50 years later: Alumni return to St. Raymond’s in East Rockaway

Alumni from St. Raymond’s Parochial School’s class of 1968 poured into their former school on June 9 for their 50th reunion. There, they toured the school, looked at old photos from when they attended classes in the building and were presented with a banner from the class of 2018. The former basketball players also ran around the gym like they did when they were students at the school.

“There was a nice, easy feel to it,” said Francis McQuade, the reunion chairman.

McQuade said that during the course of the night, the 50 alumni who attended the reunion reminisced about their time at the school and told one another about significant moments in their lives since they graduated. “There was a dynamic we couldn’t believe,” he said. “People who hadn’t seen each other in years just really gelled.”

The reunion was scheduled to end at 7 p.m., but McQuade said he and his former peers stayed at the school until around 9. “We didn’t want to get out of that place,” he said. “I think a number of us will stay in touch.”

The reunion took a year to plan, according to McQuade. He said that the organizing began when three people on the reunion committee each contacted five classmates whom they remained friendly with. Those classmates then contacted five others, enabling the committee to track down 115 graduates of the class of 138, but not everyone chose to attend.

“Only 15 are still ‘MIA’ and we have heard that eight of our classmates have died,” alumnus John Hildebrand said.

Among the 50 that went to the reunion, were alumni from Texas, Georgia, Delaware and Massachusetts. They had not seen their former school in years, but still made a donation. “I thought it was nice that they chose to come back home,” said Sister Ruthanne Gypalo, a teacher at the school for the past 32 years.