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Members of the Thurmont High School class of 1961 sat around their senior year book Saturday at Thurmont Regional Library, reminiscing about dances, who went steady with whom, graduation and, most poignantly, old classmates.

The class, which attended school in what is now Thurmont Middle before Catoctin High opened, decided in 1994 to start donating money to the library each time a fellow graduate died.

According to Mary Lou Royer, the classmate who inspired the idea was Susan Catterson, who lost her 12-year battle with cancer that year.

Royer, Catterson's best friend growing up, said "Susie," as she was better known, was the first member of the Thurmont Class of ‘61 to die, and her friends wanted to memorialize her.

"Since my mother was the librarian and I knew that Susie loved to read ... I suggested we donate to the library in her name," said Royer, whose mother, Margaret Krone, worked at the old library location for years.

She added that the two of them even volunteered at the library together when they were younger. And next to her senior class picture, Susie was labeled as a "bookworm" by the yearbook staff.

From then on, collecting money from the class and donating it to the library became the traditional way to honor deceased classmates.

Connie Fox, one of the organizers of the collection, said three 1961 graduates have died since April 2009. The most recent was Bill Free, a former Pulitzer-prize nominated Baltimore Sun sports writer who died last month.

Fox said the collection process begins with sending out letters to the entire 1961 class, which was coincidentally comprised of 61 members. About 75 percent of the living classmates usually donate, according to co-organizer Gladys Baker. On average, about $800 comes back, she said.

"We were a very close class," Fox said, citing that as the reason for such generous donations.

Once the money is collected, the organizers deliver the funds to Erin Dingle, branch manager of Thurmont Regional Library, along with a note about the dead person's hobbies and interests.

"Usually, we try to get books that would reflect the interests of the people," Royer said.

Dingle then decides on what types of materials the person would have liked to be purchased in their name, and sends the money to the C. Burr Artz Public Library in Frederick. Administrators there take care of buying the materials and having book plates made that recognize where the money came from, Dingle said.

One of the recently deceased class members, Delores Messner, enjoyed romance novels, Dingle said.

"We're going to use those funds to buy romantic movies," she added, citing the fact that the library's video collection could use some bulking up, but romance novels are always kept on the shelves due to their popularity.

She said the organizers indicated that one man whose daughter was a school teacher would have wanted to buy books for school-aged children because of that fact, so they purchased materials for the teen section. Another man who liked to hunt and fish in his spare time would have wanted books about the outdoors and nature in the library, so they bought books that incorporated those subjects.

As for the donation in Bill Free's name, "I'm sure it will be something sports related ... that was his love," Royer said, who pointed out pictures of him playing basketball in the yearbook.

"It's bittersweet when they call," Dingle said. But, "they're passing something on to future generations," she added.

"I think the people feel like they're giving back to the community [where] they got their start," Fox said.

E-mail Courtney Pomeroy at cpomeroy@gazette.net.