Find the Aces is a popular page on this website. Starting today, you will see a fourth category, Missing Classmates. After six months of research, we have reduced our Missing list from approximately 150 to 84. The results of the MIA (Missing in Action) project also include increasing the number of names on the lists of both the Living and the Deceased Classmates, confirming death dates that had been missing, and helping secure valid contact information.
We now have 461 classmates in our Living data base, 188 in our Deceased data base and 84 in our Missing data base. This totals 731 in our class, which is about the number that actually graduated with us. The number will not agree perfectly with the official Graduation List as we have a few people in the data base who graduated in the summer of 1960 and a few who moved to other schools.
Over the past six months, volunteers worked hard to track our “whereabouts unknown” classmates as completely and accurately as possible.
Barb Hammond used her research skills, especially her expertise in genealogy, to find classmates and verify that they were “ours.” Using online resources such as Ancestry.com and Newspapers.com, she checked census records to see whether a person the right age lived in the East High district between 1957 and 1960, found married names from marriage and divorce announcements, and checked names of survivors in death announcements and obituaries. Barb also wrote to “owners” of Ancestry.com pages, seeking connections to family members who could verify whether a person was living or dead. In some cases, like Dale Dumas, those relatives sent photos and stories about deceased classmates. In others, a relative would send news such as “Yes, my uncle is alive and well and living in Texas.” Barb provided periodic updates that identified deceased and “possibly living” classmates, complete with possible contact information.
Fred Elder searched a variety of online resources to find obituaries and current contact information. For the “possibly living” classmates, he made dozens of phone calls and sent many emails and letters, hoping to find those people alive and responsive. Cheerfully, he always gave them the option of remaining private. Fred had a wonderful time, usually, reconnecting with people and learning about their lives. Many “found” classmates were delighted to reconnect and sent appreciative messages for Fred’s efforts and for the website. Several even wrote stories for the website – or promised to think about it. He also found wrong numbers, refuseniks, and silence, as one would expect.
The MIA project may have inadvertently missed a person or two. The work continues and the numbers may change. However, we believe that those included are willing to stay connected to the East High Class of 1960. For anyone we missed, we sincerely apologize. We welcome your additions and corrections. Take a look at the updated lists on Find the Aces. Who knows? Perhaps you can help us locate a few on the missing list. We would greatly appreciate the help.
