By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
While the Tiro school building was demolished in 2009, the memories from the students who attended there will last a lifetime.
Those memories were shared along with smiles and laughter at the Tiro Firehouse on Saturday as the Tiro School Student Association held its 66th annual student meeting.
Crawford County Treasurer Gary Cole, who was part of Tiro’s graduating class of 1958, explained the name change from the Tiro School Alumni Association to the Tiro School Student Association.
“It used to be the alumni association,” Cole said. “Now we changed it to the student association so it covers anybody that attended Tiro school, even the ones that didn’t graduate from here, because the alumni members are decreasing. So it is a way to maintain the organization to keep the memories alive.”
Tiro school’s final class was the class of 1960; in 1961 Tiro’s schoolhouse became part of the Buckeye Central School District as Buckeye East. Originally junior high for the school system, Buckeye East became an elementary school for Buckeye Central until its closure when Buckeye Central became a K-12 school.
Sandy Nuemann and Ellie Lillo, who were members of the Buckeye Central class of 1961, shared memories of their time at Tiro.
“Our junior year was the last year at Tiro, and we were very upset that we were not going to be able to graduate from Tiro,” Lillo said.
“The band played, they had played the Tiro school song, and we were all crying,” Nuemann added.
“I also can recall going to the basketball games, it was always important to get to the games to support our teams,” Lillo remembered. “We did have a few decent teams, but we were always struggling against Holmes Liberty.”
“Our boys’ team in 1958 was pretty good, but the girls didn’t play then,” Nuemann interjected.
“The girls did get to play, but they could only play on one end of the court, or the other,” Lillo countered, explaining how girls basketball teams played during Tiro school’s heyday. “They had girls on one side of the half court line on defense and girls on the other side on offense, so if you were running up the court with the ball on the one side you had to stop and make the pass to the other side before the line.”
Peggy Hipsher, who graduated from Tiro in 1959, remembered her graduating class.
“We had small classes, like our graduating class was only 21 people, so we did a lot of things together,” Hipsher recalled. “Basketball was a big sport here, we didn’t have football. It was a real close community, everybody knew everybody, and it was a real nice place to grow up and go to school.”
Current Galion City Council President Carl Watt was originally a Tiro native, graduating in 1954; Watt recalled his time at Tiro school.
“I went here for 12 years, they didn’t have a kindergarten, but I didn’t fail any grades so I just went 12 years,” Watt said. “There aren’t too many people from my class anymore after all these years, but I always look forward to coming here every year for the reunion.”
After dinner recognitions were held for alumni members who died in the past year. Also recognized were members from the graduating classes of 1946, 1951, 1956, and 1961.
Herman Seibert, a member of 1946’s graduating class from Tiro, recalled playing sports at the school.
“I didn’t care much for school in first and second grade. But after I got into high school and into sports, I got fairly decent grades,” Seibert said. “So I decided I wanted to be valedictorian. I took five subjects my last two years, and I made it.
“I played every sport that they had,” he added. “I ran track, played second base on the baseball team, and forward on the basketball team, and made the all-county team.”
Marilyn Harrer, a member of the class of 1950, was one of four living alumni members. Harrer reflected on her class.
“I think our class got along very well, there is always snipping and fighting, but we didn’t have anything to fight about,” Harrer recalled. “I was a cheerleader in high school, and we put on class parties, and had dances to make money for a prom.”
Dinner was provided by Uncle Dudleys of Willard. Prior to recognitions, remarks were delivered to the Tiro school students by current Buckeye Central Superintendent Mark Robinson.
Prior to the student meeting the Tiro Historical Museum was open from 12-5 p.m. for students of the former school to relive some of their memories by seeing some of the school’s memorabilia on display.