Westwood High School Alumni - Westwood, New Jersey

ALL	2/20/05	REMINDER: This is just a reminder that the email addresses provided on this website are not to be used for any purpose other than for contacting old friends or helping to organize a reunion. I have to maintain a delicate balance between offering the email addresses and not allowing them to be used to promote individual beliefs, causes or businesses. I do this as my dedication to the privacy of our registered members. So far, to my knowledge anyway, in the 6+ years our website has existed, there have only been a handful of individuals who have abused this privilege, and even most of them were unaware of the "Terms of Use" of our website as that seems to be a feature that few bother to read. If you receive what you consider to be an unsolicited email from any fellow alumni, whether it is personal or business, please forward the email to Webmaster@westwoodalumni.com and I will contact the individual or business myself.
ALL	2/18/05	75th Anniversary! - Berkeley Elementary School Festivities: April 14th - 7:00pm to 8:30pm - Bring along any pictures, report cards, etc. that you can share! More info? Contact: Matthew J. Murphy, EdD Principal mmurphy@westwood.k12.nj.us - or call 201-664-7760
ALL	1/29/05	Is your class planning a reunion? Do you plan to use a reunion company? For too long, I've allowed reunion companies to post their information on our website. Have any of them contributed to our site . . . no. Have any of them placed an ad on our site to promote their business . . . no. Have any of them offered any of our classes a discount for doing a lot of their work for them by having access to all the email addresses on your class's home page . . . no. Well, my answer is now no too. I will be MORE than happy to place any alumni's contact information on our website within our Reunion Info page, and as I've done in the past, am doing now, and will continue to do, I will offer to help at no charge any class running their own reunion with whatever information I can supply. I will no longer post any information pertaining to a reunion company, nor will I allow any postings in the Alumni Comments section, unless of course that company has chosen to support our website. A lot of alumni work hard to organize their reunions on their own and they don't get paid for it! Ask them how they feel about an outside company, who is charging money for their service, making their job easier by having their company promoted on our website.
ALL	1/12/05	Imagine each page of the hard-cover edition of War and Peace being looked at over 1,000 times! Well, maybe not the greatest analogy in the world, but that's about what happened around dinner time on Tuesday, 1/10. Our website surpassed the 1 Million page view mark. A milestone that may not mean much to many, but certainly has meaning to me. Once again, my sincere thanks for allowing me to become a small part of your world, as you have all become a part of mine. When you calculate the last 60 years of classes, and figure a conservative average of 250 per class, (as they were much smaller years ago, but quite larger in recent history), you get about 15,000 alumni. When you guesstimate how many have passed away, those that only briefly attended WHS, and other minor considerations, there are probably still 10,000 alumni around, many of which are multi-generational. Our website is just now approaching the 40% mark with around 3,700 alumni registered and others visiting who never do sign in. My original goal was to "seek out and find", with your help of course, 5,000 alumni to introduce to our "Home on the Internet". I think we're doing pretty good so far. I'm not sure if I had mentioned it before or not, as September was when I ended up in the hospital, but in that month I was interviewed by "The Pascack Press" back here in Bergen County. They wrote a really great article about our website and I am going to reproduce it and post it on our site. Anyway, I just wanted to exert a little of my enthusiasm over breaking the 1 Million page view milestone. Also more recently in the Pascack Press was an article about the website I built for the WTFD. You can check it out at: www.WTFD.us
ALL	1/8/05	I've been playing around a little more, and I do mean a little, with the new BB as described below. For those that have checked it out and/or have already registered, I notice a minor procedure that may not be very clear. At first, I thought the software had a glitch in it. After I registered, it would not let me "log-in". I since discovered that for the protection of your privacy, and to ensure someone else simply doesn't use your email address, it sends a confirmation email to whatever addressed your registered with. You must reply to that email to activate your registration. What first seemed a problem, turned out to be a benefit!
ALL	1/1/05	Now there's a new way to communicate and post comments! A new feature of our website is a fully functional BB (Bulletin Board) module. I've setup the foundation so you can register if you like, and there is even the opportunity to create and monitor your own forum. Over the next month or so I will spend more time learning about all of its features and customizing abilities, as they are numerous! Everything from private messaging to the ability to upload your own personal avatar. It even includes 50 smile face graphic styles with keyboard shortcuts. And the list goes on. I think it will be a great place to have fun, create some common interest forums and even help organize your reunions. A handful of alumni have already discovered it. A link to it is included in the center drop-down menu above (Website Features) and is the third item down called New! Alumni BB.
