MTHS Home

Middletown Township High School

Class of 1960

Class Officers

President – Mike Provini		Vice-President – Maija Students
Secretaries – Judith Anderson & Lynn England		Treasurers – Ronald Jascott & Bill England

Class clown - Barry Katcher

Howard O'Dell passed away in May, 2023. Our most sincere condolences to his wife, his family and his friends.

The older we get the more important it is to reflect on who we are and where we came from. Sometimes we want to reach out to those who have touched our lives. We hope this website will provide information for those who are wanting to reconnect with former classmates. If you have any information to add regarding MTHS Class of 1960 members, please contact Ed Glenney at eglenney@embarqmail.com or Barry Katcher at smiledogpro@gmail.com.

Guest Book

September, 2012. Just thought you guyz/galz would get a kick out of the email I received out of the blue, and the subsequent back-and-forth conversation. Please forward to those you think would get a kick out of it. Here it be from start to finish:

Hi Barry,

Before this afternoon I had never heard of Middletown Township, NJ or their high school let alone anyone from the class of 1960. My mother was only 5 years old when you all graduated. I've never lived in Jersey. I was born in NY. However, I was doing a Google search for a one Thomas Devlin here in the San Diego, CA area. As soon as I clicked on your website's page I knew it was not going to have the information I was looking for, but curiosity kept me scrolling...

I did find a Mr. Devlin of course on your pages, though not the one I was looking for. What I also found was a wonderful collection of yesteryear and today through myriad of beautiful short stories and pictures chronicling over 50 years of such a diverse yet centrally connected group of people. I feel as though I just finished watching a true life movie. I found myself looking up information on things people mentioned to get a better understanding and to deepen the story. For instance, the lady who lost her husband in the IFF explosion in June 1976. I found the original newspaper article that didn't list any fatalities at the time. However, they did list one critically injured...George Linde. I glanced back at your page and sure enough, listed under her spouse was Mr. Linde who eventually did pass away from injuries sustained at the factory that day. I wouldn't be born for another 6 months when the accident occurred and had never heard of this tragedy until today but it made me tear up anyway.

I found a lady, Linda Tencate, who graduated with you and lives in the neighboring tiny town (Port Richey, FL) that I graduated high school from, New Port Richey, FL. I know that town, the surrounding ones and Florida in general are known as a large retirement community, so it was no surprise to see, but putting a bit of history and a name to faces was nice and made it personal. Seeing her street name brought back a flood of memories for me. It is less than mile as the crow flies from where my grandmother and grandfather lived for 30 years while I was a child growing up and where I lived briefly after moving back to Florida my first year of high school. Same street number, too, I should point out. As a young child we lived on the east coast of Florida and would drive across the state to visit them. Eventually after a stint in Colorado, too, we moved to New Port Richey to be closer to my grandmother. My grandfather unfortunately passed away when I was 12. My first job at a new steakhouse while I was still in HS had me driving a route to work that crossed Mrs. (Tencate) Byrne's street every day I worked.

Ever curious and still scrolling I came across another lady, Susan Mount, who currently lives about 2 1/2 miles from where I am sitting right now. I enjoy running and my runs take me right through her neighborhood most nights. What first got my attention was her street name. She lives in a condo complex that the company I work for does property maintenance at.

By this time I am shaking my head, just incredulous at what a small world this really is and how we are all connected in ways that so many of us are probably not even aware of. Had I not been searching for some information on a potential business contact, I would have never stumbled upon your page. And had I not had the curious mind (and a touch of ADD) I would have never stuck around and scrolled through the MTHS '60 family and realized how tightly woven the fabric of our lives truly are and the many people that help shape our lives in the background by being our unknown neighbors. Who knows, maybe I've even run into these folks in every day life. Perhaps in line at the grocery store, stuck in traffic, served them dinner, fixed their leaky faucet, smiled while passing by... I'll never know for sure, but it is a nice comforting thought that everything happens for a reason and something more powerful than I brought me to your website so I could be enlightened by all the history and reminded of just how connected each and every one of us are to each other. As such, we should always treat everyone we meet as if they are an old friend because in a way, they are.

Thank you so much for taking the time to put together this website. If a "complete stranger" (not really as I found out) can appreciate it, I'm sure the alumni are so grateful to have a place to visit and remember good times and stay updated as well. Great job!

Christine Romano

Barry's reply to Christine:

8:44 PM (14 hours ago)

Evening, Christine.

Wow, that was some email! When I first opened and started to read, my first thought was that this is some kind of scam or someone trying to sell me something. But the more I read the more I realized that it wasn't; that you had actually stumbled across the MTHS website (I assume from my Facebook posting) and had done all of that research.

Yes, it is amazing how small a world this is. I'm going to forward your message to several of the people you mentioned, most particularly Lois Manganelli (Linde). I know she'll take comfort from a lot of the things you said. You may be a bit ADD, as you say, or, perhaps a bit OCD but you really seem to have a heart as big as all outdoors and the empathy to go with it. I bet you cry, like I do, at all of the feel-good movies.

Have a great rest of the evening and rest of your life.

Barry Katcher

Message forwarded to Lois Manganelli (MTHS):

8:53 PM (14 hours ago)

to Lois

Lois, this is Barry Katcher from the MTHS website. I just got a really surprising email message from a complete stranger that chanced upon the MTHS site. She mentions you in particular and I think you might find it comforting, so I'm passing it along to you. Here it is: (message from Christine)

Reply from Lois:

Lois Linde ? loislinde@yahoo.com

12:29 AM (11 hours ago)

Hi Barry, Thank you for sending me that e-mail yesterday about The woman visiting the MTHS site.... It was really interesting to see how very small the world really is. Amazing how none of us aged much through the years.... ha! Ha! Thanks for forwarding the message.... Have a great weekend..... Lois manganelli Linde.

Home | Guyz 'n Galz A-G | Guyz 'n Galz H-N | Guyz 'n Galz O-Z