www.goldentechites.org 1 January 2020

A Golden Future for All Techites!

GoldenTechite

A Chronicle of McKinley Tech Alumni Celebrating More than 50 Years Since Graduation

O n January 1, 2020, the Golden Techites (GT) will have merged with the McKinley Tech Alumni Association (MTAA) This

can be the best of both worlds as the GT will still be recognized and involved with the Annual GT Reunion Luncheon held the first Saturday in October, as well as the MTAA’s Annual Picnic held the second Saturday in June and the Annual MTAA Scholarship Dinner Dance held the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

The Golden Techites will assist in maintaining the membership records to ensure the privacy and custody of these records. In addition, no exchange of money has been nor will be made by the Golden Techites. The funds will be used to publish the January 2020 newsletter, to maintain the GT website for a limited period and to continue the annual GT Scholarship until the funds are depleted. Nothing but harmony and transparency has evolved in this new relationship with the MTAA.

Memories of Old Tech are still vibrant and alive. Everytime I enter the building, memories are relived as Tech was and still is a “home” to me. Around January 15, 2020, documents, stories, memories and other memorabilia will be displayed in the McKinley Technology High School Museum, located in the Memorial Hall above the plaza entrance of the school. If you have anything to add to the museum, please contact me at tomantonielli@icloud.com.

It has been my pleasure to coordinate all activities of the Golden Techites over the past five years. The success has not come from me but from all of the present and past board mem-bers and many volunteers who actively and lovingly participated. They love Old Tech as much and more than I. Again, thank you for the privilege.

“Tech is the school for me, it suits me to a T.”

Fondly,Tom Antonielli, Class of 1953

E ffective January 2020, the Golden Techites “GT” have

merged with the McKinley Tech Alumni Association “MTAA”. I’d like to welcome all current and future members to the Alumni Association. We are excited about the merger of both organizations into one “MTAA/GT”. I trust that this letter finds you mutually excited as we are.

Each of us plays an important role in ensuring the continued success of the upcoming graduating seniors of McKinley Tech High School; therefore, we will continue all activities as stated in previous communications, such as the GT Annual Reunion Luncheon along with the Annual Scholarship Dinner Dance. These events assist us in awarding MTAA Scholarships to graduating seniors and support the school in purchasing equipment, sup-plies, uniforms, etc.

We’re anticipating even more growth as classmates move towards 50 plus years of graduating from McKinley.

Again, welcome to the MTAA/ GT Team!!!!

Sherry Brock Stanard Class of 1980President, MTAA/GT

Golden Techite 2 January 2020

GOLDEN TECHITE

Highlights of the

56th ReunionT he 2019 Reunion Luncheon was held on October

5th at Martin’s Crosswinds, Beltsville, MD with 100 Golden Techites and guests. Principal Dr. Louise Jones was the honored speaker. Sherry Stanard, President of the McKinley Tech Alumni Association, MTAA, was introduced by Golden Techites President Tom Antonielli

to speak on the transition of the Golden Techites to the MTAA. The 2020 Golden Techites Reunion Luncheon will be held on Saturday, October 3rd. Principal Jones has suggested that the 57th Golden Techites Reunion be held at the high school. What a fabulous idea for so many who have not been back to the school in many years.

www.goldentechites.org 3 January 2020

GOLDEN TECHITE

The Golden Techites Committee thanks all graduates who share and carry on the traditions and friendship established through the years at McKinley Tech/Technology High School.

Golden Techite 4 January 2020

GOLDEN TECHITE

Class Notes1951 Dorothy “Dottie” Mateer Seyfried has a new

address: 300 Jerico Turnpike, The Encore — Apt. 325, Jericho, NY 11753-1164

Bill Butler has funded a scholarship in memory of Barbara Wiggins Butler, 1951, for an outstanding student in Tech’s English Department.

1952 Jim Gallagher was unable to attend the reunion this year, but he had the Chicken and Crab meal delivered to his rehab center by Jackie McCordic Gallagher. You can reach Jim at 15127 Line Rd Delmar, DE 19940-4120.

1953 Sherry Miller Hughes, (760) 345-9030 or sherryhughes@cox.net

1956 Carol Lummus Francis, Inactive Status

Welcome to New Golden Techites!

