Nostalgia reigns at Sharon reunion

Jack Comporesi is hugged by former student Janette Ireland of Kent during the Sharon Center School reunion Saturday.
Ruth Epstein
Jack Comporesi is hugged by former student Janette Ireland of Kent during the Sharon Center School reunion Saturday.
SHARON — Memories filled the air of the Sharon Center School cafeteria Saturday, March 1, as alumni from the 1970s to 2000s gathered at the invitation from beloved teachers Irv Robbins and Jack Comporesi.
Shrieks of recognition from those who hadn’t seen each other in decades were constant. So was the laughter as reminiscences were shared. The two teachers looked on with delight, watching as the more than 100 came together.
Looking back on their years with great fondness, the pair decided to host the reunion in hopes of reconnecting with the students they so enjoyed. Robbins taught social studies and math, while also coaching and Comporesi, affectionately known as “Compo,” was the physical education teacher and coach.
“It’s a blast to be in a place with friends,” said Robbins, who was at the school from 1969 to 1998.
“This is just great,” said Comporesi, decked out in his signature shorts which he wore throughout his tenure. “It’s bringing back a lot of memories. I’m surprised at the turnout. I guess that shows how much they thought about their time here.” He taught at the school from 1968 to 2002, noting a highlight was his being able to introduce cross-country skiing into the program. It was the only school in the state at that time that offered the sport and he praised the Board of Education for providing the funds.
As they arrived, the guests first headed over to the teachers for hugs and handshakes. Adam King of Westborough, Massachusetts, came bearing his eighth-grade yearbook, poring over the photos with some of his classmates. “As fast as I wanted to leave this town, I’ve kept it in my heart.” He and several others made reference to Comporesi’s shorts, noting he always wore them, even in sub-zero-degree weather. “His gym classes were the bright spot in my day.”
Among those attending Saturday’s Sharon Center School reunion are, from left, Meng Kry, Maggie Laverty, Julie Prindle, Barbie Ellis and Andrea Kennedy.Ruth Epstein
King remembered that Robbins had them read Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion” and that he invited students to his home for sledding.
King, and others, recalled the wooden hand Comporesi kept in his office as a deterrent to poor behavior. Jesse Loucks of Salisbury also had vivid memories of that spoon that had one smashed finger. When he thought about it, he went over to question Comporesi to ask if that finger was a result of his using it to punish someone. He came back with the answer. “He said that broken finger was just for effect,” reported Loucks.
For Nam Kry of New York City, Sharon Center School played a pivotal role in his life. He and his family were from Cambodia and were sponsored to come to town by the Sharon Congregational Church. Knowing no English, he said sports was the way he broke through the language barrier and he credited the two teachers for providing those experiences. He and his siblings were the only Asian students at the school at that time, but they were embraced by the school and community.
Kry went off to Salisbury School, Yale for an undergraduate degree and Harvard for a master’s. He works in the area of technology. “My American dream started here,” he said. Robbins noted he was one of the brightest students he ever taught.
As she embraced Comporesi, Janette Ireland of Kent said, “He was tough. He didn’t let us get away with anything.” Ed Duntz of Sharon said his main remembrance about Robbins was telling the students they all needed to know about football, because the boys would play it and the girls would date players. Douglas Cahill, current chairman of the Sharon Center School Board of Education, said his greatest pleasure is giving out the Comporesi Sports Award for sportsmanship at each graduation and Brian Wilcox beamed to relate that his daughter Morgan received that award.
Several women from the classes of 1986 and 1987 attended, pleased to see the teachers and each other. Andrea Kennedy said the two “set expectations because they loved the kids that went here” and Maggie Laverty said they inspired her to become a teacher.
Jamie Hall Casey of Sharon said when her father died, Comporesi was the first to arrive for his calling hours. Linda Amerighi of Sharon remembers students having to take part in the Presidential Fitness program under Comporesi’s supervision, which gave students needed exercise. “I still have my badges and certificates,” she said, proudly.
