Camden Catholic High School
Route 38 & Cuthbert Blvd.
Cherry Hill, NJ 08002

RECENT PHOTO SUBMISSIONS & NEWS

If any classmate wants to share a photo of themselves in the Photos section of this website, including a photo with their families, friends or pets, or involved in a hobby,  interest or just vacationing, just email it to me with a short description.  If you are in the Cherry Hill area and would like me to stop by and take a photo during a family event, a visit, or any special occasion, just let me know.

Email: Len Campbell

To see MORE photos from classmates, go to the Photos section of the Class Website on the menu toolbar.

For the gallery of photos from the 30th Class Reunion, click HERE.

*****UPDATES ON GERRY DAVIES*****

Updates and a Guestbook to Gerry's Journal are here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gerrydavies Your prayers and thoughts for Gerry & his family are very much appreciated.

Sister Mary Assisium McGlinn, R.S.M.

1921 - 2009

Erick Riley

Maryann McCabe Gillen at Niagara Falls for her 21st Wedding Anniversary in August 2008.

Maryann, her husband Gerry, and their daughter Deirdre at  Paula Deen's The Lady & Sons Restaurant in Savannah, Georgia on her 50th birthday in July 2008.

Joe Baratta died on December 20, 2008.  His obituary is HERE.

Cris Vaccaro, with his wife Maureen, son Chris, daughter-in-law Amanda, son Dave, and Dave's girlfriend Mary Kate on a Bermuda cruise in August 2008.

Cris golfing with sons Chris and Dave at Belmont Hill Golf Club, Bermuda on August 14, 2008.

Mrs. Evelyn B. Zannoni died on August 10, 2007. She was a secretary to the Camden Catholic Guidance Department, and President of the PTA for many years, organizing volunteers, fundraisers, and carnivals. Her obituary is HERE.

Joe DiPietro coached the Camden Catholic Girls' Softball Team 25 years before becoming the Head Coach of the LaSalle University Women's Softball Team for 6 years.  Joe recently became the 2008 Head Coach of the Temple University Softball Team (photos on left) and is also the Assistant Coach of the Philadelphia Force of the National Pro Fastpitch League (photo on right).  See: Joe's Temple University Bio and Joe's Philadelphia Force Bio.

GERRY DAVIES (UPDATE)

[FROM GERRY DAVIES - August 13, 2008] Greetings, all. As some of my old friends know, I spent Sept. 2007-June 2008 in treatment for cancer of the tonsils. Not a good cancer to have with a survival rate (30 percent or so). But the doctors threw "the works" at it, because I was big, strong, relatively young and otherwise healthy. I'll know soon whether "the works" worked. Should get the results of my first follow-up PET scan in the next week or two. That'll tell us whether I'm truly cancer-free.

Can't say it was a fun experience. In fact, it sucked. Went through several surgeries, seven weeks of heavy duty radiation, and eight months of chemotherapy. The radiation was the worst. Because the dosage was so high, I ended up with painful, oozing radiation burns all around my neck and for a while could barely swallow. (Dropped 70 pounds in just a few months. I could've wrestled at 188 again.) In the aftermath, I have no functioning salivary glands, a lovely new collection of scars, and big, hard, permanent lumps under the skin on one side of my neck. The hair follicles on one side for my face are permanently fried, so the beard that I had for years is gone for good. (Yes, I have a post-nuclear head.) And I can't have alcohol anymore, which truly, truly, truly sucks.

Oh, and if I don't get salivary gland function back, I'll have to give up the bagpipes after 11 years. Whether that sucks depends on how you feel about the bagpipes, I guess.

On the other hand, I'm alive. For a while there, I wasn't sure I'd get to see the kids graduate from high school next spring. I even designated a burial spot. Now I'm thinking I'll see them through college, at the least. We'll see what the PET scan has to say about that.

If this scan is clear, it'll be the first of five years of follow-up scans. (After five years, modern medicine thinks you're out of the woods.)

Gotta mention that my wife, Clare, was a rock through it all. Well, mostly. She had the occasional emotional meltdown, but wouldn't you? Our daughter, Mary, hung in there, too. Our son, Andy, sort of missed it. He was in Japan on an exchange year during the worst months.

Chemo ended about two months ago (mid-June), and people keep asking me whether I'm back to normal. I tell them I'm probably at 95 percent of whatever the new normal is. I feel pretty good, got my energy back, and I'm back to work full-time.

