Hershey News 1954-11-25

              HERSHEY NEWS
Vol. 2 HERSHEY, PENNSYLVANIA, NOVEMBER 25, 1954
ELECTED at Saturday's business meeting of the Milton Hershey School Alumni
Association was this quartet of 1954-55 officers of the Association. Left to right: William
E. C. Dearden, jr., president; Kenneth V. Hatt, secretary; Melvin H. Garner, v ice-presi-dent
; and William L. F. Schmehl, •treasurer.All are residents of Hershey. They're shown
with the new Cocoa Bean trophy, symbol of the annual MHS-HHS football game. (Photo:
Allen Zook)
M.H.S. Alumni Come From Far And Wide
To Attend Homecoming Weekend
By BRENT HANCOCK
- From as far as Indianapolis
and Miami, alumni of the Mil-ton
Hershey School returned
to Hershey over the past
weekend for the annual home-coming
celebration.
More than 300 members and
guests attended the Friday
night get-together at the Park
Golf Club, the event which
was the homecoming's start-ing
gun. Subsequent/ home-coming
highlights inPuded a
business meeting, the Milton
Hershey-Hershey High foot-ball
game, entertainment by
the M.H.S. Glee Club in the
school auditorium, Sunday
worship service in the Com-munity
Theatre and memorial
rites in Hershey Cemetery.
For the third consecutive
year the weather was un-favorable
for football. Hale
Jones, Sunday Patriot News
sportswriter — a n d an
M.H.S. alumnus—covered it
in fine thumbnail style:
"1952 — mud; 1953—mid-dier;
1954—muddiest."
There were prospects for
dryer turf for next year's
meeting between the two
elevens, ,however, with the an-
Events
nual clash scheduled as their
season opener on September 9.
Lancaster High School will
oppose the Spartans in the
1955 homecoming game.
Alumni Association officers
elected at the Saturday morn-ing
business session are Wil-liam
E. C. Dearden, Jr., '40,
president; Melvin H. Garner,
'39, vice-president; Kenneth
V. Hatt, '41, secretary; and
William L. F. Schmehl, '38,
treasurer.
At Saturday night's alumni
banquet in the high school
auditorium, Miss Berta C.
Harm and Clair F. Harnish,
recently retired after long
years of service with the Mil-ton
Hershey School, were ad-mitted
as honorary members
of the Alumni Association.
They were the second and
third persons to be honored in
this manner. The late Percy
S. Wilson was the original
honorary member.
Miss Harm is the first
female to become a member
of this otherwise all-male
organization.
Speakers on Saturday night
included P. A. Staples, chair-
$50 Grand Prize Heads List
Of Home Decoration Awards
More signs of the approaching Christmas season came
this week as the Hershey Rotary Club announced its de-tailed
plans for conducting a Home Christmas Decoration
Contest.
Offering cash prizes totalling $190, the contest awards
also include twenty honorable mention merchandise prizes.
The community project undertaken by the Rotary Club will
bring awards in four categories of home Christmas decora-tion,
plus a grand prize of $50, the announcement said.
First prize awards of $20, second prizes of $10 and third
prizes of $5 will be given to winners in the following cate-gories:
Best Window, Best Characterization, Most Original,
and Most Artistic.
Eligible for the contest award are all residents of the
Hershey area as defined: ". . . including Cocoa Avenue to
Al Foreman's home; Hockersville area as far as Milton Her-shey
School Rolling Green, and including South Hills;
Swatara area; Park Avenue and Derry Road to Lebanon
County line; and Palmdale."
The prize categories permit a wide range of imagination
and ingenuity, while still recognizing artistry and simplicity
of design. Selections of all prize winners will be made by a
panel of qualified out-of-town judges.
man of the Board of Man-agers;
D. Paul Witmer, vice-chairman;
and Arthur R.
Whiteman, secretary-treas-urere.
Mr. Witmer introduced
Board members P. N. Her-shey,
James E. Bobb, and
Charles F. Ziegler. Alumni As-sociation
President Dearden,
master - of ceremonies, ac-knowledged
Mr. Whitemanl
('27) as having been selected
at the 1954 Commencement,
for the first annual Alumnus'
of the Year award.
Mr. Whiteman, in his re-marks,
introduced Mr. J. B.
i3ollenberger, president of the
Hershey Estates.
During Mr. Witmer's re-marks,
he pointed out that the
men who serve on the Board
of Managers have a combined
record of 347 years of service
with Hershey. Board mem-bers,
in addition to those at-tending
the banquet, are T. R.
Banks, William H. Earnest, J.
J.. Gallagher and Samuel F.
Hinkle.
Dr. John 0. Hershey, school
sup e rintendent, announced
that portraits of the founding
superintendent and matron,
Mr. and Mrs. George E. Cop-enhaver,
will be done in oil and
will be hung appropriately in
the Milton Hershey. High
School. The same honor will
be accorded Mr. Whiteman
and future members of the
alumni association who are
selected for the Alumnus of
the Year award.
It was also reported that
the school now hasegradu-ates
totalling just short of
2,000. There are approxi-mately
500 active members
in the alumni association.
Especially well received Was
the show by the M.H.S. Glee
Club, directed by Virgil L.
Alexander. Music for dancing
in the gymnasium was pro-vided
by the Spartan Or-chestra
directed by W. Pur-nell
Payne.
A real homecoming high-light
was the sermon deliver-ed
on Sunday by the Rev. J.
Warren Deardorff, '43, who is
(Continuod ea Page Pour)
No. 47
Thanksgiving 1954
Retirement Fine, Former Plumber Says
One of the most relaxed
men in Palmyra is Ralph F.
McCurdy, who -is -t aki n g
things easy since his retire-ment
this month. McCurdy
had worked as a plumber for
the Hershey Chocolate Cor-poration
for just short of
thirty-two years.
He told the Hershey News
he's "got a lot to look back
on" after his many years of
working at his trade, but he's
also looking forward to en-joying
his leisure.
Residing at 826 West Main
Street, Palmyra, since 1938,
McCurdy was born and reared
at Hockersville. He also form-erly
lived at Swatara Station.
He is married to the former
Alletta Lingle of Humm.)18-
town, a former Chocolate Cor-poration
employee.
With pardonable pride in
craftmanship, McCurdy says
he always enjoyed working
with "the big stuff." The big-ger
the pipe job, the better
he liked it. He also had a
liking for ammonia gas and
high pressure steam work, he
said as he reminisced.
A veteran of World War
One, McCurdy serv ed in
Ralph F. McCurdy
France and England with the
307th Engineers, 82nd Divi-sion.
He learned the plumbing
trade at the Chocolate Cor-poration
factory, serving two
years as a plumber's helper
at the beginning of his ca-reer.
Practically all his work-ing
life was spent at Hershey,
he said.
Right now, he's engaged in
taking things easy and enjoy-ing
life generally.
Hershey News
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