Newsletter for the Alumni and Friends of
Hicksville High School Hicksville, New York

The Editors:
Buffalo Bob Casale '61	Linda (Piccerelli) Hayden '60
Pat (Koziuk) Driscoll '56	Bob (Gleason) Wesley '61

Contributing Editors: Bob Gillette & Walter Schmidt

Webmaster: Roger Whitaker

To contact the editors, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Saint Patrick is the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland. St Patrick is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. Did you know that he wasn't really Irish? His father was an Italian and his mother was Scottish.

Saint Patrick is most known for driving the snakes from Ireland. It is true there are no snakes in Ireland, but there probably never have been - the island was separated from the rest of the continent at the end of the Ice Age.

There are several accounts of Saint Patrick's death. One says that Patrick died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, on March 17, 460 A.D. His jawbone was preserved in a silver shrine and was often requested in times of childbirth, epileptic fits, and as a preservative against the "evil eye." Another account says that St. Patrick ended his days at Glastonbury, England and was buried there. The Chapel of St. Patrick still exists as part of Glastonbury Abbey. Today, many Catholic places of worship all around the world are named after St. Patrick, including cathedrals in New York and Dublin city.

Dear Class of 1968

We had an inquiry from Marc O'Riordan about the possibility of a Fifty Year Reunion for the class of 1968 in 2018. HixNews has heard nothing so please advise if there might be something in the works.A reminder to other classes. Should you decide on having a reunion, let HixNews know so we can help by establishing a reunion website. The door is open to every class. You can check previous websites to see what a great vehicle it was to keep the classes aware of what was happening. See: http://hixreunion.com.

Buffalo Bob Casale

Hicksville Vietnam War Era Memorial - PROJECT UPDATE

February donations rose to $4,700, up from $3,400 in January and we are now nearing 20% of our needed goal of $25,000 to build and maintain the Memorial.  The number of donors has improved from 18 last month to 26 people, couples and companies or organizations.  Just think where we could be if everyone reading this note donated at least $10 to this worthy cause!  And, all donations are tax deductibile!  To see an alphabetical list of current donors and how you can be one of them, please see our monthly UPDATE in the Honoring Our Veterans section of this issue of HixNews.

One new name was added in February to the Confirmed List of Names, which now stands at 1,894.  We still need the help of all readers to fill in missing data on the Confirmed List of Names and to help us qualify the names shown on the Unconfirmed List.

As in the past, when you visit this month's UPDATE, please remember that clicking on the two links near the bottom of the page will bring you to the complete Confirmed and Unconfirmed Lists of Names as of the end of February.  And, If you have any new information to send us, please email it to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

On behalf of the Project Team,
Joe Carfora, HHS 1962, Project Coordinator

The Newsletter

Photo Gallery

Record Breakers Shown In Photos    (Continued in June 2015 Gallery)

The most bicycle friendly city in the world: Groningen , Netherlands

By comparing cities along the criterion of average number of bicycle trips made

daily, one city reigns supreme: Groningen in the Netherlands . In Groningen

about 50 percent of the population commute via bike daily, making it the

city with the greatest proportion of cyclists on the planet.

World's most energy efficient city: Reykjavik , Iceland

All of the energy and heat used by the citizens of Reykjavik Iceland come from geothermal plants

and renewable hydropower, making it the most sustainable and energy efficient city in the

On their mission to be completely free of fossil fuels by 2050, the city has also been replacing

traditional buses with hydrogen-fueled buses, from which the only emissions are water.

Most cat friendly country: United States

With a pet cat population of 76.43 million feline friends, the United States

dominates the world stage for most cat friendly country in the world.

Most dog friendly country: United States

Similarly, America more than doubles the amount of pet dogs any other country

has, with a dog population of 61.1 million.

Most sexually satisfied country: Switzerland

Switzerland might just be the most progressive and least sexually repressed country in the world.

