University High School
Bloomington, Indiana
Class of 1965
UHS '65 Newsletters
Sent out by Dave Gray each month
| Volume 1 | No 1 January 22, 2026 Susan Keisler Gray |
No 2 February 17, 2026 Portia Conn Hirschman |
No 3 |
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| Volume 2 | No 1 |
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| Volume 3 | No 1 |
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| Volume 4 | No 1 |
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| (just thinking ahead!) |
| Volume 1, Number 1, January 22, 2026 | ||
| Welcome to the UHS '65 Newsletter. Skip Higgins (Class
of 1963) has been doing monthly "63 Bullets" for several years, and I (Dave
Gray) have been building them into a Web page: https://www.uhsbloomington.org/1963/Bullets.htm The Bullets feature the life story since UHS for a member of the Class (sometimes two members, if married within the Class). A few days ago, we figured out how to do a mass e-mailing, and sounded out the Class of '65 as to whether we should do a similar project. The response was small (only 5 so far!), but all are positive. These Newsletters will go out to all members of the Class for whom I have e-mail addresses in my UHS students database. The database currently has 9118 records, people known to have been students at University School. This was compiled from the Jordannus yearbooks, from 1939 through 1972; a few people identified themselves as members using Classmates.com, but we found out that many of these were IU students, not Univees. Currently there are 126 Class members for whom I have e-mail addresses, some of which may be out-of-date. Only 2 messages have been returned, so those addresses have been deleted in the database. |
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| To start us off, Susan Keisler Gray is the first to supply a life story. | ||
| Susan Keisler Gray | ||
| After graduating from IU School of Nursing (I wanted to be a nurse from 7th grade, when I wrote a paper for Mr. Cousins about what I wanted to do as an adult), Dave and I married. We had managed to carry on our romance from grade 12 thru 4 years of being 600 miles apart during college, and seeing each other only in the summer between our summer jobs, and during Christmas/New Year's break. But we wrote a lot of letters - no email in those days. | ||
| After our wedding, we moved to Canada so that Dave could avoid the draft. First in Kitchener, Ontario, (about 60 miles west of Toronto) for 3 years while Dave worked a year, then attended a master's of engineering program. Then a move to the north, to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. I worked in hospitals in both cities, and found best friends and my favorite work in the intensive care unit in the Sault. We loved living there, bought and renovated a house. It was cold, snowy, had only 2 months of summer, and it was impossible to grow a garden and ripen tomatoes outside. I learned to cross country ski. After 8 years, Dave's case with the draft board was settled and we decided to move back to Bloomington, to be nearer family. We never took out Canadian citizenship - which I greatly regret now. Mostly because at that time, Canada would not allow hyphenated last names for women, or allow me to keep Keisler as my middle name. That law was changed later. | ||
| Back in Bloomington, we bought land in conjunction with Dave's sister and family, and designed and built our own house with some help from my cousin, a builder from Ft. Wayne. His crew of 3 guys put up the framework and the roof. Dave and I did all the rest - siding, insulation, electricity, plumbing, drywall, windows, etc. For 40 years we lived next to Dave's sister and family. | ||
| I tried to get a job at Bloomington Hospital, but they offered me only steady night shift and not in the ICU. So I worked at the nursing care unit at Meadowood Retirement Community for 2 years when it was first established. But I was not satisfied and got a job as "school nurse" in a residential program for children and teens who had autism, based at IU. This turned out to be my second career. After 2 years, the program sent the residential children back to their home communities and schools, and we began doing consultations around children and adults with autism all over the state. I went back to school part time, got my master's in Special Ed, and continued working as a consultant and behavioral specialist in the autism field, eventually in my own business, for the next 30+ years. I gardened - yeah! for Indiana summers that ripen tomatoes - and watched and helped with our nieces and nephews next door (Dave's sister Bonnie's) and in Greene County (my sister Becky's). | ||
| When it was time to downsize, we considered the political climate of both Indiana and the US and decided to move back to Canada. We still had our status of permanent residents from our 13 years from 1969-1982. But unfortunately, it was taken away because the way the Canadian immigration laws are written - we needed to have lived in Canada for 2 of the previous 5 years. (Which we had not, as we had been in Indiana for 40 years.) But we had already found an apartment to rent and settled in. (We are currently on "visitor" status for the last 1½ years, which we have to renew every year.) Our apartment is on the east side of Toronto, very near the Don River East walking trail. We can walk the 3-mile trail, except when it is snow covered as now. (No winter maintenance.) The apartment is small, meaning much less housework - yeah! We are on the 17th floor with very nice neighbors. | ||
| I am filling my time with some volunteering, helping with activities for adults who have autism, watching IU sports on TV (we can get the Big 10 network) Hoo-Hoo-Hoo Hoosier football. And trying to explain US politics to friends. We used to travel to Europe every year, often with friends, but only twice since Covid. Hope to start vacationing there again next year. | ||