1968 Penelope Myers Brooks, p.b1950@hotmail.com

Barbara McCoy, mccoyB@law.edu

1969 Adele Dubose Myles, p.b1950@hotmail.com

PLEASE SEND ALL CHANGES IN YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION TO BILL BUTLER,

6341 WATERWAY DRIVE, FALLS CHURCH, VA 22044 OR BY EMAIL TO BILLBUTLERTECH@AOL.COM.

Tech Made Its Mark in DC Basketball

M cKinley Tech gets wide coverage in John McNamara’s last book, The Capital of Basketball: A History of DC Area High

School Hoops. The author’s life was cut short on June 28, 2018, when he and four of his colleagues were murdered at the Annapolis Capital’s offices by a gunman who blasted his way into the newsroom. His wife, Andrea Campbell, found the files for this book, electronic and on paper, and that gave her a sense of purpose to have him remembered as a sportswriter.

Throughout the book, high school basketball gets the recognition it deserves. Page after page tracks the early days from 1892 when basketball was introduced to the Washington area. Play was modified here by the concept of five-man teams, fast breaks, and pugnacious defense that began and flourished in the nation’s capital. Basketball may have been born in Springfield, Massachusetts but it was adopted and raised in Washington.

McKinley Tech, the predecessor to the current school, is first mentioned for housing the first DC gymnasium in 1908. After that Tech is mentioned 177 times throughout the book. Within those sections, one period of time, the early 1950s, singles out Tech’s teams. Here’s a portion of the Tech story from the book:

“Schoolboy basketball,” as the newspapers patron-izingly referred to it, was about to become a very big deal. A group of eager, hustling kids from McKinley Technical High School in Northeast Washington was about to establish a new standard for excellence in their still largely ignored sport.

Even though the school itself was just two miles up North Capitol Street from the seat of our nation’s government, the families of those children who went there were hardly Washington insiders. For the most part, McKinley parents were the truck drivers, the laborers, and the clerks who helped keep the gears of the city turning. From these modest circumstances sprang an extraordinary high school basketball team, on whose body of work rivals anything produced in the decades since. The Trainers, as McKinley’s teams were called starting in 1950, won three straight Inter-High titles and three straight championships in the Metropolitan Tournament, which essentially

www.goldentechites.org 5 January 2020

GOLDEN TECHITE

— Leadership — 2020

Tom Antonielli, 1953 President and Historian

Vacant 1st Vice President

Mary Powers Dent, 1955 Immediate Past President

Doretta Patterson Giannetti, 1952

Treasurer

Elaine Grabiner Pearl, 1950 Recording Secretary

Bill Butler, 1951 Roster Secretaries

Editor and Webmaster

George Izumi, 1957 Scholarship Chairman

Articles are welcome, but may be edited to fit space. You may write, call the editor or send e-mails to billbutlertech@aol.com.

Bill Butler 6341 Waterway Drive,

Falls Church, VA 22044 703-585-3514

determined the area-wide champion. The Trainers also ran off a then-record 38 straight victories.

The starters-all-around star Stan Kernan, lefty point guard “Babe” Marshall, long-range set shooter Bill Breen, center Frank Sullivan, and role player Joe Caw were collectively known as the “Fabulous Five.” The nickname still means something more than 60 years later to Washingtonians of a certain age.

If ever there was a team you could have magically transported out of Washington, DC, and dropped into the middle of some makeshift dirt court in basketball-crazy Indiana, it was the McKinley squad of the early 1950s. Nobody would have known the difference. It was a group straight out of the film Hoosiers.

Only a couple members of the Fabulous Five were able to crack the regular rotation as sophomores during the 1949–50 season. Breen and Kernan played more and more as the season wore on, although Tony Sgro was the team’s established star. Sgro scored 20 points, while Kernan added nine and Breen eight in a 57–41 win over the Eastern Ramblers for the Inter-High championship that year. Breen’s modest total of 10 points led the way as McKinley edged St. John’s, 35–32, for the Metropolitan Tournament crown.

The next year Breen, Kernan, Marshall, Caw, and Sullivan were back together again in the McKinley starting lineup, and “low” scores of the previous year became a thing of the past. The Trainers gave a hint of what was to come early in the 1950–51 season, routing the DeMatha Stags, 87–49, and then blasting the Bullis School Bulldogs, 75–53. Despite a loss to the American University Eagles’ freshman team, McKinley was ranked No. 1 in the first prep poll released in the new year.

