Prep '58 Blog - June 2026

We mourn the passing of our dear friend and classmate, Willy Wilczynski, who left us on June 11th.     May God have mercy on his soul.

Willy's family will receive friends on Thursday June 25, 2026 from 2-4pm for a Memorial Gathering at Timothy E. Ryan Home for Funerals 145 St. Catherine Blvd. Toms River, NJ. 

A Memorial Mass will be held on Friday June 26, 2026 at 10am at. St. Pio of Pietrelcina RC Church in Lavallette, NJ. 

You can visit Willy's Memorial page here.

Carol Lewandowski, wife of our classmate Les Lewandowski, notified us that Les had passed on June 13th. May God have mercy on his soul.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Winthrop, ME on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, at 10:00am. 

Arrangements and guidance are under the direction of Roberts Funeral Home, 62 Bowdoin Street, Winthrop, ME.  

You can visit Les's Memorial page here.

We have just received word of the passing of Bill Keane, '58 on March 26, 2026. 

Please pray for the soul of Bill and his family. 

All funeral arrangements for Bill have been concluded. 

You can visit Bill's Memorial page here.

We mourn the loss of our loved ones, but we carry on in their name...

In this edition of the Prep '58 Blog...

It will be here in less than a month...  The 68th Reunion Summa Bash is scheduled for Tuesday, July 14th at Bar-A in Belmar. We have 34 confirmed attending, but we are hoping to  get a whole lot more. We hope you will put the date on your summer calendar and join the fun. More info in the Blog.

The Editor introduces a new segment, "Words To Live By"  based partly on his kids' reaction to chores when they were youngsters, and partly on his attempt to get his '58 classmates to submit their After'58 Bio's.

A joint book review from the Heaney/Conroy group encourages the class to read World War II At Sea, an 800+ page book by Craig Symonds. Those of you on the May Zoom call may have heard Jim Heaney mention the book, which was recommended to him by John Conroy. Read the review further in the Blog.

A fun Gorp Cookie recipe that is perfect for a summer picnic dessert from Desserts with Stephanie...  

...and a big graduation event.

The Editor has a few quirks - well, maybe more than a few - and some of those quirks have to do with sayings, and more specifically, sayings that provide a way of thinking and behaving in specific situations...  

His teen-age daughters first heard the saying - "One cup at a time..."  referring to the job of cleaning up the backyard after one of our big outdoor parties. To them, it seemed like an almost impossible task, until they walked out to the yard, picked up a cup and put it in the trash. Then another, and another, and like magic, the yard was clean way sooner than they thought it would be.

So, we're looking for your words to live by, and the message behind the words. We would love to share them with the '58 gang, or anyone who is interested, so send yours to the Editor, and we will gather them up and share them.

Here's a few examples to get you started...

"Feel, think, act" - "Don't rush into things without a plan"

"Don’t take anything personally unless it's a compliment" - "Be your own counsel"

So send in your Words To Live By and we will take care of the rest.

From Jim Heaney

"This book was recommended to me by classmate John Conroy whose verbal review to me

was enhanced by his own naval experiences and infused with the matured wisdom and

eloquence of a Prep and Naval Academy graduate. Nevertheless, here is my attempt.

The author is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and is the highly regarded author of a

number of books about the intense naval battles of WWII. Many of the described naval

battles were critical for the survival of Britain and ultimate victory over Japan . As noted by

one of our classmates in a recent Zoom call, most of us have seen the series Victory at Sea

that defined, for me, the glorious victories achieved by our naval forces during WWII. 

Craig Symonds adds the realistic, often bitter, flesh to those glamorous bones of ultimate victory. He identifies key military opponents with biographical sketches that bring a dimension of

realism, often with anguish, that colors the ultimate triumph as boasted in Victory at Sea:

the strangling terror of Nazi U-Boats; the critical sea battles for control of the vital sea

lanes of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean; the simultaneous vicious naval encounters

between the U.S. and Japanese navies in the South Pacific; the bloody marine battles of

Tarawa and Iwo Jima, fought with unquestioned valor but for questionable purpose; the

key role played by cryptology in victories over superior but unaware hostile forces, and the

overwhelming productive capacity of the United States in its ability to overwhelm enemies in

a two front war.

Craig Symonds’ writing style can engage the most unenlightened reader to turn this 800+

page book into a non-stop page turner. For naval scholars, and historians in general, the

book contains a well referenced afterword.

I bought my hard cover, perfect condition copy from Amazon for $7.99 or about a penny per

page. If you are searching for an engaging read this summer that will leave you better

informed upon completion, this is the book."

Jim Heaney

Take a look thru our library here.

Here's the NYT front page from June 17, 1955. Turmoil in Argentina leads to Peron being excommunicated by the Catholic Church. The Salk polio vaccine immunization project was held up in New York, pending further review.   The T.V.A. project was voted on and passed.  

Just in case your memory is as iffy as the Editor's, we found a site that lets you access the top news stories from back in the day. You can select the year and month, and the major news events for that period will be shown. Below are a few of the stories we found from 1955 from the thousands that are available. 

• February 24: Formation of the Central Treaty Organization.
• April 12: The Salk polio vaccine having passed large-scale trials earlier in the United States, receives full approval by the Food and Drug Administration.
• April 18: Death of Albert Einstein.
• May 14: Signing of the Warsaw Pact.
• August 18: First Sudanese Civil War begins.

You can see all the headlines and stories from the 50's right here!

We are still on the hunt for After '58 Bio's and we know there are dozens of 58'ers out there who read the Blog, but have yet to submit a Bio. Every one we get has an interesting tale to tell, and we hope you will add to our library.

And... remember those cookies!  Send yours in and we will get them right out to you! Take a look at the Bio's we have.

'After '58' got started in March, 2017, when we received this suggestion from Bill Kretzer to collect stories from the '58 gang about what they did after graduation. 

"I think there would be a bushel of interest in interviews with each & every ‘58 graduate. I for one, since I went away to college and never returned to NJ, didn’t keep in touch as much as I should have and would be curious to hear how everyone’s life turned out."

Bill sent in his Bio, and 8 years later, we are at 41. We hope every one of the '58 gang  will pick up on Bill's suggestion and send in their story in an email to Vince. 

It takes no more time to put your story together than it would to tell it to your grandkids, so how about it?  We will return the favor by sending a baker's dozen of Stephanie Grillo's famous Chocolate Chunk cookies. We've already shipped out over 500 of the best cookies you've ever tasted, and there's more where they came from.