Thomaston High School - Owl Yearbook (Thomaston, CT)

Page 12 text:

Superintendent s Message Thomaston High School has as its main purpose the provision of a quality educational program, within which framework all students may become all they are capable of being. It seeks to achieve this goal by being a school in which intellectual training, business and vocational skills and breadth of understanding are sought. Perhaps more important, many of your courses involved emphasis on moral sensitivity and commitment to goals. Our schools always endeavored to help you develop the ability to make critical and independent judgments, and to act as responsible citizens within our society. We desperately need your ability and fervor in these difficult times of riots, dramatic increases of new knowledge, rapid shifts in concepts of morality, unemployment, poverty, and persuasive forces for peace and equality. Your education received from T.H.S. teachers, many of whom were very responsive by trusting you, listening to you, and letting you know in many ways that they cared deeply about you, should help you to meet the complex challenges of the times. DR. MARVIN YAFFE MR. HERBERT DeVEBER Principal’s Message You, the SENIOR CLASS of Thomaston High School, have a particular challenge as you graduate this June 1969. The question of the way to properly voice and show dissent is now at a critical point. You not only need to understand this action but help move it in the right direction. What is this right direction and why should you follow it? Recent campus demonstrations showed that the first loss under unrestrained anarchy is a man’s freedom. When a meeting is in a state of uproar, no one can be heaid. When a handful of students riot, the rights of all students are abused. Someone recently said, “In the future when I defend to the death anyone’s right to be heard, I’m going to make sure he’s not trying to muzzle mine.” The right direction cannot allow any individual to defy, to violate, to discard. to destroy and never offer constructive changes. It cannot allow the individual to mistake the lack of responsibility for freedom and ignorance for honesty. It must recognize civil rights, but equally so civil responsibilities. A free society has the right to expect its citizens to act as responsible adults. Perhaps you will want to go more than half way in this right direction and lead others with you. A humorist once observed, “People are usually willing to meet each other half way; trouble is, most people are poor judges of distance.” As a class you have stepped forward more than half way several times. As individual seniors I know many of you have moved successfully in this positive direction. Soon you will be separated. Some of you will join other groups in other places. Each of you should be ready to stand up and be counted. A Mr. Dorr once stated, “Confront improper conduct, not by retaliation. but b example. The continuance of our free society depends upon your taking this direction of responsible action. Congratulations to each of you on your achievements so far. May I wish you success with your future plans. It has been a privilege to help guide you through your secondary school years. Together with all your teachers I look forward to having you reach your goals and contribute of your talents to your fellow men. Herbert W. DeVeber g Principal

Page 11 text:

ADMINISTRA TION and FACULTY You walk into the room, With your pencil in your hand . .. You try so hard, But you don’t understand . . . “Bob Dylan”

Page 13 text:

Row 1, Lejt to Right: Mrs. Agnes White, Mr. George Benedict, Mr. Keale Lcmicux, Mr. Edward Landers; Row 2: William Berg, Mr. Frank Dayton, Mr. Walter Kloss, Mr. Paul Tracy MR. RAYMOND RYAN Danbury State College New York Univ. MR. BARRY GALE Brandeis Fairfield Univ. Univ. of Miami PATRICIA McGAUGHAN Marymount College Boston College ETHEL JOHNSON Principal’s Secretary JOAN ZELIFF Principal’s Secretary JANE O’BRIEN Guidance Secretary MR. LUCAS PASQUARIELLO Amherst College New York University GRACE MASON Superintendent’s Secretary MILDRED THOMPSON Superintendent’s Secretary BEATRICE FULLER Librarian LUCILLE MATHES School Nurse 9