University High School

Bloomington, Indiana

Class of 1956

'56 Contact:   Debbie Walden Hudelson
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01 Apr 2024 With the help of the recently released 1950 Census data, we find that the following members of the Class of 1955 have died:
John Marion "Jack" Barnes, of Bloomington, January 6, 2016; 7th & 8th grades.
Walter Nelson Barnes, of Naples, Florida, October 21, 2008; 4th grade only, graduated from BHS.
Betty Lou Cooper Bennett Hanna Van Dyke, of Bloomington, May 20, 2012; 7th through 9th grades.
Warren Glenn Davis, Jr, of Lakeland, Florida, April 28, 2023; 4th grade only.
Willie Owen "Billy" Harmon, of Springville, Indiana, August 15, 1993; 7th & 8th grades.
William Russell "Bill" Hodges, of Ellettsville, Indiana, June 3, 2020; 7th through 9th grades.
Patricia Ann "Patty" Mueller Strohmeyer, of Lake County, California, March 21, 1995; 5th grade only.
Clifford Earl Van Hook Hurst, of Bloomington, October 23, 1993; 7th & 8th grades. Van Hook in school, later adopted by his stepfather Hurst.
16 Mar 2024 James Alvin Yale, of Gunnison, Colorado, died February 21, 2021. His Find-A-Grave page contains a photo, but no obituary.
05 Feb 2024 Jerry Olen Krebbs died in Bloomington on January 31, 2024. A Find-A-Grave page has been created, but the photo and obituary will not be visible for 3 months.
11 Apr 2023 Joan Rice Mitchener died April 4, 2023, in Bloomington. A Find-A-Grave page has been created.
24 Mar 2023 Libra Jan Cleveland Gysel, of Atlantic Beach, Florida, died February 6, 2023. She started at U-School in Kindergarten in '45-'46, with the Class of '58. By 1948, she had moved ahear one class, and was with the Class of '57. She moved ahead another grade during high school, and graduated with the Class of '56.
A Find-A-Grave page has been created, but most of the data will not be visible for 3 months.
13 Mar 2023 Kenneth William Sparks, of Bloomington, died March 3, 2023. A Find-A-Grave page has been created, but most data will not be visible for 3 months, per Find-A-Grave's new rules.
02 Nov 2022 Morris Owen Stivers, Sr of Solsberry, Indiana, died October 22, 2022. A Find-A-Grave page has been created.
24 Nov 2021 Richard Charles "Dick" or "Rich" Berrett, of Bloomington, died November 4, 2021. A photo and obituary are on his Find-A-Grave page. He was with the Class of '55 in some Jordannuses, and graduated with the Class of '56.
23 Mar 2020 Ray Lee George died in Freedom, Indiana, on March 20, 2020. A photo and obituary are on his Find-A-Grave page.
11 Dec 2019 James Robert "Bob" Foster died in Bloomington on December 2, 2019. A photo and obituary are on his Find-A-Grave page.
02 Jul 2019 Howard Houshour died in Columbus, Indiana, on July 2, 2019. An obituary is on his Find-A-Grave page.
17 Jun 2019 From examination of Jordannuses from '46 through '56, 113 more people who attended UHS at one time or another have been added to the database. Most of these are listed below as "misssing." However, Max Junior Butcher is known deceased. A Find-A-Grave page has been created.
25 Feb 2019 The daughter of Marilyn Joan Bartlett McCart contacted us recently. They lost her '56 Jordannus in a fire and would like to replace it. Please contact Dave Gray if you have one available.
24 Feb 2019 Eunice May Callahan Tate of Bloomington died February 19, 2019. An obituary & photo are on her Find-A-Grave page.
12 Feb 2019 Peggy Jo Peterson Bender, of Bloomington, died February 10, 2019. An obituary & photo are on her Find-A-Grave page.
17 May 2018 Laura King died May 6, 2018 in San Francisco, California. An obituary is on her Find-A-Grave page.
25 Apr 2018 From an extensive search of Ancestry.com data, we find that Martha Lou Fleener Meadows Morrow, of Indianapolis, died October 1, 1991.
28 Mar 2018 Marta Petoe Berglund died March 28, 2015, in Denver, Colorado.
Several e-mail addresses have been updated, thanks to Debbie Walden Hudelson. Also, a classmate who was not in the database has been added: Hilda Eads Elkins.
25 Mar 2018 From an extensive search of the Social Security Death Index and Find-A-Grave, the following members of the Class of '56 have died.
Judith Kay Campbell Kay, of Oceanside, California, on March 9, 2010.
Willie Doris Kirk Chambers, of South Bend, Indiana, on December 6, 2010.
Janna Zoe Peake Hjelm, of Arden Hills, Minnesota, on April 15, 2017. An obituary is on her Find-A-Grave page.
Also, we believe the following members of the Class of '56 have died. If anyone can confirm or knows otherwise, please let Dave Gray '65 know.
Janet Clair Crabtree Sutton, last known address Lawrenceville, Georgia. There is a Janet C Sutton in SSDI, born Sep 30 1938 and died Jan 20 2014, but no state of issue & no last residence listed. This may be her.
Raymond Harold JohnsonThere is a Find-A-Grave page (132743460) for this person, born Mar. 9, 1937 and died Nov. 10, 2008, and buried in Florida National Cemetery. The page does not have enough information to confirm it is Raymond Harold Johnson of this class, whose last known address was Petaluma, California.
