A Salute to the Hoboken High School Classes of 2025 and 1965

A Salute to the Hoboken High School Classes of 2025 and 1965

Dennis Sevano

A sincere salute to the Hoboken High School class of 2025, with special mention of Madison and Morgan Walia Peters, twins, who were accepted to Harvard and Cornell Universities, respectively. Madison served as a research assistant to a Ph.D. student at Stevens Institute of Technology.

Let’s step back in time. The 60s, was a decade of decline and ascent, caught between the killings of Kennedy and King, civil rights and civil unrest, moonwalk and marches, Vietnam and the “Sounds of Silence”. Sixty years ago, members of the Class of 1965 at Hoboken High School were also harboring hopes that contained future stories of prominence.

One who stood out in the academic area of intellect was Raymond Heitmann, our class valedictorian. Ray, a chess guru, secured a scholarship to Stevens Institute of Technology, receiving a Bachelor of Science, four years later.

Many classmates regarded Robert Wendelken as an outstanding athlete and scholar. Bobby said, “While traveling through the halls of Brandt elementary school and in classes at the High School, Ray stood out early on, quietly explaining math equations to younger learners and faculty.” He never did it in a condescending way, but applied the KISS principle, “Keep it simple sweetheart” with a glimmer in his eye. Many knew Mr. Heitmann was destined to apply his math gifts later in life. According to Fr. Gabe Costa, Ph.D., Math Professor at West Point, class of 1966 and close friend to the late Ralph Rodriguez (the leading Math teacher at Hoboken High), “Mr. Rod”, said, “No one in the 60s or 70s could match Raymond’s unique math mastery.”

After securing his B.S. from Stevens, Ray received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His travels from the Badger State to Kansas University ended with a full professorship at the University of Texas, from 1995 until his retirement this year. His courses ranged from matrix calculations, differential calculus, and probability coordinated geometry, while authoring a number of papers and publications.

Dr. Heitmann might have been harboring hopes in the turbulent 60s, but his trek from 9th and Clinton Streets, the Lego-look of Hoboken High, to Wisconsin and Kansas, then settling in Texas, was a journey that was a far cry from Mr. Rodriguez’s class in 1965. The chess and math guru made us proud to be Red Wings!

Another prominent figure in the late 50s and 60s in Hoboken, was Mr. Dudley Schlosser, World War II veteran, city attorney in the Mile Square town, who suddenly died at the age of 58 in 1974. His daughter, Leta Schlosser, another public-school product of Wallace School, was caught between John Minervini, M.D. and Madeline Edelstein in grammar school, sitting in front of me through Mr. Coleman’s and Miss Heath’s classes, at Old School # 6 (Wallace School). Perhaps joining those with substantial brain power at Wallace gave her a pathway to find her lane at Hoboken High. Beyond belonging to the Chess Club (one of the few females), Leta was driven by the quiet energy of Mr. Joe Coleman, a teacher at Wallace and the High School. Yes, she was boxed among minds, like Bruce Speiser, Livio Capilla, Laura Pinto, Louis Rana, Carol Weiner and of course, Ray.

Graduating Hoboken High, Leta found teaching to be in her gene pool, entering Jersey City State College in pursuit a teaching degree, then receiving a sociology degree from Columbia. The current changed and a swift turn of events occurred in her career, when the study of law, like her dad, took hold.

Off to Rutgers she went for a degree in law, where Ms. Schlosser said her teaching methods and technique from previous colleges assisted her well as both a trial and Appellate-level attorney, with a renowned law firm on the West Coast, where she lived for over 40 years, still providing paid and pro bono advice to law firms and younger attorneys.

The mantle of genius was worn by the class of 1965, and their successors 60 years later. Perhaps, the twins from the Class of 2025, Madison and Morgan Walia Peters, could learn a thing or two from their 1965 predecessors of Hoboken High School, Professor Ray Heitmann and Attorney-at-Law, Leta Schlosser.

Dennis Sevano was born and raised in Hoboken. He writes frequently about sports figures and notables in the Mile Square City. He currently resides in Teaneck.