ALL	12/30/04	First, our wishes for a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year Hopefully by now, you have had a chance to browse around our new website. As previously mentioned, it is only through your visits and browsing that I can determine the quality of our new hosting company. So please, even if just a one-liner, drop me a note and let me know what you think of the new site and if you've either had any problems with it, or any comments on its performance. Thanks to all, Kurt & Wendy Weiss
ALL	12/20/04	How about a new website! (or at least a home for it) As you will learn more about, in an effort to offer you more features and balance cost and performance of our website, I am trying out a new hosting company. This is where you are now. So I could continue to have both websites up at once while I transferred all the data, I registered a new domain name www.westwoodalumni.com. I may or not decide to keep the new name as the Primary Name. This depends on whether or not the new hosting company works out. So, with that said, PLEASE VISIT the site often over the next couple of weeks and visit as many of its sections as you can. As stated on the intro page, this is the only way I can determine how the new server works under a load of almost 10,000 page views per week! Thank you and enjoy. If this works out, a lot of new features will be coming soon! Kurt Weiss d.b.a. KW Productions - Westwood High's Alumni Webmaster.
1965	12/13/04	Please Note: If you have not read Bruce Bloch's Reunion announcement in the comments section, please "click here" for an important update that could use a quick response.
74 & 84 ALL	11/30/04	Wonderful ! It's nice to see so many of you posting comments about your recent reunions. That is a good part of the foundation of the "why" this website exists. I hope you have all been enjoying some of the updates and enhancements I've recently made to the site. When I see so many of you so active, it simply motivates me to do even more to ensure this is "WHS's Alumni Home on the Internet". My thanks to all of you for allowing me to share a small piece of your life's events. Peace & Prosperity to all, Kurt Weiss - Westwood High's Alumni Webmaster
ALL	11/23/04	New News . . . New Look . . . New Newsletter Although some of the changes are quite subtle and may not even be noticed, a tremendous amount of work has been done to our website in the past couple of weeks. Just to mention a few: 1. Modified home page and a return to adding some occasional holiday graphics. 2. Our HTML "enhanced" Newsletter is now available online for everyone! 3. Our Alumni Links section has been updated, cleaned up and a new drop-down menu system added. 4. Our alumni "Who's Who" section has be slightly revamped and updated. 5. Our "Reunion Info" page now has a "cleaner", "easier to read" look. 6. Our "Alumni Statistics" page has been updated. 7. Our rotating school logos have been enhanced. 8. And there is more to come . . .! When is the last time you sent a check to help support our "Alumni Home on the Internet"?
74/84	11/23/04	My best wishes for a great reunion this week-end!
ALL	11/23/04	Move & Medical Update - Your alumni webmaster, Kurt Weiss First, my personal thanks to everyone who has emailed me showing concern with my health issues. For those of you who are not aware of what's been happening, I've been fighting with two diseases for the past 6+ months. (Diverticulosis & Pancreatitis) Six months ago I was 225 lbs. Even at 6' 2", that is a bit much. However, since I've been ill, I've dropped down to 183 lbs. Now, if I could only sell this as a "Hollywood Health Diet"! ha! ha! ha!. Anyway, it's been tough going. As a small business owner, I am part of the 40 Million Plus "uninsured" Americans. Yes, the hospitals will see you, but then they pound you to death demanding their money. Medication has been fun too. Last week, after having signs of a relapse, I went to see my doctor. He immediately put me on antibiotics and told me no solid food for at least three days. Guess I'm going to loose a few more pounds. That's easier to take than the 12 pills for $150.00 he prescribed!!!!! These pharmaceutical companies have really gotten out of hand. Regarding our move back to NJ, let's just say it's going about as well as can be expected. Moving in with my wife's father and taking care of an elderly parent is not exactly what I had in mind when I got married a little over 18 months ago, but ones needs to do, what one needs to do. Family should always come first. At least that is how I feel. The garage is still 2/3rds filled with boxes, but we put a dent into it pretty much every day. So, I'm still alive . . . just not kicking as hard, and life goes on. Wendy and I are basically taking things a "day-at-a-time". There is not much else we can do at the moment. So once again, thank you to all who have showed their concern over my illness along with the loss of Wendy's mother. Your emails and thoughts are greatly appreciated.