15 Feb 2018 Edna Louise Covey Lewis, died February 9, 2018. There is an obituary on her Find-A-Grave page, mentioning that she attended University School through the primary grades, but not secondary. She is in class photos in the 1951 (7th grade) and 1952 (8th grade) Jordannus.
27 Dec 2017 Becky Sue Hollis Nalley died on December 22, 2017. An obituary is on her Find-A-Grave page. The obituary mentioned that her sister, Jane Ann Hollis Clinger, also Class of '56, had predeceased her.
10/3/11 The class of 56 is having a 55th reunion on Friday night November 4, 2011. It will be at JB's hangar again. We had such fun at the 50th - why not! If you are interested and haven't received any information, email dhudelso@sbcglobal.net or call Amy Zore at 812 325 2596. This will be a casual pizza party the night before the all school reunion on 11/5/11.
1/14/11 Robert P. Nellis died January 7, 2011, in Bloomington. Bob was born in Bedford. Growing up in Bloomington he attended Headley Grade School and was a Varsity Cheerleader at University High School. He served two years in the United States Navy and was a member of the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity while at Indiana University. He started his business career as a management trainee with the JC Penney Company. His business experiences included store manager for H.P. Wasson’s Meadows Department Store in Indianapolis and General Manager of a Days Inn Motel and Restaurant in Seymour, Indiana. He also owned and operated two other restaurants in Seymour, as well the Walton Hotel Cafe and Lounge. Moving back to Bloomington, he operated Bob’s Camp, south of Lake Monroe for several years, eventually retiring and driving a Yellow Cab. He was well known for his kindness and warm spirit. Bob was preceded in death by his father, his mother, his stepmother and his sibling, Sister Delores Nellis.
12//30/09 Morris Edward Binkley, Jr., 70, of Batavia, Illinois, died Sunday, December 27, 2009. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, he earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Indiana University in 1960 and received a Ph.D. in Experimental Physics from Cornell University in 1966. He worked at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron in Hamburg, Germany. Upon returning to the States, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor and Research Associate at Duke University and the University of Wisconsin. From 1973 to the present, Binkley was an experimental physicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois. He had also been part of the Large Hadron Collider experiment at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. Throughout the years, Binkley mentored innumerable young physicists — interns, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows — and inspired them with his enthusiasm for elementary particle research. A devoted music and theater supporter, Binkley encouraged emerging musicians and performers, and was a regular attendee at student theater productions at Loyola University and Northwestern University. He is survived by his wife, Suzanne Campbell of Batavia, Illinois; his brother, James Binkley of Augusta, Georgia, and his sister, Anne Findlay (Doug) of Melbourne, Australia; two sons, one stepdaughter; and four grandchildren.
1/16/09 MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Mary Meade Walker of Martinsburg, WV, died January 12, 2009. She was the daughter of the late Joseph Rogers Walker and Mary Austin Walker of Bloomington, Indiana. She graduated from University High School in Bloomington and received BS, MA and Ph.D degrees from Indiana University in Bloomington. She was a longtime faculty member in the Political Science Department and chair of that department for some period of time at Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV. She leaves behind many friends and associates at Shepherd.
4/05/08 Marilyn Johnson Wagner ('55) writes: “Hi, I’m from class of 1955, but I wanted to tell you that Dick Ream is dead. I was married to his brother John at one time and went to Dick’s funeral. It was sometime in the late fall of 1987. He died of a heart attack after having heart problems for many years. He had some kind of congenital heart anomaly. Hope this helps with your records.....best of luck.......by the way, I’m Ray Johnson’s sister.”
1/17/06 Amy Salsbury Zore writes: We are finally working on our reunion for this year. It will be the weekend of September 9/10. Don't have too many plans yet, but we are going to have Saturday evening festivities at John Bender's hanger. We will keep you posted.
7/29/05 Naomi Stephan writes: "I am living in Ojai, California just north of Los Angeles, but I miss Bloomington and all the great opportunites we had there for culture, concerts, the university, and the beauty of Southern Indiana. And I miss you all as well. I compose mostly choral music now, after teaching German at Valparaiso University until 1980, when I left for California, to be with my parents who were elderly and needed me there. If you have a group that likes to sing, contact me at femcomposer@naomimusic.com and maybe I'll have the the piece you are looking for. Go to my webstie at naomimusic.com and listen to some clips.

