Fifty years after they were the last full graduating class from then Bethlehem HS, nearly 200 graduates of the class of 1967 and their guests gathered for their 50th reunion in early August at the Best Western in Hanover Township. That year, 992 people received diplomas from what was Bethlehem’s only public high school. The following year Freedom HS would open, ushering in the era of two public high schools in the Bethlehem Area School District.

Dubbed “Walk Down Memory Lane,” the reunion featured a cocktail hour, dinner, live entertainment by Connie Edinger, a slide presentation of high school memories and addresses by classmates Gary Lavelle, a former professional baseball pitcher, class president Fred Robertson and student council president Craig Eby.

Lavelle, who went from high school into professional baseball and spent most of his career pitching for the San Francisco Giants, related the lessons he’d learned about life from baseball. “Hard work and teamwork pays off,” he said, while stressing that you must treat others the way you would like to be treated. “Live life without regrets,” Lavelle concluded.

The 50th reunion committee was comprised of Karen Abel Wilt, Susanne Bissey Nelson, Stephanie Horwath Rau, Carol Madzik Anders, Ronald Ritchie, Gerald Snyder and Jennie Weaver Danyi.

Information about future reunions is available at www.liberty67.com.