Alumni look over their high school yearbooks. The Red Bank Regional Education Foundation held its sixth annual Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame Dinner May 4 at Branches in Eatontown. This year’s nine inductees included a list of accomplished individuals whose graduation years at RBR ranged from 1939 through 1980.
Renee Maxwell was also inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame as an honorary faculty alumna.
“It was a wonderful evening with a ‘walk down memory lane’ for all the inductees,” said Donna France, RBR Educational Foundation president and chairperson for the dinner. “They were all so impressed with the changes to the high school and the opportunities these changes will make to the future of the students.”
During the day, current RBR students had the opportunity to meet the distinguished alumni in a ceremony in the media center. The alumni received their Hall of Fame certificates and had an opportunity to peruse their old yearbooks.
Under the direction of creative arts teacher Dr. Gretna Wilkinson, the students fashioned the alumni’s biographies in a story presented by the student writers. The alumni, who had toured the modern RBR with Principal Jim Stefankiewicz earlier in the day, then spoke to the students.
Judge Benedict Nicosia told the students how proud he was to be an RBR graduate. NASCAR industry entrepreneur Daniel H. Jesel, who was very impressed with the technology offered through RBR’s academies, told students that their high school appeared more like a college.
Pioneering businesswoman Joanne Bennett spoke directly to the young women in the audience, relating that opportunities for women just didn’t exist back in “the Dark Ages” when she graduated, but nowadays, as long as they set goals, they can balance both families and careers.
Retired three-star general and former Fort Monmouth commander Otto Guenter, who described himself as a classic underachiever in high school, advised students to set their goals. “This country allows you to do anything you want to do if you set your mind to it. I am a living example of that,” he told students.
Longtime Red Bank business owner and community volunteer Harold Komar echoed many alumni’s thoughts when he said, “What a change from when I graduated. You young people are blessed to go here. You have so much opportunity. We expect much from today’s RBR graduates.”