Connecting generosity and joy since 2011
The Joel Barlow High School Alumni Association is a group of volunteer alumni who work together to build community and raise money for scholarships and other initiatives for Barlow students. We organize events, fundraisers, and launched an online alumni community in early 2018. Our quarterly meetings take place in the Barlow Career Office and volunteers are welcome to join remotely. Please read the section on how to register for the online community and so as soon as possible. That is where the bulk of our news and info can be found. Thank you.
This is our most recent JBHS alumnus spotlight. We will be sharing stories of other alumni on an ongoing basis so please let us share your story. ERIK KIRSCHBAUM, JBHS CLASS OF 1979 FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT AND AUTHOR Once again we are celebrating another Joel Barlow High School Alumnus, Erik Kirschbaum, Class of 1979. Erik is a native of New York City who moved to Connecticut when he started school and graduated from JBHS in 1979. While at Joel Barlow, Erik was a three-sport guy -- football, basketball and baseball. Erik always seemed destined to be a writer. He worked at the Danbury News-Times while at Barlow and also wrote about JBHS sports for the Redding Pilot. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1984 (where he studied history and German), he worked for newspapers in Wisconsin, California and Nevada. He then went on to join the Associated Press in New York and later Reuters in Germany from 1990-2015. So what is Erik up to now? He is a freelance journalist for the Los Angeles Times, based in Berlin. He has covered the Olympics in Athens and Beijing, as well as the World Cup soccer tournaments in Germany and Brazil. He has also managed to find the time to author three recent books: Soccer Without Borders: Jürgen Klinsmann, Coaching the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team and the Quest for the World Cup; another one about the 1988 Springsteen concert in Communist East Berlin (that may have contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall a year later) called Rocking the Wall: Bruce Springsteen: The Berlin Concert That Changed the World; and a third book Burning Beethoven: The Eradication of German Culture in the United States during World War. Amazingly, we are not done yet. Erik also leads a German-American exchange program in Berlin for broadcast journalists in Germany and the United States. But Wait! There's more! Erik also builds and operates solar power plants in Berlin and Eastern Germany. Erik recently enjoyed a tour of the current Joel Barlow High School campus noting all the changes that have occurred since he graduated forty years ago. In his free time, he loves to travel around the country and speak to students about his work and what inspired him to become a journalist. And just to add a little personal bio to the mix, Erik is the father of four children and one grandchild. He has two younger sisters, Ingrid and Karin who attended Barlow for a brief period of time before his family relocated to California. THANK YOU, ERIK, FOR BEING AN ALUMNUS SPOTLIGHTER. Former Science Teacher,Bud McQuade, turns 103! WOW! Amazing gene pool! I was not a lover of science until I had Mr. McQuade as my seventh grade science teacher. His gentle demeanor and contagious enthusiasm for science changed many of us who preferred reading a book to learning about science. Today he is known for his amazing field of daffoldils that is enjoyed by all who pass by his house in late spring (http://hellonewsct.com/daffodil-delight/). If you are lucky enough to catch him home, he will give you a tour of all the gadgets in his house that he created. How impressive that he is still able to be on his own. A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Mr. McQuade and we look forward to celebrating your 104th. JBHS CLASS OF '65 HOLDS 70TH BIRTHDAY REUNION PICNICWe Came, We saw, We conquered... These are the words of Kent Bonner (Barlow class of '67), who along with his wife, Martha Briggs (Barlow class of '67) had the brilliant idea of hosting a 70th birthday picnic this past June at their lovely spread, Stonefence Farm, in rural Connecticut. These are some of Kent's reflections of the event: "Talons long ago trimmed and tempered, a hearty group of falcons swooped in from Oregon out west, Houston down south, the Maine woods to the north, the offshore Vineyard in the east, and the core of New England. Flights from friendships long ago forged. Classmates instinctively aware of how the special threaded connections woven in youth form the fabric and foundation we recognize today, now with a wiser and contented smile. With polite purpose, poise, and pleasure, all instantly said Hi ! , adding a big smile and a hug. Seventy isn’t seventeen, it felt synergistically stronger. Better. Reminiscent of Bob Dylan’s line in My Back Pages, 'I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now'. Arrivals wearing different faces then the ones memorialized in that red hardcover ‘Oracle’ of 1967. Lacking an age progression software program at our fingertips, some ‘mates’ entrance caused a silent internal moment of who? But the telltale give-away, the body’s trait that changes ever so slowly, would rescue us from the potentially embarrassing glitch. The voice. Hear a sentence and press the buzzer, I know that person! Looks a bit different but sure sounds the same." For sure, reunions do not have to stop at the 50th! Thank you, Kent and Martha, for throwing such a fabulous 70th birthday picnic for the class of 1967. |
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Congratulations to the recipients of the Joel Barlow Alumni Association scholarships that were given out at the JBHS AWARDS NIGHT this past June. Here are the recipients: Liadan O'Connor John Hoeing Julia Mullin Congrats and best wishes for a great year at whatever college you are attending. ALUMNI HAPPENINGS Class of 1977 - 60th Birthday PartyDate: Sunday, July 21, 2019 Location: Bethlehem, CT Time: 3PM-10PM Click here for details and to RSVP. Class of 1989, 30th ReunionDate: Saturday, October 5th, 2019 Location: Redding Roadhouse, Redding CT Cost:$50 per person, includes bar and appetizers Contact: Kri (Brown) Tartaglia at kritartaglia@optonline.net for more information. Do you have class stories to tell? Go to the Groups page and start sharing. Class Contact Volunteers Needed We're looking for leaders to find fellow classmates and help bring the community together online. Don't miss this great opportunity to network and reconnect! Email Christina Brandstrom '93 for more information. PLEASE READ THIS!! barlow.360alumni.comIMPORTANT SIGN UP INFORMATION FOR ALL ALUMNI Please sign up on barlow.360alumni.com so that you can access all the exciting things that are going on with your fellow Barlow alumni. When you do sign up, you can make our job far easier if you give us the following info: GRADUATION YEAR YOUR ADDRESS YOUR OCCUPATION It helps us to know where you are on the map and it also allows classmates to connect with you. Already activated your account? Then log in and update your profile. THANK YOU, THANK YOU. We have 10,000 graduates and still counting to catch up with. JBHSAA CAPITAL CAMPAIGNOn September 15, 2019, the JBHSAA will be launching its first Capital Campaign with a goal of raising $15,000.00 to support our scholarship program and other JBHS initiatives. Watch for details in our September newsletter. Thank you in advance for all your support. We need all the help we can get to keep this going! FIND US ON FACEBOOK Catch up with us on Facebook. If you want to place a post on Facebook, contact Debra Cole ('70). Facebook posts are also streamed on the JBHSAA community website. 
HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE. SEE YOU IN THE FALL.
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