The same year, Colonel White opened at the corner of Niagara and Wabash avenues as a junior high feeder school for Fairview. Many students attended Colonel White for 9th-10th grades, then moved on to Fairview for 11th-12th. In 1957, Colonel White became a four-year high school and remained so until it was closed and razed in 2007.
Fairview became a middle school in 1982, then housed an elementary until it was closed and razed in 2010. Today, both the Colonel White and Fairview sites are empty lots.
However, unlike Colonel White class of ’64 alumni, who will celebrate their 50th reunion Aug. 8-9, when Fairview grads hold their all-class reunion Sept. 13, they’ll be able to celebrate the choice of their alma mater’s empty lot as the site for Dayton Metro Library’s new Northwest branch. Attendees will not only have memories to share and graduates to honor but also a future to look forward to for their former school site.
Reunion chair Clifford Pierce and other alumni attended the library groundbreaking on June 24. “It would be nice if some Fairview artifacts could find a home in the new library,” he said.
Jim Woessner, Fairview Class of ’68, would “love to see our bulldog mascot or one of the school’s stained-glass windows there.”
Alumni will also be honoring some of their own. “I think we’re the only Dayton alumni group to have a Hall of Fame,” said Pierce, Class of ’78. “Throughout the years, we’ve inducted such notable alumni as Judge George Gounaris (’47), Mike Schmidt (’67), Robert Corbin (’40), John Rion (’61), Dr. Burton Saidel (’49), and Edwin C. Moses (’73).
“This year’s inductees are Mark Dempsey (’76), Judge Frances McGee Cromartie (’74) and Judge Jeff Froelich (’64).”
The all-class reunion/banquet will be held at the Dayton Convention Center. Tickets are $50, and the 6 p.m.-midnight affair includes a social hour, dinner, program and dancing. There are ad spaces available in the memory book until Aug. 1.
For more information and to download reservation and ad forms, go online to www.fairviewtowerofmemories.com or call Pierce at 937-520-2475.
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