I will be attending the years all school reunion with my partner Julie and I hope to see a lot of you there. Please write me as I always answer emails.

Naomi (remember I pronounce it NAY-O-my).
10/20/04 The Class of 1956 Commencement Program has been scanned and uploaded.
8/23/04 Becky Gregory '63 sent a copy of a very nice article from the Aug 23, 2994, Bloomington Herald-Times on the subject of the retirement of Bob Talbot, who has photographed many a UHS reunion group.

Photographer spent a lifetime chronicling people - (Extra)Ordinary - By Laura Lane - August 23, 2004

One paragraph says:
He took his first "real" picture as a teenager when he noticed that a bus parked in front of Bloomington's old University High School had caught fire. "I got excused from class to take the picture," he said. "It was the back end of a bus, with a lot of smoke billowing out."

Also:
Talbot put his observations to work. His portrait studio quickly moved from its second-story walk-up to a building at the corner of Lincoln Street and Kirkwood Avenue. It was a fixture there for 36 years. The last nine years, Talbot Studio was in a house on Union Street on the fringe of the Indiana University campus.

The 67-year-old calls himself "a chronicler of people." He said that after more than a thousand weddings and millions of clicks of the shutter, it's time to retire. Advances in technology add to his list of reasons. "Instead of re-equipping and going completely into digital photography, I decided to retire," he said. "I can't believe the new digital equipment that's out there and what it can do."

Talbot hopes to return to another love, oil painting, now that he has more free time. And even if he doesn't have a camera in hand, his photographer's eye will always be focused on what's around him.
7/04 Congratulations to Sue Hays Talbot, newly elected by alumni to the IU Board of Trustees. See: http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/ocm/releases/truselc01.htm for a story.

Reunion Information

2011 - 55th
Nov 4		 Debbie Walden Hudelson writes that the class of 56 is having a 55th reunion on Friday night November 4, 2011. It will be at JB's hangar again. We had such fun at the 50th - why not! If you are interested and haven't received any information, email dhudelso@sbcglobal.net or call Amy Zore at 812 325 2596. This will be a casual pizza party the night before the all school reunion on 11/5/11.
October 2005
All School Reunion		 Reservations Received as of 11/01/2005 for:
'56 - Rita Baldridge Hudelson, John Bender & Pat Figg, Morris Binkley & Suzanne Campbell, Don Coller & Pat, Mary Fattu Ashley & Fred, Bob Fleetwood, Ann Regester Umphress & Bud, Amy Salsbury Zore, Virginia Sarber Gulickson & Vic, Gilbert Seeber & Diana, Chris Smith & Patricia, Naomi Stephan & Julie Sibson, Debbie Walden Hudelson & Ed, Jim Work & Sylvia Sturges
2006 - Fiftieth!
Sept 9-10		 Amy Salsbury Zore writes: It will be the weekend of September 9/10. Don't have too many plans yet, but we are going to have Saturday evening festivities at John Bender's hanger. If you have an address change or want more information, contact Amy.

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Updated 03 Apr 2024