Not really sure what normal is now, though. My outlook is certainly different. I'm planning to have a lot more fun like maybe take scuba lessons with Andy in the fall. In general, I'd just like to enjoy life more. That was never my strong suit.

I suppose nearly everyone who reads this won't have seen me since high school or college. If you're interested in what happened between then and getting cancer, here's the condensed version: Had a long and mostly enjoyable newspaper career at various times an editor, reporter, columnist, page designer, and editorial writer that started in Toledo and wound through Detroit, New York, New Hampshire, and Roanoke, Virginia. That career ended when we moved from Blacksburg, Va., to Providence, R.I., a few years ago. The decline of the industry made it impossible to get a decent newspaper job, so now I'm managing editor of a trade magazine covering the jewelry manufacturing industry. It's not bad, especially compared with where I started: working the midnight shift on the copy desk at the Toledo Blade.

Other details of note: Been married to Clare, an Episcopal priest, for 22 years. Somehow two great kids emerged out of the gene pool. Andy's 18, fluent in Japanese and a great artist, and he thinks he'll go into computer game design. Or marine biology. Unless he joins the Marines.

He's a little undecided.

Mary, on the other hand, is 16, accomplished in piano and ballet, got something like 2370 on her SATs, and plans to be an astrophysicist. She spent the summer at MIT writing a paper titled "Identifying Stellar Counterparts for Short Duration Microlensing Events."

I just know you're asking yourself, "C'mon, those are Gerry DAVIES' kids?"
Well, they are. I watched them get born, so I'm sure of it. Mostly. I mean, I remember what I was like in school, too. They're not what I would have predicted.

So it goes.

Don't know whether many people actually look at these Classmates things. If you read this and want to get in touch, I'd be happy to hear from you. But prepared: I'm different now. Just as handsome, of course, but no longer the bipolar mess I used to be. Modern pharmacology is a wonderful thing.

Best to you all.

Gerry

On February 21, 2008, I met up with John Curro and Angelo Breaux at the Marlton Tavern.

VICTOR ANTHONY YORIO (formerly Fr. Vic Yorio)           -           1936 to 2008

Vic Yorio died on February 7, 2008.  His obituary is HERE.

GERRY DAVIES

[FROM GERRY DAVIES - OCTOBER 3, 2007] Greetings, all.  I wanted to let old friends know I'm fighting oropharyngeal cancer--cancer of the tonsils, to be specific--and would welcome prayers and well wishes from any corner.  I'm in experimental chemo now, soon to be replaced by a mix of more chemo and radiation, probably followed by more surgery.  Next three months are going to be bad.  The side effects are beyond nasty.  I may even get back to my junior year wrestling weight (imagine--170), if not lower.  Prognosis, however, isn't too bad under the circumstances.  It's a tough cancer, but my general good health, relative youth (yes, really--according to the doctors), supportive family and good medical care are in my favor.

Don't think cancer is the only thing going on in my life now, of course.  I'm in Providence, R.I., where I'm managing editor of a trade magazine. (Long and enjoyable newspaper career came to an end two years ago when we moved from Blacksburg, Va.)  Been married to Clare for 22 years, and we have two great kids: Andy, 17, now in Japan doing a foreign exchange year, and Mary, 15, who dances ballet, plays piano and plans to be an astrophysicist.  Can't imagine what part of our gene pool she came from.

I hope this note finds you all doing well. You can reach me, I think, through the CCHS Alumni message system.

P.S. We're posting updates on my medical situation at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gerrydavies

Peace, Gerry Davies

[FOR UPDATES ON GERRY, GO TO http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gerrydavies AND CLICK ON "JOURNAL" ON THE MENU.]

CHECK IT OUT!!!!!  The Camden Catholic Alumni Association has launched a new website at: camdencatholicalumni.org

    If any classmates are planning a get-together and are inviting other interested classmates to join them, just email me information about the anticipated event and I'll post it.  Examples might include a ski trip, camping trip, a day at the shore, a trip to New York City to attend a Broadway Show or the Atlantic City Casinos.