| If you would like to contribute a short history of your life after UHS, please contact me at dlgray@uhs65.org. Who's next? |
| Comments |
| 1/23/2026 from Anne Gates gatesta@ptd.net: Ever since reading “When the World Came to Town,” I’ve been wanting to go to Gander, Newfoundland! Nice to read your story. We were in Quebec City this past fall; beautiful! I understand why you’re back there. . .not necessarily because of the beauty; most days I’d like to join you! Anne Gates |
| 1/23/2026 from Sheri Miller smiller1975@att.net: So glad u reached out! My story may b nxt????? Sheri (Shumate-Stevens) Miller Mobile: (317)603-9049 |
| 1/23/2026 from Sabra Petersmann sabrapeter@aol.com: What a terrific idea! But one question: Where do you two get all that energy? We're all the same age, and I feel I'm perpetually behind on all my projects. But I'm grateful I've GOT projects. Susan's write-up is wonderful! So glad to read all the details. Susan, I regretted not having you type my blood back when you were doing that in junior high. I dreaded the needle in the finger thing. Thank goodness for those fine sharp modern ones! And Dave, thank you for all the genealogy work on so many platforms. It's yeoman work! All the best to you both, Sabra |
| 1/23/2026 from Frank Yoder fwyodermd@yahoo.com: I enjoyed Susan’s work… I never knew she was an ICU nurse! Congratulations to you both and having the foresight to move to Canada before Trump’s tantrums. |
| 1/26/2026 from Tracy Russo trussoku@gmail.com: This is a great idea. I wonder if most of our classmates are as twitchy as I am about doing it -- our egos, successes and stumbles, after all, would show. However, I have it pretty high up in my to-do list. I did appreciate learning about your adventures. Onward, eh? Tracy |
| Volume 1, Number 2, February 17, 2026 | ||
| Hi to everybody, | ||
| No one has stepped forward with their life-after-UHS story, so this Newsletter will be short. | ||
| I'd like to send these Newsletters out mid-month, each month. But if I don't get any stories, the Newsletter will die a quick death. | ||
| The only news: 9 more Class of '65 University School students have been added to the database. The information about them is in the mimeographed list of 1952-53 kindergarten students (https://www.uhsbloomington.org/1965/1965%20photos.html). All of these kids were at University School in kindergarten only. | ||
| Several dozen classmates were accidentally not included in last month's mass mailing. Sorry if I missed you, and welcome to the UHS '65 Newsletter (such as it is). | ||
| My best to all, Dave Gray | ||
| Well, OK. Portia Conn Hrschman responded within 90 minutes, with her story: | ||
| My father was a career Naval officer and was transferred to Bloomington to obtain his PhD in Business (he later became CFO of the Navy). I began at University HS my junior year in the old building. As a military brat, I learned early on that the quickest way into school community was to volunteer for back stage work in theatre. I also volunteered for the Jordanus as activities editor. | ||
| I graduated from Purdue with a BS in construction engineering (the first female graduate of that program). I spent 20+ years in construction (with all the harassment from men who didn't think women should be on site) followed by a stint at Indiana Bell in engineering and construction. Divestiture was an exciting time for sure. With competition, a new marketing group was formed in Ameritech to sell technical services to long distance companies. I was promoted and moved to Ameritech. My customer ended up hiring me to negotiate contracts with midwestern telephone companies and represent them before the PUCs. | ||
| I then discerned a call to ordained ministry in the Episcopal church. I was ordained a priest and called to lead three congregations all needing new buildings. The last one was in Maryland. While on sabbatical after completion of the building and relocating to it, I walked the Camino de Santiago from France over the Pyrenees to Santiago, Spain-approximately 500 miles. It was the most life changing thing I have ever done. I have hiked almost half the Appalachian Trail but the Camino has beckoned me back three more times. | ||
| We retired in 2013 and moved to Scarborough, Maine (I am from East Boothbay, ME; Scarborough is just south of Portland) to be near family. I continue to be involved in ministry by serving in congregations when clergy are ill or away and actively serve on three Town committees (Transportation, Long Range Planning, and Climate Vulnerability) as well as Healthy Beaches (water sampling to evaluate bacterial counts). We live near the ocean and on the largest marsh in Maine. A beautiful place to live. My hobbies are walking/hiking, camping, sewing and reading. I have four children and nine grandchildren ranging in age from 28 to 7. | ||
| At retirement, we decided to travel while able. Amazing destinations include Galapagos, Egypt & Jordan, most of Eastern and Western Europe including Russia, Iceland, South America, and just this past December-Antarctica (a true bucket list destination!). During January and February we tent camp on the beach in Key West, Florida. Yes, I like snow but my husband prefers to head toward warmth for January as he is from Indianapolis-laughing because our Maine weather is usually less brutal (rarely ever goes below zero, lots of bright sunny days, and often in the upper 30's). He was surprised by the almost constant winter sun here versus gray Indiana days. | ||
| It has been a good life to date. I am grateful for excellent health. I haven't been able to attend reunions but I try to keep up as much as possible. | ||
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| Volume 1, Number 3, March, 2026 |
Updated 17 Feb 2026