Red Devil Ramblings

It was back in the early 1990′s that I received an email message from Bob Howles, which in essence said, “Hey Ron we both have a web page dedicated to the Peekskill High School graduates.   How about we link our two pages?”

And although we never did meet face to face, that began a friendship and also a joint venture that  lasted until 2005 when Bob found it necessary to give up his end of the Peekskill High Alumni web pages.

We agreed to link our two pages and shortly afterwards decided that having two Guest Books and duplicate obituary notices, etc. did not make sense.  So we decided that we would maintain our separate pages but divide up the content between us.  As it turned out, Bob was using a web tv server which did not permit him to publish pictures so it followed that I would do the class pictures and everything associated with them and Bob would maintain the individual Class Directory pages with the addresses and obituary notices.  Both web sites at that time were the so-called “free” sites from GeoCities.  We continued with that division of labor until 2005 when Bob told me that his health had deteriorated to the point where he could not longer do computer work.  Reluctantly, rather than abandon the site, I decided to take over his share.   It meant a complete makeover of the many pages that Bob had been managing which was no small task.

Since that time the Alumni site has grown tremendously and we have given up on GeoCities as a web server.  The pages now are leased through Net Fusion and have no advertising content.   In order to make that huge leap I enlisted the aid of my daughter Lynn who created the format and successfully transferred most of the content to the new site.  Lynn maintains a constant presence now and has recently added the Forum, Blog pages, Slide Shows, etc.  When the time comes she will take over the entire operation – so we expect the Peekskill High Alumni site will continue indefinitely.

But getting back to Bob Howles,  I responded to Bob’s email in 2005 -  but I never heard from him again, despite making several attempts by email and snail mail.  It was not until yesterday, July 21, 2008 that I had an email message left on my answering machine from his classmate, Phillip Keimig that he had learned that Bob had died.  He is buried in Tompkins Corners, Put Valley.

I know that others were involved but I believe Bob was the inspiration behind the All Classes Reunion that was held in 2000.  There are many pictures included on the Alumni pages attesting to the success of that grand idea. The Alumni pages participated to a large degree in getting the information out to the graduates and contributed to the huge turnout that the several days events consumed at Depew Park, The Armory on Washington Street, and various resteraunts.  He also participated in creating a “Peekskill Hall of Fame” which (although I have tried to contact people who were involved in that process) is no longer being continued as far as I know.

I have no knowledge of Bob’s family but if any of them do browse these pages, we offer our condolences.

Ron Abbey, Webmaster