Newsletter for the Alumni and Friends of
Hicksville High School Hicksville, New York

The Editors:
Buffalo Bob Casale '61	Linda (Piccerelli) Hayden '60
Pat (Koziuk) Driscoll '56	Bob (Gleason) Wesley '61

Contributing Editors: Bob Gillette & Walter Schmidt

Webmaster: Roger Whitaker

To contact the editors, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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For information on the Class of '63 50th Reunion, please visit 63.hixreunion.com

Robert Edward Gleason Wesley, 1943-2010

Three years ago, February of 2010, was when the music stopped for Bob Wesley. An accomplished musician. Bob had a radio show in Dannemora , New York that aired weekly. Along with a co-host, Frank, the duo made music that the community really enjoyed. He loved music and traveled to local hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities and performed for the residents free of charge.

His passing saddened many. Bob "partied hard" over the years and realized his activities would tell its toll eventually. He survived open heart surgery only to find himself spending time in the hospital for a string of illnesses that did eventually cut his life short, too short.

I remember fondly the time he traveled from Dannemora to Long Island to visit me. What would be the last time, this visit included us making a trip to New Jersey to visit with Linda Piccerelli who along with Pat Koziuk were the original editors of HixNews. Bob was instrumental in taking the Hicksville High Newsletter from ancient times into the new world. The website he established exists today and many can thank Bob for his vision of what future issues of the newsletter should be.

His daughter, Heather and granddaughter, Rebecca remember Bob as a warm, wonderful person who they miss every day.

Buffalo Bob Casale

Last month, Denny Tillman asked a question regarding the production of a play, " The Mikado," while he was in Junior High. There is a response from Jeanette Arnold Bemberis that is highlighted in Memory Lane. Go there for a trip back in time.

The Editors

The National Veterans Art Museum

When visitors first enter the museum, they will hear a sound like wind chimes coming from above them and their attention will be drawn upward 24 feet to the ceiling of the two-story high atrium. Please go to Honoring Our Veterans to see the full story...

Hicksville Vietnam War Era Memorial - PROJECT UPDATE

Above, is a current photo of the Memorial's Center Plaque, complete with all revisions with one exception; the signature line will be "Hicksville Alumni" instead of the currently shown "The Alumni".

Since our December 1 publication, only one name was added to the List of Names, bringing the current total to 1,800. Gains continue to be made in completing information still missing for many of the people on our List, plus much focus was given in December and January to names on the List that are likely to be, but still remain unconfirmed as far as qualifying for active duty service during the Vietnam War Era (February, 1961-April, 1975). To better focus on these we have also added the 46 names from the current List to a new UNCONFIRMED List, so you can review them without having to scroll through the entire list of 1,800. In addition, we have added 69 new names of service members from Hicksville who are more likely to not have served during the Vietnam Era, but need to be confirmed, bringing the full UNCONFIRMED List to 115 names.

In addition, please keep up your efforts to review the List of Names available via the website link located at the bottom of the full Project Update in the Honoring Our Veterans section of this newsletter. As a HixNews reader, you can continue to be of significant help with the data we are missing, by reviewing both the Current Full List of Names and UNCONFIRMED List, as noted above. All missing data continues to be noted in red on the List of Names to make it easier for readers to pick up.

We hope All of You are off to a great start in 2013!

On behalf of The Project Team,
Joe Carfora, HHS '62

The Newsletter

Photo Gallery

Jeanette Martello 1959, going to the Prom and Graduation and with Husband, Bob

Ann Cassese and Lew Fenigstein, Class of 1961 and Graduation

Anne Romano, Class of 1964 and Graduation

Diane Snyder, Class of 1961 at Graduation and with daughter and with husband in 2009

Richie Keliher, Bob Kofahl, Class of 1964 and Graduation and Bud McKenzie

June Diers, Class of 1966 and with grand daughter and Graduation

1967 Class Reunion

 This from Robin Murphy, Class of 1967

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Honoring our Veterans

The National Veterans Art Museum

When visitors first enter the museum, they will hear a sound like wind chimes coming from above them and their attention will be drawn upward 24 feet to the ceiling of the two-story high atrium.

Dog tags of the more than 58,000 service men and women who died in the Vietnam War hang from the ceiling of the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago on Veterans Day, November 11, 2010.  The 10-by-40-foot sculpture, entitled Above & Beyond, was designed by Ned Broderick and Richard Steinbock.

The tens of thousands of metal dog tags are suspended 24 feet in the air, 1 inch apart, from fine lines that allow them to move and chime with shifting air currents. Museum employees using a kiosk and laser pointer help visitors locate the exact dog tag with the imprinted name of their lost friend or relative.

Since 2003, the museum has broadened its mission to include art by veterans of all wars. In 2010, we dropped the word Vietnam from the name to become the National Veterans Art Museum (NVAM). Today, the NVAM is still located in Chicago's South Loop and houses more than 2,500 works of art, including paintings, photography, sculpture, poetry and music. All the works in the Museum's permanent collection were created by more than 255 artists who are veterans of American conflicts.

