You would think that the school would have a record of all of those photos but, when I started, over half of the photos were missing. I appealed to HSR members in the Gaslight News to lend us their old school photos to scan, and Mrs. Mabel Kloos did the same during a presentation she made to mark the school’s 100th Birthday.
Just when I thought we had all the RPS eighth grade graduation pictures that we could find, Cindy Klabe Robertson brought this Riverton School Eighth Grade Class of 1969 photo to my attention. A few minutes of photo-editing restored the 43 year-old photo to mint condition. I gave an 8×10 inch print to Mabel to take into school the next time she went in to sub.
Shortly afterwards, Mabel knocked on my door with a list of the remaining photos that are still needed for the school’s hallway display of eighth grade graduation photos. Please contact me if you can donate an original or loan one so that I may make a copy.
I still hold out the hope that some of these photos will show up in an old family album, a forgotten trunk, or grandmother’s attic.
The pictures don’t have to be in perfect condition either. If you find one of the absent photos and it is showing its age, please don’t hesitate to contact me as I can often restore even torn and faded photos.
As Betty Hahle so patiently pointed out to me in 1985 when Principal Rip Kilne was organizing the 75th Riverton School Birthday, the brick school that was built in 1910 was not the first Riverton School.
Recently, I found this account of the RPS Class of 1903 in a newspaper archive. So definitely please contact me if you find any class photos, graduation programs, newspaper articles, etc. about Riverton student activities prior to 1910 that you want to donate or loan for scanning. – John McCormick, Gaslight News editor
How’ve you been? Nancy and I are moving in 2 weeks into a beautiful 50 acre farm we just bought in Chatham Twp., Ohio. Newly remodeled house. Big lake. Oil, gas and woods are bringing in nice $. We’ll lease 22 acres to a farmer who raises corn and soybeans.
We’re haven’t had a chance to do that 100th anniversary RPS film yet. May take another year or two before we get to it. We both work 70 hour weeks as it is. We are also moving our co. out into the country nearby. We bought a huge warehouse and we have to move all our offices and inventory from our current warehouse out to there. That will take months. I also own many apt. buildings which take time to run. Also, we don’t know how to edit films, etc. so we will have to hire some kid to help us. Wish I could retire someday. That would free up some time. We have one of Nancy’s daughter’s working with us too. Will add other siblings as the co. grows. We’ve already doubled sales since I made Nancy the CEO. Now we are a WBE firm. Selling to the US gov’t as a minority like that is a license to steal. It’s great. When the time comes I’ll ask for all the permission’s I can get to do the film. What you didn’t see were all the interviews I got of people who graduated from RPS that day. They’re priceless. Especially the people from the older classes in the 30’s, etc. I even shot film of the original site of RPS near the tracks. It’s be great. You know the real 100th anniversary of RPS schools was long ago. The anniversary they celebrated was just at the building that they have now. The first RPS schools started in the 1860’s or so, didn’t it? That’s what they should really celebrate someday.