Between liberal views on pornography and prostitution, and sex ed that starts in Kindergarten, over

a fifth of the population consider their sex-lives "excellent." They even recently opened up a very

successful array of tax-funded drive-in sex boxes in Zurich . Bonus, in spite of all this, Switzerland

also holds the title as one of the lowest teen birth rates in the world.

Least sexually satisfied country: Japan

With its extreme conservatism, Japan is the country with the least sexual satisfaction, as

only 15% of individuals reported having a fulfilling sex life. Furthermore, over 45% of

Japanese women report being either uninterested in, or actually despising, sexual contact

Most emotional country in the world: Philippines

Polling citizens in 150 countries over the years of 2009-2011, researchers found that the people of

the Philippines were the most likely to respond emotionally to simple questions about their day.

 Least emotional country in the world: Singapore

That same study revealed that Singaporeans experience the least emotion on

the day-to-day. Only 3 out of every 10 reported having any emotional reactions

to basic scenarios or when describing their days.

 Country with the longest life expectancy in the world: Monaco

According to the World Health Organization's study from 2013, Monaco tops the charts for

longest living citizens, with an average life expectancy of 87.2 years. Men in Monaco live

an average 85.3 years and women live to an average of 89 years.

 Country with the shortest life expectancy: Sierra Leone

On the other side of that coin, the population of Sierra Leone live to an average

of 47 years. The men of Sierra Leone live to an average of 47 years old,

whereas women live an average of 48 years.

 Sexiest country in the world: Brazil and Australia

There will always be a debate about which countries are home to the most

attractive people, in part because who's to say what is objectively attractive? Though

the means are hardly scientific, a recent poll found quite a disparity between which countries

men believe are the sexiest, and which countries women find the sexiest.

For men, Brazil tops the charts for the most attractive people. For women,

it's about the thunder down under in Australia .

 Most stressed-out country in the world: Nigeria

By looking at the dimensions of Homicide Rate, GDP per capita,

Income inequality, Corruption, and Unemployment, one thing is clear:

Nigeria is hands-down the most stressed out country in the world.

Least stressed-out country in the world: Norway

Along the same dimensions, Norway was at the far-end of the other side of

the spectrum, and is deemed the least stressed-out country in the world.

Country with the highest average IQ: Hong Kong

There are a lot of factors that can affect an IQ score, ranging from national and personal

wealth to simply who makes the test. As a result, these findings are highly controversial,

but seem to suggest that Hong Kong is the country* with the highest IQ, at an average

of 107 points. *Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China meaning that it

falls within the sovereignty of the People's Republic of China , yet does not form

part of Mainland China , and has it's own government.

Country with the lowest average IQ: Equatorial Guinea

According to "IQ and the Wealth of Nations," Equatorial Guinea caps the low

End of the global IQ range, with a national average of 59 points.

World's most well-connected city (for internet): Seoul , South Korea

Surprisingly, despite it's 618 million internet users spending an average of 18.7 hours a

week surfing the net, China didn't even make the top 10. Along the dimensions of

average connection speed, availability (weighted towards free access), openness

to innovation, support of public data, and privacy/security, Seoul in South Korea is

the champion of internet-connectedness. With 10,000 government supported

free WiFi spots dotting the city, and an internet speed that goes unchallenged globally.

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Honoring our Veterans

 JAN SCRUGGS

Founder and President
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund          Jan Scruggs

In 1979, Jan Scruggs conceived the idea of building the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington , D.C. , as a tribute to all who served during one of the longest wars in American history. Today, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is among the most visited memorials in the nation's capital.

Scruggs was a wounded and decorated veteran of the Vietnam War, having served in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade of the U.S. Army.  He felt a memorial would serve as a healing device for a different kind of wound that inflicted on our national psyche by the long and controversial Asian war.

Scruggs launched the effort with $2,800 of his own money and gradually gained the support of other Vietnam veterans in persuading Congress to provide a prominent location on federal government property somewhere in Washington , D.C.  After a difficult struggle, Congress responded, and the site chosen was on the National Mall near the Lincoln Memorial.

