DANVERS — The Peabody High School class of 1953 gathered to enjoy lunch, laugh and reminisce about class lore at Danversport on June 7 — 70 years after its graduation.
Out of the 176 in the graduating class, 22 attended. An alumni committee of seven members, including Class President George Demeritt, organizes the reunion every five years.
Demeritt takes pride in the “congeniality” among the class, and he said its members can still “have fun together in their 80s” without “bickering” or “antagonistic comments.”
“The class of 1953 was very close. We were one unit,” Demeritt said.
After lunch, the class played a game of trivia and commemorated the gathering with a group photo. Attendees also won raffle prizes, which included a Peabody High School miniature replica from the Peabody Historical Society, Demeritt’s autobiography “Twists & Turns: Luck, Timing and a Little Bit of Talent,” and photos taken by class member Spiros Xerras.
Salme Kushkowski won the raffle’s grand prize, a framed 8 x 11 photo Xerras took of a picturesque dock in Florida. Xerras said he’s happy to share his work with his classmates.
Xerras said he only actively began photographing in his 60s.
“[All of the photos] are very original,” Xerras said. “I didn’t make a living [from my photographs], I just enjoyed talking to people about them and I enjoy doing them.”
Maria “Mary” Costas Collins, known among her classmates for her artistic penmanship, works on the committee alongside Demeritt and Demeritt’s wife, also a class of 1953 alumna. Collins is responsible for keeping track of the living class members for each reunion.
“There are classes that have never had a reunion,” Collins said. “It’s just been special. I’m very grateful that we did this.”
The raffle was followed by a slideshow Demeritt put together, which featured photos from the class yearbook and paid homage to Peabody’s history of leather production.
“Over the last four or five years, we’ve lost a lot of our classmates,” Demeritt said. “I think this is sort of the last hurrah… the culmination of our 14th five-year high school reunion since 1953.”
Below is a list of class of 1953 alumni who have died, a tribute which was put together by Collins and Demeritt’s wife.
William J. Allen
William C. Atkinson
Shirley Atkinson
Barbara J. Baker
Florence Ballas Fink
Steven Barna, Jr.
Robert Bazer
William P. Beres
Marcia R. Biederman Barton
Frederick G. Black
Joan Bradley Walker
Nelson M. Brown
Vernon S. Cagan
Lita a. Carie’s Guzolski
Thomas P. Cares
John D. Champlain
John E. Cherwek
William R. Coffey
America N. Coito
Harold J. Convoy, Jr.
Robert G. Cook
Mary M. Cullen Porterfield
William B. Daley
Elaine Davis Slusser
Josephine Y. DeCarlo Carpinto
Gerald J. DeLucca
Marcella R. Dowling Cappucio
Mary Eager Geary
Louis Eftim
Shirley M. Ernest Hopping
Nancy Faria Winchell
Martin J. Freeman
James V. Gagnon
Mary Galaris Caton
John M. Gallo
Warren P. Gibney
Richard M. Gourley
Nancy J. Grant Benedict
Paul F. Hitchcock
William D. Hobey
Virginia Holden Norberg
Dorothy L. Johnson
Agnes Kanaracus Cronin
Theodora Karakouda
Harry J. Karavolas
Harvey Kaster
Joan Kavanaugh Lane
Samuel Kerkorian
Thomas F. Kingston
Elizabeth A. Komarin
Robert F. L’Abbe
George L. Leonard
John Mackinnon
Anne M. Maher
Richard J. Majeski
Paul F. Manos
Shirley Marshal Maskovitz
Ann C. Matvichuk McCormack
Ann M. McCarthy Wilcox
Lawrence P. McCauley
Jean M. McMorrill Marlowe
Mary McNichol Dick
Robert Meniates
Jacquelyn Michalchuck Wlasuk
Shirley Morse Jackson
John P. Mulligan
Barbara A. Murphy Alexuk
Margaret M. Nevins
Carol Ann Newton McFarland
Fletcher J. Oakes
Richard J. O’Brien
Mary Pappacostas Kohut
Harriet Pappathanasi Maistrellis
Edmound R. Pelletier
Gloria A. Peterson White
Loretta Press Fram
Alexander E. Prue, Jr.
Ursula Pyburn Lyons
Edward W. Rennick
Leonard J. Russell
William H. F. Russell
Betty Jane Saccone Klein
Armen H. Sarkisian
Carl Seaberg, Jr.
Donald L. Sheldon
Barbara L. Sherry Lieczak
Peggy M. Speleotis Manolukus
Shirley A. St. Pierre Scribner
Andrew F. Sullivan
Ruth Tenney Brown
Nancy J. Thorpe Willis
Peter Torigian
Fernando P. Trueira
Petrie J. Tsoukalas
Shirley A. Walsh Hatcher
Edward L. Waters
Virginia Wendell Innis
Raymond A. Wilkinson
Joanna H. Witham Leathem
Paul L. Wright
Pauline T. Zaferiou Troubetaris