Only the Metropolitan Tournament remained.The team needed three more victories to close out an undefeated campaign

and a third straight season as the metro area champions. It wasn’t easy. The team that had provided very little drama during its remarkable run seemed to save all the excitement for the end. After getting a scare from the Montgomery Blair Blazers in the opening round, McKinley Tech trailed by seven with four minutes to go in the tournament final against its old nemesis from across the river, George Washington. But Tech, which hadn’t been in many pressure situations handled this one with aplomb. Reserve Don DeAtley, all of five foot seven, snuck inside for a key tap-in down the stretch. Then Kernan tied the game on a free throw with 37 seconds left. The teams remained even through the three-minute overtime before Kernan tapped in a miss that dropped through the net at the buzzer for a 58–56 victory.

The McKinley fans among the capacity crowd of nearly 4,000 people at Ritchie Coliseum streamed from the stands to hoist Kernan and his mates on their shoulders. He’d scored 30 points in the tournament final — matching the earlier brilliant performance of GWHS star Bob Kessler — including the game winner at the buzzer. Kernan had been responsible for many of the 38 victories during the record streak, but he had saved what might have been his best performance for last. “That’s a heck of a way to end your high school career,” Kernan agreed.

Editor’s Note: This excellent book, The Capital of Basketball: A History of DC Area High School Hoops, is available at leading bookstores and at Amazon.com.

Golden Techite 6 January 2020

GOLDEN TECHITE

I N M E M O R I A M(Recent and Recently Reported)

1931Joseph A. Smith, 7/7/2019

1935August M Tolzman Jr, 2/22/2019

1938Maizie McCord (Smith), 6/9/2019

Josephine (Jo) Merrill (Stafford), 5/4/2019

1941Ethel Cotsonis (Lagos), 7/15/2019

1942Mildred Martufi (White), 3/21/2019

1943Patricia Hickok (Brill), 5/28/2019

Ida McKenney (Grigg), 4/9/2019

1944Thomas French, 3/20/2019

1945Starling Alsop, 12/12/2018

Alfred Raphelson, 6/13/2019

Jean Waller (Wilson), 8/14/2019

James Watkins, 7/18/2019

1947Charles Marshall, 3/17/2019

1948Lee Derkay, 6/16/2019

Roland Dixon, 3/9/2019

Barbara Kluge (Richie), 5/27/2019

Eleanor Matthesius (Clark), 4/17/2019

Wilfred Ufkes, 11/4/2019

1949William (Bill) DeLaVergne, 6/20/2019

Henry Koenig, 3/5/2019

William Michael, Sr., 6/29/2019

Ellen Sugar, 2/20/2019

1950Kenneth Davis, 11/13/2019

Myles C Kaye, 2/12/2019

Al Moffat, 5/3/2019

Betty Lee Rutledge Nagro, 4/19/2017

Gilbert Ousley, Jr., 12/30/2016

Irene Zimmers Saul, 9/13/2013

Faye Simons (Clark), 9/11/2019

Jean Edward Smith, 9/1/2019

David Yost, 6/21/2019

1951Richard “Lynn” Carroll, 5/22/2019

Biagio (Ben) Colandreo, Sr, 4/23/2019

Delten Houstman, 2/13/2019

Carolyn Prentice (Harris), 10/16/2019

Elaine Smith (Lilja), 3/24/2019

1952John Carr, 4/29/2019

Nancy Schellin (Pararas), 2/23/2019

1953June Quigley (Gordon), 1/4/2019

Dorothy Thomas (Morgan), 3/29/2019

1954Cora (Cori) Boyce (Thompson), 2/3/2019

Ruth Schiebel (Hall), 3/1/2019

1956Bobby Blue, 9/3/2019

Karlota “Kari” Koester, 6/27/2019

1958Donald (Don) Weisfeld, 7/8/2019

1966Carmen Gillmore (Scott), 4/9/2019

1968Jeffery Hasbrouck, 2/12/2019

Find obituaries and other information at www.goldentechites.org

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GOLDEN TECHITE

Class Representatives 2019–2020Daniel Dove 1946 Grad 11707 Roby Avenue Beltsville, MD 20705-1509 Phone: 301-937-3031 Email: jddov@aol.com