ALL	11/10/04	"In Memory Of" submissions Recently, I've noticed a few comments in the "all comments" section of our website, reporting the passing away of an alumni. If you wish to have these alumni posted in our In Memory Of section, you must use the "Submission Form". Information received in any other matter can remain in the comments section, but will not be posted on the In Memory of page.
ALL	10/10/04	Update: Let me comment that I am only explaining all that is going on so you can understand why your registrations, updates, contributions, etc. are taking so long to get posted on our website. Wendy & I have barely had a minute to breathe. We just returned from spending the week-end there ourselves packing, as this was such a last minute situation thrust upon us. Next trip will be with a truck again, but this time it should go easier since so much "stuff" is now packed. First trip I felt like a thief. Ran into the apartment, grabbed what I though were essentials, and returned. All our furniture is still there, along with lots of other "stuff", that all has to be cleared out by the 30th. I figure two more trips should do it. Of course between trips, lots of time is being spent here in the Twp. getting unpacked and organized.
ALL	10/4/04	You mean there is more! Shortly after my hospital stay, my Mother-in-Law became ill and hospitalized. We spent 5 days back in N.J. and returned to PA Sunday night the 26th. Spent Monday unpacking, and then received a phone call 8:20am Tuesday morning that she (my wife Wendy Zabel-Weiss' mother), had a massive heart attack. We repacked our suitcases from the day before and headed back to N.J. again. She passed away that morning and we spent the rest of the week preparing for her funeral services on Saturday 10/2/04. Since Wendy's father, (and Wendy is an only child), is an 80 year old diabetic, we all decided he should not be left alone, so we are in the process of moving back to the Twp. We enjoyed PA and had just signed a our second year lease. Fortunately our landlord allowed us to break it. So, other than traveling back & forth to PA to pack everything up, we are now Twp. of Washington residents again.
ALL	9/7/04	I'm Back! As some of you may of read recently on our home page, I had/have been quite ill for the past few months. Well, being the stubborn person that I am, I finally went to the hospital on 8/30 and was released on 9/4. To make a long story short, I am going to live, as long as I stay on a special diet. They found I had an infected Pancreas, polyps in my intestines (which they removed), and almost 80% of my liver was destroyed. Guess the 60's and 70's finally caught up with me. They said if I had let it go another 6 months or so, I would have died. Anyway, I'm working as hard as I can to get caught up on things, so please accept my apology if I don't get to your requests as quickly as I normally do. Thank you, Kurt Weiss - Westwood High's Alumni Webmaster
ALL	6/24/04	Just a thought: Based on a recent posting in the comments section, it started to make me remember why this website was started in the first place. It's not a reason by itself, but rather an integral part of what it was meant to do. Basically, it was simply for people to "break the ice" before a reunion. Through building a place where alumni could not only help organize the location of their classmates for reunions, but a place for those classmates to kind of "catch up" with others. By doing this, I always felt that the question of bringing a spouse, a significant other, or simply a friend along helped to enhance the event. The room, meaning wherever the event was held, would be more diverse. More time could be spent doing more than just reminiscing about High School, but to share the events and people that had become a part of our growing lives. I hope that as reunions continue to come and go, that more people make use of our comments sections and/or simply make use of their fellow classmate's email addresses to simply "get in touch". An then if or when you decide to attend a reunion, I believe you will find it a more relaxed and memorable experience.
ALL	10/24/03	To all former Westwood Soccer Players: I am a former player, class of '90, and current Head Coach at Westwood. I am attempting to put together an alumni soccer game at the high school and want to see how much interest there is. If you played, and are interested, please contact me at ebetheil@westwood.k12.nj.us Hope to hear from some of you soon. Eric Betheil
1972	12/2/02	To the class of '72: My deepest thanks for your generous gift to me and donation to our website. It was delivered to me at the recent 11/30 luncheon by Diane Koch-Zaccaria. Your class has been listed on our "Website Contributors" page as a Benefactor of our alumni home on the internet. Diane also left me with 2 Photo CD's containing 59 images from your recent reunion. If you visit your class' home page, you will find a link to the photo gallery (or just click here). Once again, my sincere thanks. Kurt Weiss - Class of 1970 - Westwood High's Alumni Webmaster