New London — Sixty-five years after the all-boys school closed, alumni of the former Bulkeley School gathered Friday in the Port 'N Starboard at Ocean Beach Park for what might be the last time.

In the past, the ballroom used to be filled with alumni; today, there are fewer than 100, with about 70 in attendance Friday afternoon.

But rising ages and declining attendance didn't break the spirit of the "Bulkeley Boys."

Men shook hands heartily as they greeted old classmates and reminisced about favorite moments at the school, which now houses the Regional Multicultural Magnet School.

Harold Arkava, a member of the Class of 1944 and largely considered to be the ringleader of the annual alumni lunches, recalled a favorite teacher who ended up making millions on the stock market. 

Myron Hendel, who graduated in 1946, remembered another teacher who he said could make a Shakespeare lesson feel like a theatrical experience.

For Albert Glassenberg, who graduated in 1945, the success of the Bulkeley School football team stood out to him the most.

"This is a rare bunch of guys," he said. "They won the state championship in football two years, and they were playing schools that had 2,000 kids in them."

Kenneth Halpern, a 1951 graduate who now lives in West Palm Beach, Fla., said he and his soft orange sweater have never missed a reunion.

"There's no describing the kind of esprit de corps that came from that (school)," he said. "I wouldn't go to any other reunion, but I'd never miss one of these."

The Bulkeley Alumni Association President Robert Sinagra, a member of the Class of 1952, said Arkava was really the leader of the organization.

"We've been having these reunions for 50 years thanks to Harold," he said. "If the man hadn't done the things he's done for Bulkeley, I don't know what he would've done with himself."

The 90-year-old Arkava has organized all of the alumni lunches except for this year's due to illness. Hendel agreed to finish Arkava's work this year, but admitted that it was a lot to do.

The alumni association hands out scholarships to descendants of the Bulkeley Boys every year, and Arkava was proud to say the fund has grown from the $2 he started it with to more than $1.2 million in scholarships to date.

Arkava said Friday's lunch will probably be the last formal reunion for Bulkeley alumni.

However, Sinagra said, the association may start reaching out to descendants to continue its work.

Hendel said many of his classmates went on to have distinguished careers as doctors, lawyers, engineers and more because of the quality of education at Bulkeley.

"It's such an unusual conglomeration of people," Arkava said of the alumni get-togethers. "I'm going to miss it. It was very much an integral part of my whole life."

a.hutchinson@theday.com