ASHLAND —
Caught in a nostalgic mood a few months back, Fred Pope found himself leafing through some of his old high school yearbooks.
As he read the Hi-Life from 1963, his senior year at Paul G. Blazer High School, Pope mused 2012 marked 50 years since the school opened. He remembered it vividly, being one of the first class of the seniors to graduate from the new high school.
So he called Blazer from his Lexington home and got Principal Derek Runyon on the phone. Was there any commemoration planned to mark the 50th anniversary of the school, he asked?
There was not, Runyon informed him — but there should be. Runyon immediately started making plans. He and Superintendent Steve Gilmore arranged an open house at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and put out the call for alumni.
The event is not being billed as a reunion and will be open to the public, but Runyon is hoping some of the original three classes — 1963, 1964 and 1965 — will attend. It will be a chance for them to catch up with one another, and to see how their school has changed and evolved over the years.
He hopes Blazer’s recent makeover will make their visit memorable. “That’s the No. 1 selling point. With the renovations and the grounds the way they are now, we’re pretty proud of how the school looks now,” he said.
Runyon is not an alumnus but his parents are — his father, Chuck, is class of 1963 and his mother, Melba, is class of 1964 — so Blazer is a matter of family attachment as much as professional pride.
Melba Runyon remembers her excitement the first year. “It was a state-of-the-art high school, something no one else had. It was amazing to go from an old high school to one that looked like a college campus,” she said.
“When I was looking through the annual I realized I hadn’t seen some of these people in 50 years,” Pope said. He also realized there had never been a combined reunion of the three inaugural classes and felt that was an oversight.
Even then he and his classmates, although caught up in proms and sports and graduation plans, knew they were seeing the beginning of something special — a multibuilding layout that was more like a college campus than a high school.
“The campus setting was new and exciting. For many of us planning on college, it was a little bit of a prelude to what we could expect,” he said.
The event won’t be elaborate. Runyon and Gilmore will make remarks at a brief ceremony in the gymnasium and then invite attendees to wander the grounds. All the buildings will be open and there will be school staff on hand to try to answer questions.
Pope has just one. He remembers getting an “A” in physical education required shinnying up a rope to the ceiling. “I want to see if there is still a rope there.”
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2652.
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50 years in the making
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