Richard Gross 1947 Grad 12207 Stonebridge Lane #103 Chester, VA 23836-7007 Phone: 804-715-3045 Cell: 941-468-1376 Email: rg12207va@gmail.com

William (Bill) Alexander* 1950 Grad 27086 Old Office Road Culpeper, VA 22701-8800 Phone: 703-930-0667 Email: BusterAlex32@gmail.com

John Hoffsommer* 1950 Grad 12805 Lacy Drive Silver Spring, MD 20904-2917 Phone: 301-622-6434 Cell: 301-633-1668 Email: jhoffsomme@aol.com

David Paulson 1950 Grad 5400 Vantage Point Road, Apt. 801 Columbia, MD 21044 Phone: 410-992-1186 Email: d2244p@yahoo.com

Doretta (Patterson) Giannetti 1952 Grad 10902 Bornedale Drive Adelphi, MD 20783-1009 Phone: 301-937-6918 Cell: 301-466-2199 Email: dgiannetti10@me.com

Joan (Gallagher) Schoshinski 1953 Grad Garrett Park, MD 20896-0318 Phone: 301-933-8363 Cell: 301-675-2396 Email: jgscho@aol.com

Eleanor (Dodder) Pernia 1954 Grad 3112 Gracefield Road, PV-121 Silver Spring, MD 20904 Phone: 301-273-9317 Cell: 240-605-1125 Email: dancer- eleanor@gmail.com

Doris (Rocker) Wiedmann 1955 Grad 7839 Anson Court Springfield, VA 22152 Phone: 703-569-5876 Cell: 703-505-5047 Email: cliffiesmom@ verizon.net

Mary (Powers) Dent* 1955 Grad 6330 Bryantown Drive Bryantown, MD 20617 Phone: 301-274-3212 Cell: 301-751-0092 Email: mpdent1010@ gmail.com

Ruth Ann (Rogers) Graninger 1956 Grad 81 Robinhood Trail, Ocean Pines Berlin, MD 21811 Phone: 443-699-5889 Email: ruthannegraninger@ gmail.com

George I. Izumi* 1957 Grad 1743 Hickory Knoll Road Sandy Spring, MD 20860-1312 Phone: 240-328-6185 Cell: 301-980-9133 Email: gizumi517@ gmail.com

*past presidents

Glee Clubs

I t might be of interest to fellow Techites that one of the first locally produced TV shows featured Tech’s

own Boys and Girls Glee Clubs. That was December of 1947 (the last Christmas at Tech for us ‘48ers).

The brand new (and only local) TV Station, WTTG, channel 5, invited us all to perform our Holiday Concert at their station! For LIVE TV! In previous years, we used to perform for Bill Hearson’s radio show on WRC,

Television was so new at the time that my folks did not even own a TV set: We had to go to the home of some friends I used to baby-sit for. My Grandfather had come to town from Nebraska to spend Christmas with us, This was the first time he ever saw TV.

And that same year we were invited to “sing for our supper” at the home of Marjorie Merriweather Post at her mansion Tregaron (now Washington International School). This was after she and her husband, Ambassador Joseph Davies, acquired the priceless Russian treasures now on display in her next home, Hillwood. We were somewhat interested in the historic things, but what we were really fascinated by was that her cat knew how to use the human toilet.

Thought you might want to include this in the memories of the Class of ‘48.

Thanks for all your work to keep us all in touch with our special time at Tech!

Maurine Brandt Mink ‘48Springfield, VA and Naples, FL

Golden TechiteBill Butler6341 Waterway DriveFalls Church, VA 22044

Golden Techite

January 2020 Vol. 27, No. 1

Annual Golden Techite Reunion Luncheon

Saturday, October 3, 2020, 11:00 am–3:30 pmMartin’s Crosswinds, Greenbelt, MD

Martin’s Crosswinds7200 Hanover Drive

Greenbelt, MD 20770

Reservation Form and Hotel information will be in the June 2019 Golden Techite newsletter.

Mark Your Calendar!

Information in the Golden Techite publications is intended for members only and is not to be used without express authorization in writing from the Editor.

Design and printing provided by MOSAIC in Cheverly, MD · www.mosaic.buzz