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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HICKSVILLE VIETNAM WAR ERA MEMORIAL - PROJECT UPDATE

January brought us one new donor and one new name to add to the Confirmed List of Names. However, total donations were at an all time low. I don't think the problem was Holiday spending, since last January we received $755 in new donations and passed the $10,000 milestone in total.

Total donations are now $17,942, about 72% of our $25,000 goal to build, place and maintain the Memorial.

With 171 donors, we have still received donations from less than 10% of the HixNews readership. So, if many of you who have yet to donate can spare as little as $10, we can easily achieve our goal. Please remember, all donations are tax deductible.

An alphabetical list of donors through January, along with details you will need to mail in your donation, can be viewed in this month's MEMORIAL UPDATE in the Honoring Our Veterans section of the newsletter.

The additional new name brings the The Confirmed List of Names to a new total of 1,911. When you visit this month's detailed UPDATE, please remember that clicking on the two links near the bottom of thepage will bring you to the complete Confirmed and Unconfirmed Lists of Names as of the end of January. And, If you have any new information to send us, please email it to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We sure hope the new year is off to a good start for each and every one of you!!

On behalf of the Project Team,
Joe Carfora, Project Coordinator, HHS 1962

Robert Edward Gleason Wesley, 1943-2010

Five 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 travelled 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 travelled 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

Hicksville High School class of '67 Reunion is being planned. But this is the Big One: 50th Reunion. It will be at the Joseph Barry Knights of Columbus, Hicksville. We are starting early to give people time to make plans.

Click here to see the attached flyer for a description of what's in the offing for the weekend and the registration form.

We are asking people to register early and spread the word, Comets '67 to reunite again.

The Newsletter

Photo Gallery

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Memory Lane

Teacher Couples

How many couples can you think of who taught in Hicksville Schools. I had Mr. and Mrs. Howard in 5th grade at Woodland Avenue in the 60's. I don't know if Mrs. Pellerin the music teacher at Woodland was married to Mr. Pellerin the orchestra teacher.

Also, there was a Mrs. Gouse who taught I think 4th grade at Woodland in the early 60s and Mr. Gouse who was head of the music dept? Does anyone remember or know if I am correct?
~ Vicki Berk Mass 1972

Vicki Berk Mass

Dr. Basil Warner and Mrs. Karen Warner, HHS Math.

Had Basil for Calculus, and Karen for Geometry.

A very odd couple!

Also Grace Graiser and Kenneth Graiser, HHS English. They were both great teachers.

~ Carl Feinman 1972

Carl Feinman

David BlaushildDr. Warner looked like WC Fields and told very bad jokes. He was 30 years older than his wife, Karen. ~ David Blaushild 1971

Karen, at one time, was one of his students. ~ Eileen Heym Lutz 1966

They drove in every day from New Jersey. Karen always wore blue...lol... ~ Carl Feinman

Karen Drake McGeeKaren's parents lived across the street from me on Gables Drive. Would see them both there often. They all seemed so sad all the time. The parent's would always yell at the kids in the neighborhood if their ball went into their yard. ~ Karen Drake McGee 1977

I had Dr. Warner for Geometry and Mrs. Warner for something (maybe homeroom) had Mr. Aaron for Trig and that was the end of my mathematical career at HHS. I went on to thrive with Calculus and Statistics through graduate programs. So it was a good solid foundation. ~ Christina Darnowski

Christina Sardi O'DonnellDr and Mrs Warner in the high school. ~ Christina Sardi O'Donnell 1975

Phill Michael UrenaI had Mrs. Warner for geometry and trig. She was a graduate of class of 61 with my sister who knew her. Mr. Warner was one of her teachers. I remember thinking. You're my sisters age about 30 years old, but you dress like my grandmother. She seemed so much older than she actually was. She was nice enough. ~ Phill Michael Urena 1972

Lynne LombardiDr. and Mrs. Warner in HHS. He taught math. I think she did too, but I can't find her in my yearbook. Perhaps she was on sabbatical. ~ Lynne Lombardi 1971

Richard BowraDidn't Dr. Warner own one blue suit that he wore every day? I remember him as a very good teacher. ~ Richard Bowra 1968

