Gathering at the Berlin Beer Company to plan for their upcoming 75th high school reunion were Joanne Jackson, Helen Ellis Chamblin, Jane Bunting, Gloria Pruitt Nolan, Betsy Ludlam and Nancy Owens.

By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

Around 70 years ago, Ocean City and Berlin students left their respective schools to attend the new, combined Stephen Decatur High School, ending a contentious sports rivalry and kickstarting an institution that has since been home to the Decatur Seahawks.

To celebrate the anniversary, SDHS’s first graduating group is getting back together next month.

On Wednesday, June 11, SDHS’s Class of 1955 will celebrate 70 years since graduation with a reunion at the Berlin Beer Company. The group will meet at the Broad Street establishment at 11:30 a.m. Tickets are $28 and include crab dip, a luncheon buffet and a dessert.

The milestone reunion is open to the first students, now in their mid- to late 80s, who received SDHS diplomas. A group of women from the class of 1955, who meet for monthly lunches, has already started planning the event to get their peers back together.

Members of the first graduating class to spearhead the get-together include Joanne Jackson, Nancy Owens, Betsy Ludlam, Gloria Pruitt Nolan, Jane Disharoon Bunting, and Helen Ellis Chamblin. The committee of women met at the Berlin Beer Company on Friday, May 2, for their monthly meal and to discuss the 70-year celebration.

SDHS was founded in 1954. The school was constructed to combine students from two competing institutions: the island kids at Ocean City High School and the inland group from Buckingham High School in Berlin.

Ocean City High School, which was once at the city’s current town hall building, was moved to West Ocean City and today is Ocean City Elementary serving students in pre-k3 to fourth grade. Buckingham has also since operated exclusively through fourth grade.

“Ocean City and Berlin were competitors,” Bunting said. “At basketball, and all the sports … We didn’t really want to go to school with Ocean City kids.”

However, the ladies assured they got used to the consolidated school and are now “fine” with the fact that northern Worcester County students have been classmates for the past 70 years.

The class of 1955’s influence on Decatur is everlasting. According to Chamblin, the first group, via committees, chose what has since been a longstanding tradition of the high school: the Seahawk mascot and the recognizable blue and white school colors. Chamblin said the seahawk was chosen to encapsulate the coastal aesthetic of the area.

SDHS was named after a United States Navy officer from the Maryland Eastern Shore who lived from 1779 to 1820.

Nolan said that when the new school was named Stephen Decatur, the students “had never heard of him.” The group is now more familiar with the namesake’s impact and the influential commands he held in the War of 1812.

The class of 1955 reminisced on their time at Decatur, which included a senior trip to New York City. The women added that while attending Buckingham, the students often left school to grab lunch at Rayne’s Reef, a Berlin staple founded in 1901. However, when they made the move to SDHS, the rules changed a little. Leaving the premises was disallowed, and if students drove to school, they were required to hand over their keys to the front office.

The first group to graduate from SDHS has held reunions over the years, some of which included taking a tour of the facility and planting a tree on its property. Additionally, Jackson, Owens, Ludlam, Nolan, Bunting and Chamblin get together for monthly lunches.

The 70-year reunion is set for June 11. Members of the class of 1955 who plan to attend must RSVP by June 1 by contacting Bunting at 410-641-1932 or janebunting19@gmail.com. The $28 entrance fee must be paid in exact cash at the door. Furthermore, classmates who cannot attend may instead send a note to Bunting to be read to the reunion.