School spirit is alive and well, at least when it comes to 50 years’ worth of classmates from East Brunswick High School.
PHOTOS BY SCOTT FRIEDMAN Top: Friends from the class of 1963 at East Brunswick High School take a group picture after signing a commemorative banner at the alumni sock hop Saturday, part of a weekend of events celebrating the school’s 50th anniversary. Bottom: Dianna Coppel (l-r), John Tomori and Anne Smalley do the Macarena during the sock hop. The school celebrated its golden anniversary with a weekend of events at the Cranbury Road building, and alumni from the first graduating class in 1962 up through the class of 2008.
The gala weekend began Friday evening with a barbecue at the school’s senior patio. Later, the Bears’ varsity football team took on the Piscataway Chiefs, to the cheers of alumni, who filled five sections of the bleachers, one for each decade in the school’s history.
Among those who were part of the class of 1962 was Michael Opaleski, also known to East Brunswick residents as a former township employee and longtime Republican Party official. Opaleski said the anniversary was a celebration not just of the school, but the entire township.
“You have to remember where East Brunswick was 50 years ago, and where it is now,” he said.
The school’s graduates have gone on to do amazing things, and Opaleski said he knows of their work with NASA and the United Nations, for example, and other occupations.
He didn’t have to tell that to Yvonne De Carolis, whose father taught many of the young musicians who made their way through East Brunswick into successful music careers. Mario “Chic” De Carolis was the high school’s first music teacher and a longtime band director. Yvonne created a scholarship fund in his name upon his death in 2007.
Chic De Carolis, affectionately known to students as Mr. D, had an orchestra and played in big bands before fighting in World War II. He lost a leg in the war, and embarked on a teaching career. De Carolis worked at the high school for 30 years, his daughter said, and formed the Indigos, a jazz stage band of high school students.
In fact, a group of former Indigos got together to perform at the high school Sunday, when many other musicians and students paid tribute to the musical life of the late De Carolis. The event featured live music from the Indigos, directed by Steven Kaplan from the class of 1976, and from Jeanie Bryson, vocalist and daughter of jazz great Dizzy Gillespie. The show also featured Chrystal Chang, a member of the class of 2008, who was awarded the first De Carolis music scholarship.
Opaleski said the class of 1962, of which he was president, had a 45th anniversary reunion five years ago, and at that time began working with the school district on the 50th anniversary gala. He said there were 191 members of the class, and 140 are still in contact.
On Saturday, alumni got a chance to walk through the high school and take in the many changes that have occurred since the school first opened its doors 50 years ago. To get them even more nostalgic, Saturday night featured a sock hop in the high school gymnasium.