46 Years Later, Sixth-Grade Neshaminy Class Reunites

LANGHORNE, PA — Over the weekend, former Neshaminy School District elementary school students from as far away as Israel got together 46 years after they were classmates to reunite with a beloved middle school teacher.

Seventeen of the 21 students in retired teacher Harry Myrga's 1972-73 sixth-grade class at Everitt Elementary School attended the reunion, held at the Attleboro Community in Langhorne.

Myrga's former students came from as far away as Washington state, Arizona, Texas and Israel for the reunion, which was organized after Harlow Russell, from Austin, Texas, found a decade-old message from a classmate on a reunion website.

He reached out to a fellow Texan and a classmate living in Arizona, then began researching and contacting other members of the Everitt class and their teacher, who had just moved to Attleboro.

In a video shared by the school district, Myrga said the class was part of a gifted program Neshaminy had at the time.

"I'm astounded by some of their credentials. It's truly amazing," Myrga said in the video. "I couldn't be more proud of them. They were very, very bright kids and they were very good students."

He noted the unusual nature of an elementary-school get-together nearly a half-century after the fact.

"People get together for high school reunions and college reunions," Myrga said. "But a sixth-grade reunion? I don't think you hear of very many of them."

According to the former students, that's because Myrga's class was different.

"Our sixth-grade class, we did a lot of special things," said Russell in the video. "We went to New York. He took us to museums. And as we've all learned from reminiscing, (Myrga) impacted us in big ways.

"You talk to any of the classmates here, we all have distinct memories. And that's different than the other classes. He was a very special teacher."

Photo courtesy Neshaminy School District