Project Lawrence is dedicated to the friends who were part of the MAA program at Lawrence Grade School in Springfield, Illinois for 4th grade (1963-64 school year) taught by Mrs. Mary Story, 5th grade (1964-65) taught by Mrs. Carr, or 6th grade (1965-66) taught by Mrs. Eugenia "Genie" Small. (I don't recall Mrs. Carr's first name. Someone please help me by emailing me the answer.) This page helps those friends to stay in touch with each other at 40 years' distance and more.
The MAA program would today be labeled a magnet school program or something similar. We were drawn from several different schools and put together at Lawrence (now an adult education center). I had earlier attended Dodds-Blackhawk (two schools, one old—Dodds—and one new—Blackhawk—two short blocks apart under one administration) and Hay-Edwards schools (one school originally built in the early 1900s that was then enlarged and given a second name some years later). Blackhawk is still a grade school, Dodds is a special education center, and Hay-Edwards is now a state office building.
I was delighted to find when I started 4th grade at Lawrence in September 1963 that there were students from both of my previous schools in our class at Lawrence, and so I knew about half the students in the class right from the start. We would lose a few students each year when folks moved away, and we would gain a few students each year as well, but most of us were together from 4th through 6th grades. In late 1998, I began to organize a reunion of that 6th grade class.
The idea did not originate with me but came from one of my classmates, Richard Eckerstrom, who after graduating from Yale with a degree in business attended Columbia in New York City for a master's degree. He still lives in New York now, heading up a business that he founded after he graduated from Columbia. When I was in New York for a conference in 1991, I met Richard for lunch and asked if he was planning to come to our 20th high school class reunion in the summer of 1992. He said that he might, but that he would be much more interested in attending a reunion of our 6th grade class. Something clicked inside me. What a great idea! I resolved then to follow through on Rich's wonderful idea. It took me a lot longer than I had originally anticipated to get around to organizing the reunion, but I finally did.
I agreed with Richard that our 6th grade class had been very special to me, too. My classmates from that time were some of the best people I've ever known, the best friends I've ever had. The only other groups of people who mean as much to me are my high school buddies (perhaps the original "Geek Squad," some of whom were together at Lawrence), my college buddies, and my Brothers from Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, especially my pledge brothers, and especially especially the original "Dirty Dozen" (there's a story there, but you're not going to hear it!), but also all the other 800 or so young men who passed through the fraternity while I was there as their adviser after graduating.
The spark that got me started again on organizing a reunion was the Christmas pageant in December 1998 at Wesley United Methodist Church at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, my home church. Seeing the kids in that pageant reminded me of the pageants I had been part of in grade school, especially those at Lawrence. I was reminded of Richard's idea and so I began to work.
There were 29 students in our 6th grade class. I was able to find and contact 20 of them, 21 including me. I also confirmed with great sadness that one of our classmates, Kara Bealmer, had passed on. I could not find any information about the remaining seven at that time thought I have since located two of them, reducing to five the number of classmates for whom I have no contact information. I sent out a letter describing the idea to the other 20. Fourteen said that they would come, and 11 eventually showed up at our reunion in Washington Park in Springfield on Sunday September 5, 1999, which was just by chance very close to 33 and 1/3 years since we had graduated from 6th grade in May 1966. Accordingly, I called it our "One-Third Century Reunion."
We held another reunion on June 30, 2007, a sub-reunion to the 35th reunion of the 1972 graduating class (and here's another reunion link) of Springfield High School, Springfield, Illinois, which most of us went on to attend after our time at Lawrence and then at Franklin Junior High or Grant Junior High.
I cannot imagine a life that does not include all my friends from all the parts of my life. Every friend is a friend for life. Thank you for being my friends. Thank you for being my life.
By the way, here's a fun fact—When we were practicing for our Christmas pageant in December 1965, principal photography began on the brilliant Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Spacy Odyssey, which was released in the fall of 1968 when we were freshmen in high school, that is, nearly 40 years ago. Sigh.
And it was a version of our 1965 Christmas pageant that we sang that December for Ray Page, the Illinois State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and some dignitaries at the old Heritage House Smorgasbord restaurant on South 6th Street in December or so of 1965. Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Small were so proud of us. One of Mr. Page's minions handed each of us a small gift as we left, a gold-colored pen stamped with the words "Ray Page Thanks You!", no doubt left over from some political campaign. Wrapped in cellophane and tied with holiday-colored ribbon, it looked to me at first like a cigar. ("Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."—Sigmund Freud)
I have tentatively set our next reunion for the summer of 2010. That is when I shall graduate from med school, and I would love to celebrate that event with all my friends from Lawrence. Let's see ... In 2010, we'll all be about 56 years old (except for Bob Barker, who skipped a grade and is therefore a year younger than the rest of us). Good! That's still way too young to retire, and still not too old to start a new career! ;-)
Here are some photos of our class and individuals from it circa 1963-66, our reunion in 1999, our reunion in 2007, and some more recent photos, too. If you have more photos that you would like to share, either photos of youth or more recent photos, please feel free to email them to me. If they are older photos, scan them and then email the digital version.