The artwork presented at the museum provides a unique viewpoint on the controversial subject of war to all visitors.  It is a tenuous and reflective balance of beauty and horror, giving unique insight into the psyche of combat veterans and consequential hindsight war leaves on its survivors.

Memory Lane

A follow up to the Denny Tillman note from last month...his note follows...

Denny TillmanDear Hix News Editors,

Please post my query.

Since many of you from the class of 1960 shared our earlier grades too, I'm wondering if anybody out there remembers putting on Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Mikado" in junior high? I think it was the 8th or 9th grade.

A note from Jeanette Arnold Bemberis...her note follows...

Hi...Denny Tillman wanted to remember the junior high production of The Mikado.

Ivars BemberisIvars and I (Jeanette) put our heads together and think it was probably in the spring of 1956.Jeanette Arnold Bemberis

Polly CrammerPolly Crammer was Yum Yum

Phoebe Oliver

Phoebe Oliver was Katisha, both were in the class of 1959.  Ivars was Nanki Poo ( he couldn't sing, but was good at memorizing the lines!).

Kathy Millevolte

Kathy Millevolte was one of the three little maids.

Bonnie Wilbur

Bonnie Wilbur and I were in the chorus.

Harold Berkowitz

Harold Berkowitz was one of the characters also-can't remember which one.

Recently Ivars and I ushered at the Richmond Opera Company's lavish production of "The Mikado" and while we thoroughly enjoyed the trip down memory lane we were both amazed that we remembered so many of the lyrics to the songs after all of the years that have passed.  Our junior high production was a great experience and the memory is still there!

Casale's Corner

A seminary professor was vacationing with his wife in Gatlinburg , Tennessee . 

One morning, they were eating breakfast at a little restaurant, hoping to enjoy a quiet, family meal.

While they were waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests.

The professor leaned over and whispered to his wife, 'I hope he doesn't come over here.' But sure enough, the man did come over to their table.

'Where are you folks from?' he asked in a friendly voice.  ' Oklahoma ,' they answered. 

'Great to have you here in Tennessee ,' the stranger said... 'What do you do for a living?' 

'I teach at a seminary,' he replied.

'Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I've got a really great story for you.'

And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with the couple

The professor groaned and thought to himself, 'Great... Just what we need.... Another preacher story!'

The man started, 'See that mountain over there? (Pointing out the restaurant window). Not far from the base of that mountain, there was a boy born to an unwed mother.

He had a hard time growing up, because every place he went, he was always asked the same question, 'Hey boy, who's your daddy?' 

Whether he was at school, in the grocery store or drug store, people would ask the same question, 'Who's your daddy?'

He would hide at recess and lunch time from other students.

He would avoid going in to stores because that question hurt him so bad. '

When he was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to his church.

He would always go in late and slip out early to avoid hearing the question, 'Who's your daddy?'

But one day, the new preacher said the benediction so fast that he got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. 

Just about the time he got to the back door, the new preacher, not knowing anything about the boy, put his hand on his shoulder and asked him, 'Son, who's your daddy?'

The whole church got deathly quiet.

He could feel every eye in the church was looking at him.

Now everyone would finally know the answer to the question, 'Who's your daddy?'

This new preacher, though, sensed the situation around him and using discernment that only the Holy Spirit could give, said the following to that scared little boy...

'Wait a minute! I know who you are!

I see the family resemblance now; you are a child of God.

'With that he patted the boy on his shoulder and said, 'Boy, you've got a great inheritance... Go and claim it.'

With that, the boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed person and he was never the same again. 

Whenever anybody asked him, 'Who's your Daddy?'  he'd just tell them, 'I'm a Child of God....''

The distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said, 'Isn't that a great story?'

The professor responded that it really was a great story!

As the man turned to leave, he said, 'You know, if that new preacher hadn't told me that I was one of God's children, I probably never would have amounted to anything!'

And he walked away.

The seminary professor and his wife were stunned.

He called the waitress over and asked her,

'Do you know who that man was -- the one who just left that was sitting at our table?'

The waitress grinned and said, 'Of course. Everybody here knows him.

That's Ben Hooper.  He's governor of Tennessee !'

Hooper was born out of wedlock to Sarah Wade in Newport in Cocke County in eastern Tennessee . His father, Lemuel Washington Hooper, I, was a physician who was engaged to another woman at the time.^[1] Ben and his mother moved to Mossy Creek (modern Jefferson City), then New Market, and finally the slums of Knoxville. There, his mother, unable to care for him, placed him in the St. John's Orphanage, operated by the Episcopal Church. When he was nine, young Ben was legally adopted by his father, who named him Hooper and reared him in Newport as a Baptist.^[2]