Warde's Legendary Football Coach Saved Man From Drowning at Mouth of Ash Creek 44 Years Ago Today

Andrew Warde High School's Hall of Fame football coach came to the rescue of a man who appeared to be drowning in the strong current at the mouth of Ash Creek in Fairfield 44 years ago today, Tuesday, July 30, 1968.

The man, who was about 30 years of age, was saved by Fern Tetreau, the coach of the Warde Eagles' gridders, who happened to be attending a cookout nearby, according to a front-page story in The Bridgeport Telegram. Tetreau, Warde's first football coach, led the team to an undefeated 9-0 campaign in 1959, just three years after the school opened.

Attracted by shouts for help off the jetty at the end of Jennings Beach and opposite St. Mary's by the Sea, Tetreau outraced three fellow physical education instructors in the Fairfield school system and swam to the aid of the man, who was being held by a woman companion. Both the man and woman were about to be swept away by the current toward Long Island Sound.

A short time later, a boat from the Ash Creek boat basin picked up the man while the woman companion swam back to St. Mary's. After being taken to the boat basin, the woman friend drove the man home.

The man told Tetreau he was wading at St. Mary's when he was swept into the water by the strong current. His woman companion managed to keep him afloat until Mr. Tetreau arrived on the scene.

Tetreau was attending a cookout at a cottage at the east end of Jennings Beach as a guest of Robert Seirup, a physical education instructor who conducted swimming classes there in the Summer.

Also present were Emil Taft, the Roger Ludlowe High School football coach, and Bob Jackson, director of physical education in the Fairfield school system.

Paul

Andrew Warde High School's Class of 1962 Planning 50-Year Reunion August 11 at Penfield Beach

Plans are well underway for the Andrew Warde High School Class of 1962 50-year reunion on Saturday, August 11, 2012, from 8pm to midnight at Penfield I, Fairfield Beach Road, Fairfield. Dinner will be provided by Swanson's of Fairfield. Bill Baker, from the Class of 1962, will also be providing some entertainment during the evening.

"The reunion committee would like to extend an invitation to any other AWHS graduates who have friends from the class of 1962," wrote T. J. Murphy, the son of Tom Murphy, who is chairing the reunion committee. "We are maintaining an updated list of attendees, so if you would like to know who is attending, please contact us." He said that there are about 100 people attending as of now, "and (we) are looking forward to a fun evening filled with many memories!"

"Since I'm a bit more adept with the computer, I've been assisting with updating the class list database and sending out emails," the younger Murphy told me. "It's amazing how the Internet has helped us keep in touch and find missing class members even after all these years! As of today, out of a class of 374, only around 60 are missing, and over 130 of the class have email addresses, a big change from when I started helping my father with this 15 years ago!"

The Andrew Warde Class of 1962 is seeking to build an e-mail directory of its members for its 50th reunion to be held on August 11 at Penfield. Please send your and your classmates emails to AWHS62@aol.com. More details will be coming soon. Click on the image below to access the class Facebook invitation page:

Paul

Andrew Warde High School's Class of 1982 to Hold 30-Year Reunion August 4 at Trumbull Marriott

Andrew Warde High School's Class of 1982 has scheduled its 30-year reunion, Saturday, August 4, 2012, from 7 to 11 p.m. at the Trumbull Marriott. Contact Keith Anderson at totallook@aol.com for more information.

The reunion committee is looking for updated contact information from members of the Class of 1982. A contact form is listed on the class Web site at http://awhs1982.homestead.com/. The committee prefers to receive classmates' information through the form on the Web site, which makes it easier to organize. However, if there is a problem downloading the form, classmates may can contact the committee at mail@awhs1982.com.

According to the class Web site, "We realize that Facebook can keep us all informed and give us access to all the info and photos we want to see and share about the reunion and classmates, so we are depending on the Facebook Group to do just that. (The Class Web site) will still contain contact info and blurbs about classmates and info about the reunions, but for the latest and greatest, please join the Class of 1982 Facebook Group now!" Click the image below to access the page.

Paul

Former Warde Classmates Performed with Singer-Songwriter Dan Swartz at Ferguson Library

AWHS 1976 classmate and professional musician Tony Procaccini recently performed selections from the American Songbook with singer-guitarist Dan Swartz at Stamford's Ferguson Library, as part of the library's Adult Reading Summer Club's activities called Novel Destinations.

By a fluke coincidence, another AWHS 1976 classmate, Stephan Lang (pictured below right), also participated. Lang was not originally scheduled to perform but, upon arriving at the venue (with his long-time friend Procaccini), Steve found a string bass available, and simply added himself to the mix!