Maybe he had several of the same outfit and it appeared that he wore the same outfit every day. ~ Buffalo Bob Casale

Yes to the suit. I had him for AP calculus and thought he was great. She was much younger than he was and there were rumors that she had been his student. ~ Lynne Lombardi 1971

Mr. and Mrs. Pat and Margie D'Ambrosio (taught at Old Country Rd 1953-1985 and was also the district psychologist and she taught at Fork Lane in the 1950s). Also, Hicksville HS English teacher Richard Gentile and his wife, Antoinette Sanna Gentile who was the Italian teacher.Was so funny when rude teenagers used to ask him, "How come you don't have kids?" and he would respond, "Because I'm afraid they might turn out like you!" One time we were reading a short story called "By the Waters of Babylon" and Mr Gentile asked one of the kids they used to call burnouts in the 80s, "So tell me...what do you know about Babylon?" and the kids says, "Not much...but I went there with the bus a few weeks ago."

~ Mary Lombardi Blaney 1986 LMAO

Yes, Vicki. The Pellerin's, the Gouse's, were indeed married couples of the music department. Also, the Abt's. ~ Herb Bradensten 1973

Herb- Who was Mrs. Abt? Which school or subject? ~ Vicki Berk Mass 1972

Don't remember which school but, I believe she was a choral teacher in an elementary school. Hillary Sperber would know in a flash! ~ Herb Bradensten 1973

The Gouses were married. ~ Shari Hinden

I had the Howards. She was Miss Gamzon when she first arrived in 1963. ~ Patricia Cody

I wonder what ever happened to them. I remember the year I had Mrs. Howard she told the class she was "expecting". I guess she was not allowed to say it any other way in those days. ~ Vicki Berk Mass 1972

I remember Mrs. Lynn Breining Carpenter (Art) and Mr. carpenter (Biology). ~ Jeanne Dagna 1977

Forgot about them. Yes, and last I heard they live out east, maybe Riverhead or maybe Greenport. ~ Vicki Berk Mass 1972

Didn't know that. Both great teachers. ~ Christina Darnowski

Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Thinking junior high? He was English and she was maybe Home Ec? ~ Lorraine Jurgens Pilszak

Casale's Corner

Washington's Birthday, February 22, 1967

This day started out as one of the most beautiful days we had during the most uncomfortable winter in California during December 1966 that continued into 1967. Joyce was off from school for this Washington Day holiday and I was off from all my navy duties.

We decided the night before that we would take a day trip to Lake Tahoe. It was a 3-3-1/2  hour trip from our base house on Skaggs Island in Sonoma Valley of California.

We packed a great picnic lunch and loaded it into my Pontiac Lemans, Overhead 6 with 3 speed on the floor. Back in the sixties, I had occasion to drive from New York to California on Interstate 80. At the time, there were no speed limits and there were many straight roads that went for miles. I managed to get the LeMans up to 110 miles per hour until fear struck in. When I dropped back to 70, it felt as though we were moving slowly.

Back to the trip...we took Highway 37 heading for Interstate 80 that was totally snowbound at the higher elevations days prior to our trip but had been cleared. We went through Donner Pass that was named to honor the Donner Party.

The Donner Party (sometimes called the Donner -Reed Party) was a group of American Pioneers led by George Donner and James F. Reed. who set out for California in a wagon train in May 1846. They were delayed by a series of mishaps and mistakes, and spent the winter of 1846-47 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  Some of the pioneers resorted to cannibalism to survive. Of the 87 members of the party, 48 survived to reach California, many of them having eaten the dead for survival.

We arrived at at Highway 89, the exit off I80 that takes you to Tahoe.
Our drive up was uneventful and we arrived at our destination, the Coast Guard piers at Lake Tahoe.

We were greeted with huge mounds of snow surrounding the piers but found a pier that was blanketed with a layer of fresh fallen  snow.

We found a dry spot at the end of the walkway leading to the pier and set up our lunchtime feast!

As the sun was setting over Lake Tahoe, Joyce and I headed back to Skaggs Island.