Len Campbell

The Camden Catholic Board of Trustees

3 of the 15 members of Camden Catholic's Board of Trustees are Class of 1976 graduates!	Nancy O’Brien Singer Dean Ragone Carmen M. Garcia
President: Rev. Scott Pilarz, S.J. ’77 Vice-President: Nancy O’Brien Singer ’76 Dean Ragone '76 Carmen M. Garcia '76 Robert DiStanislao '78 Anthony Giorgio '68 Ted Goyins Robert T. Healey ‘47 Agnes Weatherby Madden ‘63 Rev. Msgr. Andrew E. Martin Msgr. Robert McDermott '60 Hon. Joseph Rodriguez ‘49 Mary Sheil ‘57 Frank V. Tedesco '66 Sister Barbara Williams ‘56

General CCHS Alumni News

Class Reps are Needed
Class Reps are needed for the following years: 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1949 1969 1984 1988 1989 1994 1999.  If interested, please contact Mary Whipkey at 856-663-8315 or Mwhipkey@camdencatholic.org 

     The purpose of this web site is to provide contact information to those of us who graduated from Camden Catholic High School in 1976.  Please be sure to forward me your updated email addresses and the email addresses for any classmates whose email addresses are not listed on the Class web page so that I can keep the web page current.  Please also forward me information on classmates that have passed away.  In order to help prevent unsolicited email ("spam") from being sent to members of our class, "mailto" tags (which make email hyperlinks) have purposely not been included on this web site.  This helps prevent spammers from using webcrawling software to retrieve our email addresses for spamming purposes.  To email a classmate, simply copy and paste an email address into the address window of your email program.  To find the latest additions and revisions to the list, look for flashing "NEW" blinkers ()on the Class web page.  Special thanks goes to Peggy Testa Messina, Angelo Sinesi, and Dean Ragone for continuing to provide me with new email addresses of classmates.  I have also created a similar class list (here) that has been optimized for classmates finding this website when using various search engines.  

     The Faculty & Staff web page contains the names the names of all faculty and staff members who worked at CCHS during the 1975/1976 school year.  The web page is periodically updated with new and changed email addresses and to report deaths among the former faculty and staff.  Special thanks goes to Sr. Pat Kenny, R.S.M. for updating me on information about former faculty.

     Any important class announcements will be posted on the Announcements web page.  The Announcements web page will also include information on classmates and faculty members that have passed away.

     The Links web page contains links to school and classmate related web pages.  Please feel free to email me the addresses ("URLs") of your personal, family, photo album and work related web pages.  The Links web page also contains links to news and information for those who now reside away from the Cherry Hill area.

     This web site now includes a Memories section containing web pages for Memorabilia, Yearbook Recollections, and a Sports Scorecard.  The Memorabilia web page contains links to class-related memorabilia which have been scanned and converted  to images by using Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional resulting in Adobe Portable Document "PDF" files.  This file format allows for reasonably quick downloading of the linked items, quality viewing, and printing options.  The Memorabilia web page currently contains program booklets for the Senior Awards, the Commencement Exercises, and the Graduation Mass.  If anyone has class-related memorabilia which is not listed on the Memorabilia web page, please email me so that we can arrangements for me to scan your items to make them available on this web site.  The Yearbook Recollections web page contains words, phrases, and thoughts that were common to our class during our senior year and that had been compiled in our yearbook.  The Sports Scorecard section of this web site includes CCHS sports results of all boys' and girls' varsity sports during the 1975/1976 school year including Varsity Football, Boys' Varsity Basketball, Varsity Wrestling, Varsity Soccer, Varsity Baseball, Cross Country, Golf, Boys' Bowling, Track, Girls' Varsity Hockey, Girls' Varsity Basketball, Girls' Varsity Softball, and Girls' Bowling.

    The Our Year section of the web site is a work-in-progress project that will contain events and summaries that took place during our senior year.

     The FAQS web page contains frequently asked questions regarding this web site.  Please feel free to email me any questions and I will post my responses on the FAQS web page.

     Finally, the Update Now! web page is just a reminder to be sure to forward me your updated email addresses and the email addresses for any classmates whose email addresses are not listed on the Class web page so that I can keep this web site current.  Please also forward me information on classmates that have passed away.  When sending me an email, please be sure to put "Camden Catholic" in your email's header so that I don't inadvertently delete it.

     Please feel free to email me any comments or suggestions with regard to this web site.

Len Campbell

Last Revision Date: December 23, 2009