The multi-talented Swartz (pictured above) is a resident of Cos Cob (Greenwich) and is well-versed in the American songbook. He and Procaccini met fairly recently while attending a performance of the well-known Jazz artist Chris Coogan of Weston, and have remained friends since then. This was their first performance together.

Elaine Krikorian of the library was instrumental in organizing and promoting the show, which elicited a full house and numerous compliments both on the concert date and afterwards. Young magician Kyrian Friedenberg dazzled the audience during the intermission.

"It was such a great day, from start to finish," noted Procaccini, who first performed at the Ferguson in November 2007 with acclaimed soprano Krista Adams-Santilli. "I felt like I was home again, playing on a fine piano for a crowd which loved the music we played. I hope to return soon."

Procaccini, a Sinatra historian, also sang two Sinatra favorites, in addition to a piano solo on the theme from "Alice in Wonderland." After the program, an elderly attendee recounted to Procaccini his story of seeing the 1943 movie "Higher and Higher," a Sinatra staple of which Procaccini spoke and that was one of his vocal selections on this day. "I was so happy to connect with this man," Procaccini mused, "and find a true, living connection to the past and this great music of ours." He is pictured at the piano below.

Swartz's vocal selections came from composers and lyricists such as Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Irving Berlin. The audience sang with some of them (lyrics provided), while one individual sung in duet with Dan, and another danced with him, appropriately enough, during Procaccini's singing of "Come Dance With Me."

"Linda Colucci, newly appointed President of the Connecticut Playmakers Musical Theatre Company, was the person I chose to dance with for Surrey With the Fringe on Top," said Swartz. "I had no clue she was that good a dancer." They are pictured below.

Swartz added, "Larissa Friedenberg danced during the song Come Dance with Me (pictured below with Procaccini at the piano). She is a trained professional classical pianist who teaches in Old Greenwich. Her son performed as the card magician. He is also a talented musical performer. Thanks, Tony, for your expertise and for agreeing to perform with me." 

A great time was had by all, and many expressed the wish of a future concert by the same participants.

Warde Honors 'Legendary' Educators

The following article was written by Nicoletta Richardson and appeared in the Fairfield Citizen newspaper, Friday, June 13, 2012.

"Legends inspire and live in us and our students."

That was the theme in the Fairfield Warde High School auditorium when the inaugural group of three "legendary" Warde educators was honored recently by the Fairfield Education Association -- two of them posthumously.

Honored at the June 21 ceremony were former longtime football coach Fern Tetreau, the late English teacher Charlie Abraham and the late history teacher Jack Strauss.

The ceremony was the first of what is intended to be a continuing program to honor exceptional teachers and coaches who spent the majority of their careers at Warde, according to Jim D'Acosta, a member of the education association's Faculty Honors Committee, which established the program.

During the recent ceremony, former students, friends and relatives paid tribute to the legends, whose names will be on a plaque as part of a faculty honors display in the Warde media center.

The committee had little formal criteria for picking honorees, D'Acosta said. But based on facts and on members feelings, they "knew" Tetreau, Abraham and Strauss should be the inaugural honorees, he said.

Fern Tetreau

Known to family, friends, former students and athletes simply as "Coach," Tetreau was a varsity football in Fairfield from 1953 to 1970, first at Roger Ludlowe High School and later at Andrew Warde.

During his 17-year coaching career, colleagues and former players said, Tetreau was compassionate and giving, and taught his players that football provided lessons in life.

Before the ceremony, former Warde physical education teacher Ed Bengermino said Tetreau will forever be remembered as a mentor who tapped into the school's tradition.

At the ceremony, the coach sat on the left side of the auditorium's front row, Warde's current football team seated behind him.

He attended with his son, Fairfield First Selectman Michael Tetreau, who as a quarterback at Roger Ludlowe High School played against his father's teams.

During the ceremony, Michael Tetreau said that while his father taught him about football, he taught him more about life. The coach encouraged his children to give back to their community through Thanksgiving charity programs and working for the Special Olympics.

"As a kid growing up, I got to be the water boy during the huddle," Michael Tetreau told the gathering. "I got to hear all the big guys, and I got to see my dad coach and [got to] sit in on every single halftime talk. It was a phenomenal experience to see your dad under pressure in a situation like that."

A native of Maine, Fern Tetreau had to drop out of high school temporarily to work but returned to school and won a football scholarship to attend college. In brief remarks during the ceremony, he said coming to Fairfield was the best move he ever made.

"I was welcomed here, I had a lot of success here, I made a lot of friends and I'm grateful to be around a great community," he said.

