Kay Carlson Kuciak, Class of 1963

Tom Kuciak, Class of 1962

In 1983, when Taft asked for volunteers to help start an alumni association, Kay Kuciak  rose to the challenge.  It took two years of sorting out the legal red tape to get the association going.  At the same time, Kay was Taft’s representative to the fledgling Chicago High School Alumni Association.

In 1985, the Taft Alunmi Association hosted its first event: the dedication of the boys’ gym in honor of Taft’s first football coach, Joe Kupcinet, who took his teams to the city championships.  Two years later, the association started planning for Taft’s 50th anniversary in 1989. There were exhibit room committees for each decade. There was a performing group of alumni who presented “The Best of Taft” for two nights of the three-day anniversary weekend. On the final night of the all-class reunion was an induction of the first seven members into the Taft Alumni Hall of Fame. An estimated crowd of 6,000 visited Taft that weekend.

It was the beginning of a busy decade. Kay served as producer for four years as alumni volunteers ran a drama program at Taft. The alumni paid for new marching band uniforms, a new school sign, trophy cases and donated several computers. The Alumni Scholarship program was established in 1990. Kay established the Alumni Office at Taft, but her dining room and back porch for many years were the mail processing areas for the quarterly newsletter.  In 1998, Kay and “Grease" co-creator Jim Jacobs were there when rock legend Frankie Avalon and a touring production cast from “Grease” visited Taft to set a hand jive record at the school which helped to inspire the musical.

What you may not have seen were Kay’s efforts behind the scene: rescue missions to find missing Taft memorabilia; attending many reunions to establish contacts with our alumni classes; organizing parade entries; fielding phone calls at all hours, year-round; visiting Taft regularly. The Taft PTSA gave her a life membership in 1990. The Taft staff presented her with its Taft Service Award in 1999. Kay also has received the most nominations to the Alumni Hall of Fame, but until now would not allow us to include her. This time, we insisted.

When you look for Kay on the Hall of Fame wall in the school's hallway, she won’t be alone.  That’s her husband, Tom, up there with her. We couldn’t have done it without Kay, but very little of this would have happened without Tom’s willingness to lend her to us. Tom, who retired after 34 years as a customer services manager for Sprint/Centel, now does communications consulting. The 16,000 record alumni database is one of Tom’s creations, and we have depended on his endless hours of computer expertise for everything from mailing labels to newsletter production.

The team of Kay and Tom are parents of Michael, grandparents of two, and friends of thousands.  They live in Surprise, Arizona.