Jonathan Costa, who is director of EdAdvance, said his father, Tony Costa, a former principal at the school, hired Comporesi. “Jack inspired me in sports and Irv inspired me in education,” said Costa.
Ellie Lowell of Sharon came to show her appreciation to them both, but said Robbins made her seventh- and eighth-grade years enjoyable after having a difficult sixth-grade experience. “You don’t forget teachers like that,” she said.
Wanda Moeller of Sharon was the school secretary from 1977 to 2006. “They were a lot of fun,” she said of the pair. “They cared deeply about their students.”
“I knew I’d enjoy it and I did,” said Robbins, looking around the room toward the end of the event. “It’s a dream come true. I loved the kids, most of whom I haven’t seen since they graduated. To see them as adults is a joy.”
SHARON — Sharon Dennis Rosen, 83, died on Aug. 8, 2025, in New York City.
Born and raised in Sharon, Connecticut, she grew up on her parents’ farm and attended Sharon Center School and Housatonic Valley Regional High School. She went on to study at Skidmore College before moving to New York City, where she married Dr. Harvey Rosen and together they raised two children.
Sharon’s lifelong love of learning and the arts shaped both her work and her passions. For decades, she served as a tour guide at the American Museum of Natural History and the Asia Society, sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm with countless visitors. She also delighted in traveling widely, immersing herself in other cultures, and especially treasured time spent visiting her daughter and grandsons in Europe and Africa.
She was also deeply connected to her hometown, where in retirement she spent half her time and had many friends. She served as President of the Sharon East Side Cemetery until the time of her death, where generations of her family are buried and where she will also be laid to rest.
She is survived by her husband, Harvey; her children, Jennifer and Marc; and four beloved grandchildren.
Claire and Garland Jeffreys in the film “The King of In Between.”
There is a scene in “The King of In Between,” a documentary about musician Garland Jeffreys, that shows his name as the answer to a question on the TV show “Jeopardy!”
“This moment was the film in a nutshell,” said Claire Jeffreys, the film’s producer and director, and Garland’s wife of 40 years. “Nobody knows the answer,” she continued. “So, you’re cool enough to be a Jeopardy question, but you’re still obscure enough that not one of the contestants even had a glimmer of the answer.”
Garland Jeffreys never quite became a household name, but he carved out a singular place in American music by refusing to fit neatly into any category. A biracial New Yorker blending rock, reggae, soul and R&B, he used genre fusion as a kind of rebellion — against industry pigeonholes, racial boundaries and the musical status quo. Albums like “Ghost Writer” (1977) captured the tension of a post–civil rights America, while songs like “Wild in the Streets” made him an underground prophet of urban unrest. He moved alongside artists like Lou Reed and Bruce Springsteen but always in his own lane — part poet, part agitator, part bridge between cultures.
“I think what I tried to do with the film, wittingly or unwittingly, was just to show that we all have these lives and they don’t often meet our dreams of what we think we’re entitled to, we’re talented enough to get or whatever,” said Claire. “We all have these goals, but we’re sort of stymied. Often, it’s partly circumstance and luck, but it’s also very often something that we’re doing or not doing that’s impeding us.”
This is not the typical rock-and-roll redemption story. There are no smashed guitars, no heroic overdoses, no dramatic comeback tour. What we get instead is something quieter and more intimate: hours of archival footage that Claire spent years sorting through. The sheer effort behind the film is palpable — so much so that, as she admitted with a laugh, it cured her of any future ambitions in filmmaking.
“What I learned with this project was A, I’m never doing it again. It was just so hard. And B, you know, you can do anything if you collaborate with people that know what they’re doing.”
Claire worked with the editing team of Evan M. Johnson and Ben Sozanski and a slew of talented producers, and ended up with a truthful portrayal — a beautiful living document for Garland’s legions of fans and, perhaps most importantly, for the couple’s daughter, Savannah.
“She’s been in the audience with me maybe three or four times,” said Claire. “The last time, I could tell that she was beginning to feel very proud of the effort that went into it and also of being a part of it.”
Savannah pursued a career in music for a while herself but has changed tracks and become a video producer.