Charlie Abraham

Charlie Abraham died in 1996 at age 77. As an English teacher, he is remember for the impact he had on students, former student Anne Meiman Hughes said.

During the ceremony, Hughes quoted Abraham during one of his English classes: "Yours is the first generation that will have to decide as you stand on this side of the bridge -- the bridge of technology, nuclear weaponry, genetic engineering, computers and such -- whether you should cross the bridge, simply because you can."

She said Abraham's influence was felt beyond the subject matter. "He was definitely an inspiration through more than just the subject he taught. He taught [us] to be leaders in the world."

Dante Gallucci, a 1976 Warde graduate, told the gathering he was a close friend of Abraham's daughter before she passed away in their middle-school years But he remained close with Charlie.

"Although I [gave] little respect to authority in my later high school years, I did give respect to him," Gallucci said. "He said to me, `You know, God gave you a gift. You're a leader, and you're smart. You could either do good things with that, or bad things. I hope you do good things, because this world could use people like you.' "

Gallucci has been a lawyer for more than 30 years, has run the Fairfield National League for 14 years, and been a volunteer coach at Warde for six years. He said that he "couldn't have done it without Charlie Abraham."

Jack Strauss

Jack Strauss taught American history at Warde and died in 1997 at age 67. He was a quiet man at home but quite the opposite in the classroom, according to his widow, Sonia Daniel Strauss.

"I understand that when he entered his classroom and shut the door, he was quite dramatic," she said. "Like jumping on the table, or on the desk, or raising his voice, or being very quiet. This was told to me by students who I still hear saying, `Oh my God, I remember Jack. He was so wonderful.' "

When Chris Parisi began his teaching career ay Warde in 1994, Strauss was his mentor. Parisi told the gathering that he and students alike developed a "deep, emotional bond" with Strauss.

"His classroom was not a room, per se. It was more of an exciting, ever-changing learning environment," Parisi said. "Jack would put you in his stories, that meandering in the forest of ideas. Frequently, students would be encouraged to be lost in that forest, and I would be lost with him, wondering where it was all headed."

Strauss has left an enduring legacy, Parisi said. "His lessons live on in the very lives of his students, including me."

LEGEND TESTIMONIALS

Former students and colleagues may contribute testimonials regarding Fern Tetreau, Charlie Abraham or Jack Strauss for inclusion in the legendary educators' archive.

Submissions should include relationship to the honoree (student, colleague, etc.) and approximate date they met. Testimonials may be emailed to Gayle Attruia at: gattruia@fairfieldschools.org.

Andrew Warde High School's Class of 1978 to Hold Annual Get-Together This Sunday at Captain's Cove

The Andrew Warde High School Class of 1978 will hold its annual Summer get-together this Sunday, July 15, from 3 to 7 p.m. at Captain's Cove Seaport in Bridgeport. Please click the class Web page below for more information. The local band To the Max will be performing at the seaport.

Paul

Swim Marathon Held 41 Years Ago Raised Funds to Keep Swim Programs Alive at Warde & Ludlowe

Swim team members and alumni from Andrew Warde and Roger Ludlowe high schools swam for their proverbial lives in a 30-hour marathon 41 years ago this weekend. The marathon, which raised $4,000 to help keep the swim teams at both schools afloat for the 1971-72 school year, set a national record of 100 miles.

The event, which was held at the Olympic-size Fairfield YMCA pool on Old Post Road, began at noon on Saturday, July 3, 1971, and ended Sunday evening, July 4, at 6 p.m., according to a front-page story which appeared in The Bridgeport Telegram, Monday, July 5, 1971 (see below).

More than 60 swimmers participated, completing the 100 miles in 28 hours and one minute. Encouraged by financial backing from townsfolk who pledged one dollar for every completed lap, the participants continued after setting the record to log 30 hours of uninterrupted swimming.

George Ford, a parent of one of the swim team members, announced at the conclusion of the event that $4,000 had been raised. However, he emphaszied that another $4,000 was needed to support the activities for the swim teams at both high schools.

"If the Board of Education approves a request for a $2,000 allocation for the program, the swim teams will be able to continue their activities in the new school year," Ford stated. As a result of sharp budget cuts, the Board of Education eliminated funds previously provided for the swim team programs.

Rather than let the program die, members of the swim teams at both high schools started the ball rolling for a fund-raising event. The marathon was the first endeavor, and other plans for raising the needed funds were in the works.

The marathon was supervised by Edward Quinn, the Ludlowe swim coach, his assistant, William Babcock, and George Reed of Warde. Mike Tierney and Bob Wilk, Ludlowe's co-captains, and Dan Ford and Mike Cardone of Warde helped organize the marathon.

Paul