Catching up with Barry Griefer, Class of 1960
A would-be world traveler, Barry Griefer has visited eleven countries and currently resides in Mexico, but no matter where he goes, he carries a little piece of Huntington with him. A member of Huntington High School’s Class of 1960, he has led an interesting and exciting life.
Following his high school graduation, Mr. Griefer headed to the Univ. of Buffalo “but got into partying too much and took a break in the middle of my sophomore year and joined the Navy,” he said. “After boot camp and photographer’s school, I was stationed in Spain for two years where I had both great duty and outstanding liberty.” He even met the first American bullfighter recognized by the Spanish Matador’s Union.
Eventually, he went back to Buffalo for a year and then transferred to the Univ. or Tennessee where he earned a degree. “By 1970, I was a lead systems analyst for a large construction equipment distributor in Louisville, Kentucky and married with a one year old son.”
Nearly 50 years after he graduated, Mr. Griefer still has vivid memories of his alma mater. “Of all the great teachers I had at Huntington High School, Clint Marantz stands out because he made English come alive and I started to enjoy ‘serious’ reading.”
Another memory involves a run-in with the administration. “One day they caught some of us coming back from eating lunch off campus,” Mr. Griefer said. “Ray Hettler (an assistant principal) read us the riot act and condemned us to bring our lunch and eat in his outer office. I came up with the idea of buying hero sandwiches at the little Italian deli on Park Avenue (modernized, it was still there in 2000 when Mr. Griefer visited, and operated by the original owner’s son.) Two of the secretaries commented how good it looked, so we invited them to share. Ray Borowicz (a math teacher and the baseball coach) came by and we convinced him to join the party. The next day we started going out again and no one ever said another word.”
A recent retiree, Mr. Griefer’s work brought him across the globe. “For the last several years, I’ve been doing contracting in IT in point of sale (POS) systems,” he said. “The last contract with IBM was to supervise a crew ripping out all the POS systems, associated networking and fixtures from [military] commissaries around the country and in Okinawa. Besides Okinawa, it took me all over the state of Washington, Ft. Carson, Colorado, Beale Air Force Base, California; Minot, Air Force Base, North Dakota and even Mitchel Field, New York, which got me back to Huntington to have dinner with some friends from a tour to Costa Rica.”
During his free time, Mr. Griefer “plays” at maintaining a website for Huntington’s Class of 1960 (http://hhsclassof1960.homestead.com). He also has a website for photos from his travels around the world (http://barrygriefershomepage.homestead.com).
Mr. Griefer was one of the hundreds of students that participated in M-Day in November 1958, walking from Robert L. Simpson High School on Main Street to the new (and current) Huntington High School located at the corner of Oakwood and McKay Roads on property that once comprised a portion of the mammoth H. Bellas Hess estate.
The M in M-Day stood for moving, and the journey to the newly constructed building on a cold day was essentially a parade through town. “All I remember was that is was like a school outing, people meandering along Main Street, New York Avenue and Oakwood Road,” Mr. Griefer said. He said that students found the school “new, clean [and] big [with] stairs that didn’t have depressions in the treads, [a] big bright cafeteria and everything else.”
Simpson, which was built in 1909, had some very unique features, but was badly outdated by the late 1950’s. “The cafeteria was so small, it just couldn’t handle everyone,” Mr. Griefer remembers. “Going downtown for lunch was very popular, if for no other reason than to get away from the dungeon-like surroundings. Sure, you were supposed to have a pass to leave at other times, but the holes in the net were so large, it was left up to the teachers to report absences.
But, while the new Huntington High School building had modern amenities and provided opportunities for new courses and new instructional methods, some things weren’t necessarily welcomed. “The change that annoyed me most was that it was a closed campus; no going out for lunch,” Mr. Griefer recalled. “Some of us rebelled. The administration tried to crack down, but couldn’t make it stick. 99.99 percent went along with the program just like the ‘sheeple’ today.”
Mr. Griefer was happy with the Huntington teachers he encountered along the way toward graduation. “I was lucky, I guess, with the exception of, maybe, two, all my teachers were great. Those exceptions were probably due more to my attitude than anything else. All ideas were acceptable for discussion and the teachers moderated with an unbiased hand. My kids (who graduated high school elsewhere in the country in 1987 and 1989, respectively), tell me it was lots different in the schools they went to.”
Ask him who the most accomplished member of the Class of 1960 is and Mr. Griefer says, “The only one I know of who made something of a name was Merri Lieberthal who produced CBS’ 60 Minutes for many years.”
Viewing the hundreds of photos posted in his on-line gallery reveals Mr. Griefer’s love for adventure. It’s a love that shows little signs of abating.
All graphics, photographs, and text appearing on the Huntington Public Schools home page and subsequent official web pages are protected by copyright. Redistribution or commercial use is prohibited without express written permission. Comments or Questions? email the Public Information Office