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Hamilton alumni stay  in touch through virtual yearbook

HHS, Badin, other schools part of resource.

Retired Hamilton firefighter Claude Fant, Hamilton High School class of '56, maintains hhsalumni.net to help out-of-town grads keep in touch with their hometown.

Richard O Jones/Staff writer Retired Hamilton firefighter Claude Fant, Hamilton High School class of '56, maintains hhsalumni.net to help out-of-town grads keep in touch with their hometown.

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 11:53 AM Tuesday, November 17, 2009

HAMILTON — For a decade, retired firefighter Claude Fant has been a fixture at as many Hamilton high school reunions as he can manage.

That was when he began his tireless contributions to www.hhsalumni.net, an Internet site with membership approaching 5,500.

“The purpose of the Web site is to let people who went to Hamilton schools, especially those who have moved out of town, to keep in touch with each other,” Fant said.

“As you get older, you realize how important your classmates are to you,” he said. “The cliques are gone, so we can all get along now.”

Fant, Hamilton High School Class of 1956, has scanned in Hamilton’s high school yearbook pages from 1915 to the present to post every senior picture on the Web site, and is doggedly seeking yearbooks from Badin, Hamilton Catholic High and other high schools attended by Hamilton residents. He goes to class reunions to get updated photos.

Fant has also tried to keep up with the changing face of Hamilton, taking pictures of the High-Main Bridge project, the renovation of the Hamiltonian Hotel into the Courtyard By Mariott and the demolition of Wilson Middle School. Those photos are posted on the site, along with photos of Hamilton that date back to the 1890s.

The site contains more than 6,300 pictures, as well as 7,688 obituaries and 233 links.

Registered members can write messages to other members and view the most recent photos. A $10 annual membership allows subscribers to see all photos and a $20 annual membership allows subscribers to post photos.

“A lot of people find each other who haven’t talked for years,” Fant said.

“It amazes me that we have so many people on the site. We have three or four new people jumping on every week.”

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This is a great website. Everyone that graduated here should sign up. However when you do register, remember if you change your email address, you need to change it at the website too.

Pat
6:24 PM, 11/17/2009

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