Pat Kiehl Williams enjoying life in the New Mexico desert

Catching up with . . . Pat Kiehl Williams

The search for Pat Kiehl Williams, Class of 1950, has been successful . . . but it took a few months and some painstaking Googling.

Class of 1950 Reunion co-chairmen Tony Eates and John Olesky are trying to round up our Class of 1950 members for the 2015 Monongah High Alumni Reunion – at the Three Ways Inn Restaurant in Fairmont on Friday, May 22, 2015 in a joint reunion with the Class of 1955, whose roundup is chaired by Dolores Edwards (on the Monongah High Alumni Association Board), and on Saturday, May 23, 2015 at the Knights of Columbus on Mary Lou Retton Drive in Fairmont.

Tony and John sent out letters to twenty-three 1950 grads who were not on our In Memoriam list of known deceased.

Then we received word from Mary Bienkoski Domico’s daughter and granddaughter that Scoogum Domico’s widow had passed away.

Pat Kiehl Williams’ letter to New Mexico was returned to us as an undeliverable address.

Using the skills I honed from 43 years as a newsporter reporter and editor, and the tactics that any 12-year-old uses in Googling, I tracked Pat down.

Her address is:

Pat Kiehl Williams

9 Lacy Rd

Edgewood, NM 87015-9504

I called the phone number listed for Pat’s son, Clay C. Williams, which is (505) 286-2141.

Someone picked up the phone on the other end. 

I said:

“Is this the home of Clay Williams, son of Pat Kiehl Williams.”

The voice on the other end of the line said:

“This IS Pat Kiehl Williams.”

I felt like Sir Henry Morton Stanley finding explorer David Livingstone deep into Africa!

Pat is married to G.G. Williams, who uses initials because his mother named him Gervais James Williams. Gervais was a name that G.G.’s mom picked up from a character in a risque French novel. Go figure.

Pat and Gervais (sorry, G.G., I couldn’t resist) have two sons, Clay and Bruce Williams, both living near them in New Mexico.

Pat is a retired teacher, in third grade in New Mexico and, for two years, in American Samoa where both sons graduated “barefoot and in white skirts,” Pat recalled.

That’s what Samoan graduates do.

Husband G.G. was a teacher, then a principal.

Pat and G.G. retired to a home they built in the country about 25 miles from Albuquerque in Edgewood, New Mexico.

Pat left Monongah High shortly after her senior year began and came to Albuquerque, showed up at Albuquerque High School, needed only one credit to graduate, tested out succcessfully in Albuquerque with the result sent to Monongah High, which awarded her a MHS diploma.

Pat met G.G. because Pat’s sister married G.G.’s brother. Talk about finding a date at a wedding!

Pat and I had a reunion lunch in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio in 2000 at the home of Pat's sister -- who later passed away -- 15 or 20 years ago, when my late wife Monnie and I were living in Cuyahoga Falls. 

Later, after Monnie died, Paula Stone Tucker re-entered my life (we worked together on the Akron Beacon Journal before Paula went to California for 25 years as a psychologist), and Paula and I moved in together in our Tallmadge condo.

Pat is a University of New Mexico graduate.

As for the other Class of 1950 graduates, those who we know passed away are Barbara Bazuk Franklin, Bill Birdsell, Mary Bienkoski Domico, Kathleen Blagg Goldstein, Walter Brzuzy, Deloris Butcher, Martha Carpenter, Anthony DeMary, Jr., Theresa Demus, Richard Garrett, Lawrence Godby, Jr., Ann Manuel Richardson, Virginia Manuel Eddy, Joe Manzo, Iris Martin Carpenter, Tom Orsini, Bill Pringle, Paul Rankin, Nancy Saunders Robinson, James Starcher, James Wimer and Lyman Wadsworth.

Letters went out to, and didn’t come back as undeliverable, to, besides Pat Kiehl Williams, Jim Commodore in Morgantown, Rose Commodore Cain in Fairmont, Ann Myrtle Currence Sutton in Conyers, Georgia, Frank Franze in Slidell, Louisiana, Geraldine Fullen Ross in Harbor Beach, Michigan, Barbarano Glover Rombola in Fairmont, Bernice Grandstaff Maranville in Kernersville, North Carolina, Donald Halpenny in Fairmont, Lucille Herron Anderson in Annapolis, Maryland, Jean Larry Dilaura (she went by Agnes Larry at MHS) in Henderson, Nevada, Robert Kasper in South Lyon and Presque Isle, Michigan, Reva McDougal Ash in Marietta, Pat Meredith Wills in Fairmont and St. Augustine, Florida, Arnold Morgan in Palatka, Florida, Mary Ann Puffenbarger Moore in Fairmont, Hellen Snider Carpenter in Cottageville, West Virginia, Harold Spragg in Inwood, West Virginia, Kathryn Toothman Crim in Farwell, Michigan, Pat Urban Utz in Springfield, Virginia, and Leatrice Yokay Greaser, Monongah High’s version of singer Kathryn Grayson of 1940s-50s movie fame, in Fairmont.

If your class is planning a reunion in 2015, on the day before the all-classes reunion at the Knight of Columbus, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com and let me know how your search is going, and maybe we can help find some of your year’s classmates, too.

With Google, there’s always a chance.

If you have memories of any Class of 1950 members, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com and I’ll include them in this Monongah High Alumni blog.