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Alums surf web to WYHS memories

The Web site, which features alumni news, will move to wyhsrams.com soon.

By Heidi Krieger, Special to Whitehall News

If you are a Whitehall-Yearling High School graduate and have access to the Internet there is one place you should check out - www.wyhs.org.

This site bills itself as the source for everything from Class Reunion information to class memories and includes links to sites that alumni might find interesting.

Rob Fish, Whitehall-Yearling class of 1971, is the creator of this Web site.

"I decided it would be a good idea to have a site just for Whitehall," Fish said.

About a year and a half ago he was talking with other alumni online and thought it would be a good idea to have a place where they could go on the Internet, but the domain name he wanted, www.wyhs.com, was taken, so he let the idea pass.

Then, last July, fish discovered that the domain name www.wyhs.org was not taken, and he decided to jump on the opportunity and start the site. In August, the site will change it address to www.wyhsRams.com.

In the beginning, the site had two goals. First, Fish wanted to have a place to allow Whitehall Alumni to store their memories. Second, he wanted to give alumni a place to go where they could find out about reunions.

Now, a third goal has been added. The Web site has become a tool to get the word out about a possible All Class reunion. One alumnus out in Colorado threw in the fact that the 50th anniversary of the school is in 2004 and a reunion would be a good way to celebrate and send monetary support back to the school.

The site goes beyond these three goals.

There are memorial pages recognizing those from the school who have died as well as pages for coaches, teachers and others who had an impact on Whitehall alumni.

The site has an alumni band page.

Fish has recently started working on putting the graduate Hall of Fame on the Web. He wondered originally whether it would be more appropriate to put it on the alumni page or the school's web page. When deciding these things he often talks to people at the Whitehall-Yearling High School.

"Everyone in the Whitehall district has been unbelievably supportive," Fish said.

Fish also works with reunion committees. He has a section on his site which has a list of missing alumni. The site asks people to send any information about these missing people, and about six are found every month.

Fish also runs a small page for the Whitehall Historical Society off of the alumni site.

Links from the alumni page will take alumni to similar pages at other schools or pages someone else from their class has created.

In the future, Fish hopes to add a Sports Hall of Fame section, a reunion committee section and an Alumni business directory.

"The bottom line is to do something good for alumni and good for the kids," Fish said about the site.

In high school, Fish was involved in many activities, including symphonic band, concert band, jazz band, marching band, orchestra, cross country, track, chess club, conductor's club, computer club and tennis.

Fish went to the Ohio State University where he was a music major. He still picks up his instruments once in a while - usually at Christmas to make Christmas CDs and the past two years he has marched in the alumni band.

Fish is a certified fluid power specialist and designed the hydraulics that raise the 300-foot long wall of glass at the Grandstand at Scioto Downs. He worked for Hydraulic and Air Controls for 23 years.

Now, Fish has expanded his business of making buttons, magnets and dry erase boards from his home and also designs Web pages. Fish said he's probably designed 20 Web sites in the last three years.

In the future, he plans to design a directory site for hydraulic repair shops.

Fish and his wife, Paula (Replogle), both graduated from Whitehall in 1971. They have three grown children.

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This article was published in the June 27, 2001 edition of the Whitehall News, which is a Suburban News publication. You can find current local Whitehall News by visiting the Suburban News web site ( www.snponline.com ) and clicking on the "News from Your Community" link.