Sidney graduates celebrate 70th reunion

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SIDNEY — The “Spirit of 76” carried on Saturday, Sept. 16, when Sidney High School’s class of ‘47 had their 70th reunion.

It was the 76th graduating class of Sidney High school, with 136 graduates. Of that group, 25 graduates, spouses and children gathered at Sidney’s Moose Lodge on Saturday for companionship, remembrance and good food. Many remembered Paul Lauterber, who graduated with their class and was given the Nobel Peace Prize for medicine in 2003 for inventing the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine.

“The chemistry lab is named after him now,” said Charlotte Reeder Jackson, of Sidney. “It was him and another fellow that were in the same chemistry class. They sometimes knew more than the teacher did.”

Jane Kemp, of Sidney, also remembered Lauterber.

“He was very interested in science. The teacher would let him come in after school so he could learn more about it,” Kemp said. “He was the real deal.”

Other notable graduates included Mary Ellen Allenbaugh, who was Shelby county treasurer from 1990 through 2003.

“I guess that’s something, isn’t it?” Allenbaugh said. “I had a little grandson at that time, and he had a T-shirt that said ‘vote for my grandma.’”

Eighty-eight of the original 136 class members are now deceased. There were 21 returning military members in the class.

“We had a good football team,” remembered Jackson. “I still go to the basketball and football games. Back then, we didn’t have all this extra stuff going on. But I enjoyed it.”

For a few alumni, their favorite memory of high school was graduating, including Jackson. She said her plans after high school changed, but was still glad to be done with school.

“I was going to be a nurse,” she said. “But then my sister told me all the stuff involved with that, so I changed my mind. I decided to just stay home and raise three kids.”

Murray Elsass, of Sidney, started a scrap business right after high school called Urban Elsass & Son Inc, in Piqua.

“I started intramural basketball at Sidney High,” he said. “I graduated in the coop department, machine shop.”

The furthest travelling graduate was Virginia Gross Cicoria, of Palos Verdes, California. Other class members in attendance were Robert Altoff, of Indiana, Eugene Wolfe, George Snowden, Murray Elsass, Jim Deam, Alma Jean (Jackson) Wells, Don and Jane (Slusser) Kemp, Mary Ellen (Burchett) Allenbaugh and Charlotte (Reeder) Jackson, all of Sidney, and Helen Jo (Lerch) Rouhier, of St. Marys.

Looking at a photo of Nobel Peace Prize winner and fellow classmate Paul Lauterbur in their senior Sidney High School yearbook are, left to right, Jane Kemp, of Sidney, Alma Jean Wells, both of Sidney, and Virginia Gross Cicoria, of Palos Verdes, Calif. Wells posed for the picture putting on Lauterbur’s cap. The women were attending their 70th Sidney High School class reunion at the Moose Lodge Saturday, Sept. 16.
http://www.sidneydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2017/09/web1_SDN092017SidReunion-1.jpgLooking at a photo of Nobel Peace Prize winner and fellow classmate Paul Lauterbur in their senior Sidney High School yearbook are, left to right, Jane Kemp, of Sidney, Alma Jean Wells, both of Sidney, and Virginia Gross Cicoria, of Palos Verdes, Calif. Wells posed for the picture putting on Lauterbur’s cap. The women were attending their 70th Sidney High School class reunion at the Moose Lodge Saturday, Sept. 16. Luke Gronneberg | Sidney Daily News

By Heather Willard

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Reach the writer at 937-538-4825.

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