High-achieving Fostoria class set for 60th reunion

FOSTORIA — Baby Boomers, over time since their birth years of 1946 through 1964, have been characterized as highly motivated, goal-oriented people valuing job achievement and self-sufficiency while maintaining both optimistic and realistic outlooks. The first group of Boomers, who finished high school in 1964, made for "perhaps the most accomplished class of students that graduated from Fostoria High School," one of those alumni, Richard Markoff, said in an email to the Review Times from his home in the Indianapolis suburb of Carmel, Indiana. And members of that proud class are scheduled to observe a 60-year reunion next Friday and Saturday in their hometown that will not only include gatherings over meals, attendance at an FHS football game and an abundance story-swapping, but a pair of sessions at Kaubisch Memorial Public Library in which citizens may learn of many accomplishments that had their roots in Fostoria. Markoff, current Fostoria Mayor Don Mennel and 1964 graduates Browning Payne, Marty Talbert Gwynn and Lyndell Martin Work were part of the core of putting the upcoming weekend's activities in motion, Markoff said. "I'm not sure how you quantify that or qualify that because you don't have all of the statistics to really do the measurements," Mennel said in regard to Markoff's assessment of their class being "perhaps the most accomplished" to emerge from FHS. "But, by virtue of the fact that we were the first Baby-Boomer class – you know, we were born in 1946, following World War II – we were one of the largest classes to come through, and as a result of that, we were a very competitive class." Mennel, like two others who are considered classmates, did not actually graduate from Fostoria High School, as they completed their secondary educations elsewhere. In Mennel's case, after completing the eighth grade in Fostoria, he graduated from a private school in Connecticut before returning to Fostoria and became the fourth of five generations that have headed The Mennel Milling Company. But he, Markoff and others who attended school together have remained in touch as their whereabouts have varied and know of the various achievements that have come about from a graduating class that numbered 217. "Rick Markoff has done very, very well in the area of philanthropy and fundraising and has authored a book on fundraising," Mennel said. "Rex Pingle has done very well in the financial world. And I actually used Rex and picked Rex's brain and had him as a director at The Mennel Milling Company for several years. Several of the classmates ended up making the military their career. Two of the classmates ended up as partners in Washington, D.C., law firms. ... One was a newspaper editor. Some of the girls were very successful in nursing and education." Said Markoff in his email: "Members of the class attained the highest of leadership in business, law, medicine, education, nonprofits, athletics and so much more. Twenty percent of the class (40 men and one woman) joined the military (many saw duty in Vietnam) and six members (five men and one woman) joined the ministry." As it's been said many times, Father Time is undefeated. And that knowledge fueled the desire for the reunion, Markoff said. "A communication I got maybe at the end of last year or the beginning of this year sort of indicated this may be the last time that we have a full-blown reunion for this class," he said. "So, I've been working with Don Mennel – he and I grew up together – and other people and we decided that we wanted to do something special, especially if this were the last time that we all formally got together. ... And, if we were going to get together one last official time, we wanted not only to get as many of those people back together, but to be able to share with the community a set of role models, hopefully for people who are attending Fostoria schools now and in the future, as to what can be accomplished. "A lot of people say, you know, 'Well, it's Fostoria, Ohio.' Well, we said, 'Because of Fostoria, Ohio, we were able to succeed and we'd like to share that with as many people as we could." The sessions at Kaubisch Memorial Public Library are scheduled for 1 and 2 p.m., and are open to the public. The first program will focus on the military, first responders and service to the United States, with Rand Allen, Bill Markle, Joe McNeil, Lauren Reed and Mike Strausbaugh speaking. The 2 p.m. program on class of 1964 success stories will feature speakers Scott Evenbeck, Sandra Haldeman Markle, Glenn Ogden, Peggy Fruth Burns, Linda Lee Boos for John Boos, Howie Firestine for Jim Hauser, Bill Haworth, Dr. Ron Hainen, Lauren Reed for Cecil Jackson, Sandy Kentris Wolph, Markoff, Pingle and Mennel. The classmates are scheduled to meet for dinner Friday at the Geary Family YMCA Annex and, at 7 p.m., may sit in a reserved area at Memorial Stadium for the Fostoria vs. Toledo Woodward football game. A mayor's breakfast is slated for the following morning in Fostoria Junior/Senior High School's Legacy Hall, with a tour of the school included, as well as music provided by classmate Bill Haworth, who has played piano and organ with the likes of Count Basie, Henry Mancini and Beverly Sills. A bus tour of Fostoria in the late morning will include stops at The Mennell Milling Company corporate headquarters, the YMCA and the Fostoria Learning Center. "We want our classmates to be able to see all of the good things that are once again beginning to take place in Fostoria," Markoff said. "We're excited about Don Mennel's leadership. We're excited about coming back and just enjoying each other's company in a place that was a great place to grow up." Capping off the day will be a catered reunion dinner at the BANKquet Hall. "It'll be interesting to hear the stories – and there will be a lot of them," Mennel said. Both Mennel and Markoff said they're happy to know that while they may have moved away, many of their classmates continue to care about their hometown. "I think one of the nice things about the class is we have a willingness to continue to support Fostoria," Markoff said. "You take a look at what Don Mennel and Mennel Milling has done in the way of scholarships for students at Fostoria High School. My family – my younger brother and my younger sister and I created a fund for giving scholarships to Fostoria High School students who represent all the great values that my parents had. That is a special trait of the class – we've never been afraid to give back to our home community."Said Mennel: "The way I look at it, Fostoria is not a town of 14,000 people; it's a town of 50,000 people because we've got graduates all over the world who have considered this their hometown and it's still the one that pulls their heartstrings. I see that over and over. Some of these guys will send in $100 to support this cause or that cause within the city. They don't have to. They don't live here. But they still do it. Fostoria, when you boil it all down – I know we have our critics, but it's a great place to live and it's a great place to raise a family. It's a very safe community. It's a very comfortable town."