Editor’s Note: Carol and Joan co-authored their Classmate Spotlights in celebration of their reconnection.

Joan’s story:

After leaving Mass at my church on a summer evening, I looked up and saw a profile that looked strangely familiar. I realized it was not someone who I had recently seen but I knew that I knew this person. Suddenly, I realized it was someone from high school; someone I had not seen in years. I said, “Excuse me.” As she turned toward me, I knew right away that it was Carol Centanni from Livingston. I did not know if she would remember me, but she did. In that moment a very special friendship was rekindled.

Carol’s story:

It was a warm evening in July 2022 when I stepped out of the 6 PM Mass at St. Lawrence Church in Chester, New Jersey and noticed a woman that I thought looked an awful lot like Joan. But not having seen Joan since high school graduation I thought that it was highly unlikely it was her. After all, I had lived in the area for over 20 years. I had been to many baseball fields, Girl Scout events, local churches and countless shopping outings and I never bumped into Joan. I thought I was seeing an incredible doppelgänger and so I kept walking. When I heard a voice call out “hello! Hello!” I recognized it immediately as Joan’s. I wish you could have seen the joy and laughter we shared as we hugged at the chance reunion! On that particular Sunday evening, I had decided to attend Mass at Joan’s local parish. At this time in my life, I had been retired for about a year, having accepted a package so that I could focus on downsizing our family home. Things weren’t going as I had hoped. That evening I prayed that something would surface that would help make my life far more fulfilling. And not 10 minutes later, I was hugging Joan and catching up on our lives since high school. It felt like a miracle.

Joan’s story:

After we graduated, I attended Seton Hall University as a commuter student. Shortly before I graduated with a BS in nursing, I decided to investigate the possibility of applying to dental school. I was happy to be accepted at New Jersey Dental School (now Rutgers Dental School) and excited to continue my education. It was there that I met my husband, Bill, and we graduated together in 1986.

After we were married in November 1986, we moved into an apartment in Long Branch to begin our life together. Bill was starting a residency at Monmouth Medical. We really loved our time being there.

After the residency was completed, we decided to stay in Monmouth County and relocated to Lincroft. We started a practice together in that community. It was about that time that our first child, Andrew, was born in 1989. It was challenging to balance family life, being a new mother and working part-time in our practice.

While we continued in practice, Bill accepted an R&D position at Colgate-Palmolive supervising clinical research on their oral care products. Three years later our second child, Sarah, was born in 1992. I continued to work a few days a week.

After about five years a job change to a new company for my husband made things a bit more complicated. We remained in Monmouth County, but his daily commute was well over an hour. We eventually took advantage of a relocation package offered by the company. That brought us to our current home in Morris County. We did maintain the practice for a few years after our move but over time we realized it would be challenging to continue long term. This eventually led us to sell the practice in 1997.

After that, I changed careers once again and became a professor at Middlesex County College teaching Dental Hygiene. I really enjoyed being with the students and helping them learn. I was honored and humbled to be asked by the class to be the keynote speaker at their graduation. Once again, things would soon change.

Our third child, Will, was born in 2000. At that point I decided to “retire” from dentistry and wanted to be home raising our children. Our oldest son would soon be starting high school, and the other children would need my support as well. Life continued with many of the ups and downs that could be expected with family life.

Time passed and our children began their college years. Our son Andrew headed to Villanova University. Our daughter attended Boston College. At Villanova, our son met his future wife. They married a few years after graduation and now reside in Mansfield, Massachusetts. They have three children: Jack, Claire, and Owen. We are so excited and happy to be grandparents and try to visit them on a monthly basis.

After our daughter, Sarah attended Boston College and then completed post graduate studies at University of Michigan. At one of her first jobs, she met her future husband. They married in 2025 and live in Morristown. She now does private counseling. We recently learned our family will be growing again as she is pregnant, due in October.

Will, our youngest son, has been interested in the sports world from a young age. After finishing high school, he attended Fordham University in the Bronx. While there he became a student manager for the men’s basketball team. It was a great experience and eventually afforded him the opportunity to attend University of Maryland where he was selected to work as a graduate assistant with the basketball team. That was an exciting year as the team was very successful and made it into the Sweet 16 during March Madness. He is now enrolled in a master’s program for Sports Psychology and looks to continue in that field.

In 2014, myself, along with several retired teachers, began a preschool type of program to fill a need for ESL children in our town. Because of the high cost of preschool these children were entering kindergarten without preschool experience and speaking very little English. It has been a rewarding experience with much joy to have a positive impact on these children and their families. Along with the preschool, I also enjoy volunteering with the teen youth program at our parish.

My husband retired in 2017, and this has afforded us the opportunity to travel and enjoy ourselves. We have been on several river cruises and look forward to our annual extended family beach vacation at the Jersey Shore with our children, their spouses, grandchildren and cousins every summer.