As president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Inc., the nonprofit organization created to build and maintain the Memorial, Scruggs headed up the effort that raised $8.4 million and saw the Memorial completed in just two years.  It was dedicated on November 13, 1982, during a week-long national salute to Vietnam veterans in the nation's capital.

After the completion of the Memorial, Scruggs, along with author Joel L. Swerdlow, put to paper To Heal a Nation -the moving story of Scruggs' efforts to build The Wall. In May 1988, it became an NBC Movie of the Week.

Scruggs continues to lead VVMF as it enters a new phase in its mission to remember those who sacrificed in Vietnam : building the Education Center at The Wall. The Education Center will show the photos and tell the stories of those who made the ultimate sacrifice during the Vietnam War, as well as celebrate the values embodied by American service members in all of our nation's wars.

He has appeared on 60 Minutes, Nightline, Good Morning America and The Today Show as well as C-SPAN, CNN and FOX.  He has written opinion articles for The Washington Post, USA Today, The New York Times,The Washington Times and other national and regional publications.  A national speaker and author, Scruggs has written articles on a wide range of topics, including the Civil War and the battle of Gettysburg .

Scruggs is a native of Washington, D.C, and grew up in Bowie, Md. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from American University in Washington , D.C. , and his law degree from the University of Maryland , Baltimore .

Photo of Jan Scruggs by Warren Kahle

Memory Lane

Flashback to March 2008

This is the new Station #2 facility as of December 25, 2013

Casale's Corner

Professor of Chemistry Hessy Taft

Hessy Taft recently presented the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel with a Nazi magazine featuring her baby photograph on the front cover, and told the story of how she became an unlikely poster child for the Third Reich. When Hessy Taft was six months old, she was a poster child for the Nazis. Her photograph was chosen as the image of the ideal Aryan baby, and distributed in party propaganda. But what the Nazis didn't know was that their perfect baby was really Jewish.

"I can laugh about it now," the 80-year-old Professor Taft told Germany 's Bild newspaper in an interview. "But if the Nazis had known who I really was, I wouldn't be alive."

Professor  Taft recently presented the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel with a Nazi magazine featuring her baby photograph on the front cover, and told the story of how she became an unlikely poster child for the Third Reich. Her parents, Jacob and Pauline Levinsons, both talented singers, moved to Berlin  from Latvia to pursue careers in classical music in 1928, only to find themselves caught up in the Nazis' rise to power. Her father lost his job at an opera company because he was Jewish, and had to find work as a door-to-door salesman. In 1935, with the city rife with anti-semitic attacks, Pauline Levinsons took her six-month-old daughter Hessy to a well-known Berlin photographer to have her baby photograph taken. A few months later, she was horrified to find her daughter's picture on the front cover of Sonne ins Hause, a major Nazi family magazine. Terrified, the family would be exposed as Jews, she rushed to the photographer, Hans Ballin. He told her he knew the family was Jewish, and had deliberately submitted the photograph to a contest to find the most beautiful Aryan baby.

"I wanted to make the Nazis ridiculous," the photographer told her.

He succeeded. The picture won the contest and was believed to have been chosen personally by the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Frightened she would be recognized on the streets and questions asked about her identity,  Professor Taft's parents kept her at home. Her photograph appeared on widely available Nazi postcards, where she was recognized by an aunt in distant Memel, now part of Lithuania. But the Nazis never discovered Professor  Taft's true identity. In 1938, her father was arrested by the Gestapo on a trumped up tax charge, but released when his accountant, a Nazi party member, came to his defense.

After that, the family fled Germany. They moved first to Latvia before settling in Paris only for the city to fall to the Nazis. With the help of the French resistance, they escaped again, this time to Cuba. And in 1949 the family moved to the United States. Today the Jewish woman who was once a Nazi poster child is a professor of chemistry in New York.

"I feel a little revenge," she said of presenting her photograph to Yad Vashem.  "Something like satisfaction."