It all began with William Pirone’s dream that someday there would be an OHS Alumni Association.
His dream took shape during the time when he was the principal at Oneonta High School. He wanted to expand the number of scholarships available to graduates, and he thought that an Alumni Association would help raise much needed scholarship funds.
In addition, he was constantly getting requests from former students to find their classmates, but there was no easily accessible registry or a database. An alumni association seemed to be the vehicle for both of these challenges.
In the spring of 1999, William Pirone, Geoff Smith, Tony Drago, Frank Gallucci, Madolyn Palmer and the Superintendent James Piscatelli attended the first meeting and became the founders of the OHS Alumni Association. Bud Pirone agreed to be the first president and no one could have pulled this organization off the ground better than Bud. A constitution and by-laws were signed on July 6th, 1999 and we were off and running. Plans began for the 1st Annual Alumni Day to be held in conjunction with the local Parisian Pit Run, which in itself brought home many OHS alumni. The first Saturday in October then became the official weekend for the Alumni Association gathering. In March of 2000 the first issue of the ALumni Association newsletter was mailed to every alumni in our database.
The Board of Directors is extremely proud of these scholarships and awards, as it is giving back to the Community through our children. We are also very proud of all of the alumni that we have honored with our Induction Ceremony every year for the Athletic Hall of Fame, the Wall of Distinction and the Alumni of the Year.
The OHS Alumni Association has been active for over 20 years.
We want to continue adding new young graduates to our base, adn having them share their ideas for the future of this Association. We want “The Dream” to be a FOREVER ENDEAVOR.