Recently we have been on two trips that have been very impactful. The first one started in Portugal and ended in Spain. Camino de Santiago is a long-distance walking route across Spain and Portugal that blends history, culture, nature, and personal challenge.

It is a physically demanding experience in that you walk on average about 20 miles daily for about a week. You meet fellow “pilgrims” of all ages from all over the world. The time away becomes a spiritual journey with a wonderful sense of accomplishment when you arrive at your destination in Compostela, Spain. We truly enjoyed this unique experience.

A second impactful trip was a journey to Ireland with two of our children and our son-in-law. It afforded us the opportunity to visit my mother’s ancestral home in County Kerry. It was a special and emotional experience to meet my mother’s relatives, as well as to visit places that were an important part of her childhood. Uncovering this part of my family heritage left a deep impression on me and helped connect me to my roots.

Shortly after our visit to Ireland, I joined a civic organization in Morristown. The group consists of women of Irish Heritage who are involved in many charitable activities that support the community. As part of this organization, we have the fun opportunity to march in Morristown’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

A lot has happened over the past 50 years since high school. I can now reflect back and I am grateful for the wonderful community and foundation that Livingston provided me. I feel so blessed to be celebrating 40 years of marriage this year and to be surrounded by family and friends every day.

Carol’s story.

I always had the sense that life would truly begin after high school. Following our graduation I attended Montclair State College. Several Livingston graduates also attended, and we often carpooled together. We laughed a lot during those car rides! Although many students commuted, it didn’t get in the way of developing wonderful new friendships and enjoying college life. I still see many of those college friends. I also met my future husband shortly after beginning college, thanks to LHS classmate Cindy Russo-Zirkel.

I studied accounting, graduated in 1981 and began my career as an auditor for a firm now known as PwC. I passed the CPA and CMA exams. Auditing, as interesting as it was, did not excite me. So, I began applying my accountancy skills in different ways. When I was offered a job in “National Professional Education” to develop auditing and accounting training materials for accountants, I took it. It turns out that learning and development was ideal for me. I had an amazing 30+ year career at PwC. Some highlights were seeing a few of my projects win industry awards, working with the Duke University men’s basketball team, leading international teams and traveling the world. At the time I retired, I was a senior director and learning strategist at PwC. I was responsible for a team of learning architects and had led many US strategic learning projects. My favorite role was that of mentor and coach. Since retirement, it’s been so rewarding to hear how those I mentored have taken on new responsibilities and are advancing their careers.

Although my career was incredibly rewarding, my true vocation has been wife and mother. I am by nature a private person so I will not share much, other than to say that I’m so very proud of and have a deep love of my family – immediate and extended. Classmate Erin O’Neil and Bob Russo (‘76) are my children’s godparents and are part of our extended family. Both of my children are spending their lives with people they love (and whom I also love) and like me, figuring out how they are being called to live out their lives. I’m very blessed to have recently become a grandmother. I don’t know about you, but every time a baby is born, I feel hope has entered the world! And although life is very busy, I make time to see family and friends, enjoy hobbies, cook, participate in church ministries and even do some “part time” work.

But back to that moment when Joan and I caught up in the church parking lot. Since you’ve read Joan’s story you know, she started a preschool for children with ESL needs. She asked me to be part of that group at St. Lawrence. It took all of about 2 seconds for me to agree! And that “yes” was just what I needed to bring joy, laughter and purpose back into my life. That singular “yes,” restored and strengthened my friendship with Joan, introduced me to new people whom I now call friends. Through that program I began to understand the needs of the unseen in our communities. Since that time, I’ve sought out opportunities to help others in our local communities in ways that I never could’ve expected- like practicing my high school Spanish on a bunch of preschoolers. A single “yes” to try something new has made me more comfortable saying “yes” to other opportunities and has reawakened a youthful joy as I reimagine life nearly 50 years since high school graduation. These years have taught me much, but mostly to appreciate the gift of life and the beauty of all of humanity.

Joan and Carol’s final thoughts:

Over the years, we both have had many opportunities to return to Livingston. Joan would visit her parents regularly as they remained in her childhood home until their recent passing in 2022 and 2025. Two of Joan’s three sisters still reside in Livingston, so she still returns to visit them regularly. Carol’s family no longer lives in Livingston. But, she often visits Erin and Bob. Sometimes she and Erin take “the path” and walk to the high school, just like they did so many years ago. The high school years were wonderful, and so were the college and the parenting years. It has all been wonderful, and we continue to believe the future will be too. We hope you do as well.

Michael – We join all of our classmates in their expressions of gratitude. Thank you for all you’ve done to connect us. You’re amazing! And to all of you who have shared your stories, thank you. You have touched our hearts. We are looking forward to seeing everyone at our 50th, God willing.