Skeeter Citrowske (Class of 1977) wrote:
Dear Ryan Alumni,
I wanted to say that after looking at your website, you guys are doing a
fantastic job! I also wanted to contribute some amount of money to help
with your expenses. I wanted to ask that you add my brother Jim Citrowske
to your Memorial List. I know he did not graduate from Ryan, but he as
attending there until his untimely accident September 21, 1985. I
figured I could make out a check to the Ryan Alumni & send it to the High
School. However, if you will give me an official address, I will mail it
to that box number in Ryan.
I wanted to say, I owe my success at Halliburton to "Ryan High School". I
work around mechanical and electrical engineers everyday; they all ask me where
I got my degree. I can only tell them "Ryan University" & that I received
a great deal of knowledge from my grandfather (Oak Jackson). Next year, I
will hopefully achieve my 35 years with Halliburton.
Anyway, keep up the good work and let me know if I can provide any assistance.
Wishing you all the best.....
Skeeter Citrowske
Sr Technical Instructor
Halliburton
Maintenance Training Center
March 2011
Boyd Raburn (Class of 1966) wrote:
Loretta, thanks for posting the old sports clips from the paper. I had a
ball reading all the old news of games and other articles. I had not
thought of those in many years and was great fun to go down memory lane again.br />
--Boyd Raburn, February 2010
Carroll Newberry (Class of 1962) ordered a
copy of the 1951 Ryan Band Club Cookbook, compiled by the Club while Jim O.
Tomlinson was Band Director. He
wrote the following:
I am looking forward to getting the book.
Like you, we had a food-stained copy for many years. I think my mother or father must have
thrown it away in the 70's.
I attended school at Ryan through the
second grade and my brother through the tenth after which we moved away. I would have been in the class of
1962. My cousins, Jimmy and Tommy
Beaver were 1 and 3 years ahead of me.
Ollen Armstrong was my first grade teacher. I thought she was wonderful, but the
thing that impressed me the most was that she wore a different pair of shoes to
school every day. She read aloud a
chapter of "Lassie, Come Home" every day.
In the second grade, Mrs. Gilchrist always read from the "Bobsey Twins".
My mother was active in the band boosters
club, and I remember when the cookbook was being originally put together by the
women in the club. I think I am in
the picture with my mother by her recipe for banana cake.
I was in the rhythm band and remember Mr.
Tomlinson very well. He was a
soft-spoken gentlemen who had two or three boys about my age. One of my first "disappointments" in
life was having to play the sticks instead of the tamborine or cymbals. My brother was in the marching band
and since he was big for his age, Mr. Tomlinson had him learn how to play the
tuba. At that time the band
practiced in a separate building on the north side of the old school building.
My brother decided to go out for the football team one
year, but after being repeatedly pummeled by the likes of
Clabe Burnett and Jim Beare during practice before the season actually started,
he decided he didn't mind playing the tuba so much after all.
--Carroll Newberry, October 2009