48 years after Hutchinson School closed, 63 former students will reunite Saturday

Forty eight years after Hutchinson Grade School closed, 63 former Hutchinson Grade School students will gather at noon Saturday, Aug. 15 at the Worthington Fire Station for their FIRST reunion. Their ages will range from 57 to 92.

The eight-room school was built in 1918 and closed in 1967.

The reunion is the brainchild of Leroy Thompson, Class of 1964, who is married to Diana “Dene” Saban Thompson, sister of Alabama football coach Nick Saban; Stan Vance, Class of 1964, the guy to call at (304) 677-3963 if you want to join the fun; and Ann Mustak. They were shooting the breeze months ago and thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to get every Hutchinson student we can find together.”

An 8-member committee went to work on it. Since the Class of 1964 had 24 at its Monongah High reunion, gathering the troops is old hat to them.

Ramona and Jane Koski “did most of the legwork,” Stan said. I know from my experience of trying to round up my 22 living classmates for the 2015 Monongah High Reunion (7 showed up) that it’s not an easy task.

Stan lives in Bridgeport, his home base when he worked as district manager for Heck’s Department Stores for 30 years before retiring. The job took him to West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

There were will be 134 people at the Worthington Fire Station, because that includes guests of the 63 survivors of their Hutchinson education.

There are two ironies for me as I gathered up information on this story, from a tip dropped casually to me by Ramona Fullen Michalski, Class of 1949, of Monongah as I talked to her about a different subject.

When I phoned Stan to ask about the Hutchinson reunion, he said, “Would you believe that I am looking at your blog for the first time because a friend told me about something you had in it.” This Monongah High Alumni blog was staring Stan in the face as his phone rang with me on the other end of the line!

Second irony: As Stan was telling me about Hutchinson School, he said: “You know where Hutchinson is, don’t you.”

My reply: “Yes, I do. I went there many a time while I was at Monongah High because Nancy Robinson Saunders, my MHS prom date, lived there.” Nancy, who passed away in 2008, was in my Class of 1950. Her best friend, Mary Bienkoski Domico, was reunited with Nancy in the Hereafter in 2014.