over 30,000, at least three times the city’s population. Just before the JFK entourage hit town, St. John’s student volunteer band director Gerard A. Hines marched his music makers down Broad Street, across the Water Street bridge to the West Pittston football stadium, where the Johnnie’s took on a significant gridiron bashing from the West Pittston Rams.
The space age race came to the fore once more, a month before graduation. On a May, 1961, Friday morning, astronaut Allan B. Shephard became the first U.S. outer space hero. That evening the senior prom was held in the brand-new gym, just up William Street from the school still under reconstruction more than a year after the fire.