“I think she couldn’t quite see music happening for herself,” said Claire. “She was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to struggle the way I saw my dad struggling and I’m going to get a job with a salary.’”
The film doesn’t just track the arc of an underappreciated musician, however. The music, always playing, is the soundtrack of a life — of a man navigating racial, musical and personal boundaries while balancing marriage, parenthood, aging, addiction andrecovery. Garland and Claire speak plainly about getting sober in the film, a life choice that gave them both clarity and shows Claire as a co-conspirator in his survival.
“I did some work early on with a director,” said Claire. “He wanted the final cut, and I didn’t feel like I could do that — not because I wanted so much to control the story, but I didn’t want the story to be about Alzheimer’s.”
Diagnosed in 2017, Garland, now 81, is in the late stages of the disease. Claire serves as his primary caregiver. The film quietly acknowledges his diagnosis, but it doesn’t dwell — a restraint that feels intentional. Garland spent a career refusing to be reduced: not to one sound, one race or one scene. And so the documentary grants him that same dignity in aging. His memory may be slipping, but the film resists easy sentimentality. Instead, it shows what remains — his humor, his voice, his marriage, the echo of a life lived on the edges of fame and at the center of his own convictions.
The Moviehouse in Millerton will be screening “The King of In Between” on Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. Peter Aaron, arts editor of Chronogram Magazine will conduct a talkback and Q&A with Claire Jeffreys after the film. Purchase tickets at themoviehouse.net.
The Haystack Book Festival, a program of the Norfolk Hub, brings renowned writers and thinkers to Norfolk for conversation. Celebrating its fifth season this fall, the festival will gather 18 writers for discussions at the Norfolk Library on Sept. 20 and Oct. 3 through 5.
Jerome A. Cohen, author of the memoir “Eastward, Westward: A Lifein Law.”Haystack Book Festival
For example, “Never Take the Rule of Law for Granted: China and the Dissident,” will be held Saturday, Sept. 20, at 4 p.m. at the Norfolk Library. It brings together Jerome A. Cohen, author of “Eastward, Westward: A Life in Law,” and Mark Clifford, author of “The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong King’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic” in dialogue with journalist Richard Hornik to discuss the rule of law and China.
The Council on Foreign Relations stated, “Few Americans have done more than Jerome A. Cohen to advance the rule of law in East Asia. He established the study of Chinese law in the United States. An advocate for human rights, Cohen has been a scholar, teacher, lawyer, and activist for sixty years.”
Cohen, a professor at New York University School of Law and director of its U.S.-Asia Law Institute, revealed his long view on China: “We are now witnessing another extreme in the pendulum’s swing toward repression. Xi Jinping is likely to outlive me but ‘no life lives forever.’ There will eventually be another profound reaction to the current totalitarian era.”
Mark Clifford, author of “The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic.”Haystack Book Festival
In “The Troublemaker,” Clifford chronicles Lai’s life from child refugee to pro-democracy billionaire to his current imprisonment by the Chinese Communist Party. Clifford is president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, a Walter Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University, and holds a PhD in history from the University of Hong Kong. He was the former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post and The Standard (Hong Kong and Seoul).
Journalist Richard Hornik, adjunct senior fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu.Haystack Book Festival
Richard Hornik, adjunct senior fellow at the East-West Center, will moderate the discussion. Hornik is the former executive editor of AsiaWeek, news service director of Time magazine, and former Time bureau chief in Warsaw, Boston, Beijing and Hong Kong.
Betsy Lerner, author of “Shred Sisters,” is giving the 2025 Brendan Gill lecture at the Haystack Book Festival.Haystack Book Festival
The Brendan Gill Lecture is a highlight of the festival honoring longtime Norfolk resident Brendan Gill, who died in1997. Gill wrote for The New Yorker magazine for fifty years. Betsy Lerner, New York Times-recognized author of “Shred Sisters,” will deliver this year’s lecture on Friday, Oct. 3, at 6 p.m. at the Norfolk Library.
Visit haystackbookfestival.org to register. Admission is free.