Andrew Warde High School's Class of 1976 Graduated 40 Years Ago This Evening

Andrew Warde High School's Class of 1976 graduated on this date, Thursday, June 24, 1976. The newspaper article appeared the following day in The Bridgeport Post. Please click "view" and then click the article to enlarge and read.

Found on Newspapers.com
Paul

Andrew Warde High School's Class Day Winners for 1976 Listed in Newspaper on This Date 40 Years Ago

Andrew Warde High School's Class Day award winners for 1976 were listed in The Bridgeport Post on June 20, 1976. Please click "view" and then click the article to enlarge and read.

Found on Newspapers.com
Paul

'Surreal Experience' Returning to Warde 40 Years Later for Son's Graduation

It was a "surreal experience" returning to Warde High School to attend my middle son's graduation from the Melville Avenue secondary school exactly 40 years after my graduation from the same school.

It's hard to believe 40 years have passed since the Class of 1976 at Andrew Warde High School held commencement exercises in the same courtyard. I couldn't help but think back over the course of the past 40 years of my life while, at the same time, thinking ahead to what the next 40 years will bring for my son.

Warde High School looks absolutely beautiful. The courtyard was resplendently decorated in red-and-white, the colors of the Fairfield Warde High School Mustangs.

This blog began 10 years ago prior to the 30-year reunion of the Andrew Warde High School Class of 1976. Has ten years passed that quickly? Our 40-year reunion is just one month away. Before I know it, God willing, I'll be attending the 50-year reunion of our class while my son attends his 10-year reunion.

I hope you've enjoyed this blog. It has been a labor of love about the best high school in Fairfield.

Paul

AWHS Class of 1974 Alum Retires After Successful Teaching Career at Warde

John Kassay's life and career has come full circle. Forty-two years after graduating from Andrew Warde High School, the veteran educator who spent the last 14 years teaching full-time at his alma mater, decided to call it a career.

Kassay, who taught woodshop at Warde, was awarded an honorary diploma at this year's commencement exercises at Fairfield Warde High Schoool last evening.

"I always thought it would be awesome to teach at my old high school," Kassay once told me during an interview in his expansive classroom. "I wouldn't be where I am today if Fairfield wasn't the comprehensive high school that it was. We had those options --- graphics, mechanics, woodworking."

Kassay, who graduated from Central Connecticut State College in 1978 with a degree in Industrial Arts Education, began his teaching career at Seymour High School in the Fall of that same year. He eventually bought a piece of property in the valley city from a co-worker at Seymour High School, built a home, and has lived there since 1988. 

Kassay taught at Seymour High School until 1985, when he accepted a position at Andrew Warde High School. He remained at the Melville Avenue campus when Warde and Ludlowe merged into Fairfield High School in 1988. That's when he met his wife, the former Patty Kural, who was an interim headmaster during the consolidation. She also was a physical education teacher, intramural coach, and diving and gymnastics coach. 

However, he was a victim of the consolidation and his position was eliminated in 1990. For the next eight years, Kassay played Mr. Mom to his three children. He returned as a part-time teacher in 1999 and accepted a full-time position in 2001. Since then, he's been doing what he loves every day. 

Kassay said teaching at his high school brought back "a lot of memories. I think of all the teachers that I had, some of whom are still here. But, I just have a good time being in the building that I was once in, roaming the halls, and seeing the different changes," he admitted.

"My best memories were my shop classes, my Industrial Arts classes," admitted Kassay when asked what he most fondly recalls about his days at Andrew Warde High School. "I loved wordworking, I loved auto mechanics, I loved the graphic arts, and we had electricity, and, of course, phys ed. Those were my best." 

He stays in touch with many of his former classmates, too. "I see a lot of my close friends that I graduated with and played softball for many, many years with. In fact, one of my friends lives up in Seymour where I live, and we get together," added Kassay, who attended Holland Hill, McKinley, and Fairfield Woods Junior High School as a child.

Kassay reminisced about several role models he had when he attended Warde in the early 1970s. "Mr. Bednarik was a big influence for me, Mr. Donovan was a big influence, (and) probably in the Industrial Arts area, Mr. Trifone. 

"Mr. Keish, who I had at McKinley School and who ended up living a couple blocks away from me, (was a) fantastic man," he continued. Ed Donovan was Kassay's homeroom teacher in S9 during freshman year and in FH26 the next three years after the Fitts wing was built.

Kassay, who has been married 28 years, said he and his wife took advantage of their teaching schedules by traveling. "We've spent our Summers camping across the country," he told me. "My kids have been in 50 or 60 national parks. We've been in all the states. That is probably the highlight of my life.

"It's been a great thing for the kids," he continued. "They've used it for scholarships. I owe that to the fact that both my wife and I were teachers, and we had Summers off." 

Congratulations, John Kassay. We wish you the best in your retirement.

Paul

Warde Defeated Miford in First Round of CIAC Class A Baseball Tournament 55 Years Ago Today

Andrew Warde High School's well-balanced baseball team finished runnerup to Norwalk for the Fairfield County Interscholastic Conference baseball championship in 1961. However, the Crimson Eagles were victorious while Norwalk was eliminated in the opening round of the CIAC Class A championship tournament, Monday, June 12, 1961.

Coach Bob Jackson's Warde squad advanced to the tourney semi-finals with an impressive 2-0 victory over Milford's higher-rated Metropolitan Bridgeport Conference champions as Dick Bernard, who remained unbeaten since the baseball season opened, hurled a two-hit shutout to earn his ninth straight victory in a pitching duel with the Indians' Ricky Grich at Quigley Stadium in West Haven.

The Crimson Eagles, ranked seventh among the eight teams which qualified for the Class A title competition, backed Bernard with a nine-hit attack and tallied single runs in the fourth and sixth innings to defeat the third-ranked Milford team. It was the 17th victory in 21 games for the Fairfield squad, and just the fourth setback in 19 contests for Coach Ray Stoviak's Indians.

Outfielders Mike Siavrakas and Larry Gill connected for two hits each to lead Warde's attack against the veteran Grich, but it was rightfielder Tom Dardina and third baseman Frank Chimelewski who drove in the two runs for the Eagles with extra base hits in the June 12, 1961 contest.

It was a scoreless game until the fourth inning. Grich walked Gill with one out and when Chimelewski hit a grounder down the third base line, both runners were safe when the throw to second base for the attempted force out was too late. One out later, Dardina smacked a double down the left field line to score Gill with Warde's first run.

Tom Cody, Milford's rightfielder, made a fine catch of a long drive by Joe Magdon to open Warde's sxith inning, but Gill singled and Chimelewski bounced a triple off the fence in left-centerfield to bring home the Eagles' second run.

Both of Milford's hits off Bernard were bloop singles by third baseman Art Bungerford in the first and sixth innings. Although both hits were preceded by walks to Vic Nelson, the Indians were unable to capitalize. Warde's second baseman Hank Bahe made a poor throw following Hungarford's first single, but catcher Joe Vige threw out Nelson trying to advance to third base. In the sixth inning, both Nelson and Hungarford were picked off first base on throws by Vige and Bernard.

Paul