BRUCE Hoadley

Posted on: Jun 02, 2024 at 4:33 AM

Personal comments from Bruce Hoadley, who was a classmate of Sylvia's at Needham Broughton HS.

Sylvia lived in Concord, CA. I live in the hills to the west of Sonoma, CA. The view from my house includes San Pablo Bay and Concord, CA. With a good telescope, I could see Sylvia's house from my house. Again, fortunately for Sylvia, I do not have a good telescope.

Another fun fact is that I had a crush on Sylvia in the eight grade. Again, fortunately for Sylvia, I had no clue about how to put my crush into action.

However, I did know Sylvia quite well and she was a classy woman. We will miss her. 

Bruce, i am a day late in wishing you a happy birthday.
I hope it was a delightful day for you. Mary Lily

As you can tell from Ferg Norton's obituary, Ferg was a man of extrordinary courage and composure under fire. So, i hope that you will join me in saluting a great American. 

Happy birthday Gerry. I think that we can now agree that we are both official geezers - better a live geezer than a dead stud. I hope that you are enjoying the long life as much as I am. I noticed that you have three daughters. I have two daughters and I bet we can agree that daughters are great. Here's to looking forward to our 84th year., Big Bruce (aka Yank).

Happy birthday Howard. I remember that you were in the band, but I can't remember what instrument you played - maybe the clarinet? Do you still play? What did you do for a living? Do you have kids, grandkids, etc.? How did you end up in Selma? I used to have a place in Morehead City, but sold it to buy our Sonoma property. Bruce (aka Yank).

Johanna, happy 39th birthday. And thank you for all the work that you and a few others do to keep the class connected. The class of 1957 was a great class and we were all very lucky to go to Needham Broughton - the finest HS in NC. Academically, my first year in college was trivial compared to my Senior year in HS. Cheers, Big Bruce (aka Yank).

Happy birthday from one of the other Bruce's. I just realized that Bruce is your middle name, so we have that in common. Is Weaverville named after you? If so, how did you become so famous? Do you still shoot hoops. Even with my low vision, I still shoot hoops on my home court. Cheers, Yank.

Happy Birthday Bruce! We have all had quite a life!

Posted on: Jun 02, 2021 at 4:33 AM

Posted on: Apr 19, 2021 at 7:45 PM

I saw your long explanation about your connection to Betty Jane Van Mater. I don't know where it is on the web site, so I'll respond here. Did you know that Betty Jane and I were married? I am very familiar with Crescent Farm and Holmes VM. During the summer of 1961, I was at summer school at NC State and Betty Jane was living at Crescent Farm. Every weekend, I would drive up to NJ to see Betty Jane. We got married at the end of the summer of1961 right before we left for graduate school at UC Berkeley in California. I went to UC Berkeley, because my mother went to Swarthmore with Clark Kerr, the president of the University of California. After graduate school, I got a job at Bell Labs in Holmdel, NJ - not all that far from Crescent Farm.

Hey Bill, were you related to Betty Jane or did your father work at the NC State dairy farm, or what? Betty Jane and i had three children, who all now live in California. My two daughters live next to each other in Berkeley, CA and Betty Jane lives right across the street from them. So, I see Betty Jane frequently even though we got divorced in 1975. I have now been married to Julie Conger since 1995. From 1975 to 1995, I was a bachelor.

Hey Tom, did you.ever try out for the basketball team? You must have been pretty good. 

As a statistician I can tell you that Faye was a genius. Not only was she the smartest student in our class, but by a whopping margin. Based on average grade,  Faye was at the top, then a large gap, and then the rest of the students. 

Carol's husband, Jim Wood, was the president of the Sigma Chi fraternity at NC State, while I was also a Sigma Chi at NC State. In the Spring of 1960, Jim and I hitch-hiked to Florada for Spring break. On the way back, we stopped in Winter Park, Florida - Jim's home town. While we were touring Winter Park, Jim pointed out Rollings College. I perked up and remembered that Betty Jane Van Mater,  the daughter of my mothers best friend, went to Rolling College. So, we stopped by her sororoty house to say hello. A year and a half later, Betty Jane and I were married. 

When we were in the 8th grade, Lynn was the best basketball player on our 8th grade team. He was also tall for an 8th grader. But then Lynn stopped growing while the rest of us grew like weeds. By the time we were Seniors, Lynn was still a very good basketball player, and so were the rest of us.

Ed Spencer was a Sigma Chi fraternity brother of mine at NC State. He was training to be an Air Fore jet pilot when his fighter jet crashed. So, Ed gave his life to our beloved country. 

Bruce Hoadley