When my family moved to Montclair from Fairfax, Virginia in 1958, the Cannon family bought the house on the southwest corner of Park St. and Lorraine Ave., across from the Petroff's and catty-corner to the Riffins. The other corner was (and still is) occupied by Lacordaire Academy prep school for women.
Liz Petroff and I barely exchanged words at Mt. Hebron or in Montclair High School, but when I got married for the first time in 1967 to a University of Miami classmate from Ft. Lauderdale (who after graduation taught at Montclair High), Liz gave us a wedding gift, a coconut shell ashtray, which I haven't used since 1984. A few years ago, I came across it and I decided to research what became of Liz because I had lost a 30-year old sister as a result of a fire and the Riffins had a daughter who disappeared in her 30s. Here is what I learned about Liz:
Elizabeth Petroff disappeared at sea February 20, 1976, while sailing from Boca Raton, Florida to The Bahamas with her boyfriend on a catamaran.
The 30-year-old Liz was a high school teacher in Boca Raton at the time, having transferred from the University of Tampa to the Florida Atlantic University Theater and Speech Program, where she participated in every drama production.
Liz’s disappearance never made the newspapers. However, the thin brown-haired woman, with large-framed glasses had been in the news five years earlier. On March 30, 1971, the Boca Raton News carried a story about police patrolling a Spanish River Park because crowds of hippie-looking college and high school students in mod clothing had appeared there the previous weekend. The police turned away a vehicle carrying student Bob Marietta and “Liz Petroff, drama director for Project You, and Miss Maggie Hays, a Pompano Beach High School teacher.”
Apparently, Liz made enough of an impression that the July 18, 1971 Boca Raton News wrote an article about her work at Project You, featuring a photograph of her and the headline “For Project You kids: A new chance at expression.” Liz had introduced a drama group, the Common Pipers, into the program which was attracting a number of high school students, which the paper attributed in part to “the enthusiasm of Miss Petroff.”
She was quoted as saying “‘I think the boys are shyer, more difficult to get involved in the program, but when they do they bring their friends with them…Most of the kids have no dramatic training, so we take whatever material we have and try to fit it to them.” She was impressed by how the material evolved from improvisation into actual 20 minute scripts that the students memorized in four days.
The following year, the April 4, 1972 Boca Raton News carried an article by Michael Couture about Project You arts and crafts program for junior high school students in the South County Neighborhood Center. According to the paper, Project You goes beyond teaching art, “It deals with human relations and taking up the inactivity of youth.” Liz worked with Mrs. Clarke Bourne who was concerned about the fact that there was no place for kids in Boca Raton to go and enjoy themselves. Liz was quoted as saying, “‘I feel that kids don’t have time in the school system to learn about other kids." She felt that sharing the same interests helps "you learn more about the other person.’” The two to ten kids who would showe up five days a week for the program were encouraged to converse as much as possible.
Liz’s brother Chris Petroff later wrote to me, “Lucky for our mom, she had a brother who'd retired to Boynton Beach who could help her out. This happened while I was in living in Mexico and I felt helpless.” In 1995 Chris had the memorial engraved for Liz on the family headstone in Mt. Hebron Cemetery in Upper Montclair.
Thanks, David, for your excellent research. I feel like I know who Elizabeth was much better. How horrible it must have been for Elizabeth & her friend to face whatever tragedy took her life, and how sad her family had no closure.
I am so happy you were able to find all this information on Liz. It has bothered me since I saw the memorial stone 20 years ago. How great that someone who was quiet and reticent herself was involved in helping others 'come out of their shell'.
Thank you, Chris Petroff and David Cannon for setting up Elizabeth's memorial page, and thank you Dave for finding the part of Liz' life that was missing to me......the part after we graduated from MHS. Your story is so well written and fills in a huge, sad blank spot for me. I am so glad to know how happy and engaged in life Liz was before she was lost at sea. Thank you for the gift of your research and the sharing of it so eloquently.
I lived three doors down from Liz and her family on Park Street beginning in first grade (Oakwood Ave for a year before that till we found our Park Street house) and four doors down from Jane Riffin (Susswein), and across the street and down a couple of houses from David Cannon. It was a wonderful neighborhood, and I used to play with Liz and Jane all the time when we were growing up. Liz' little brother, Chris, used to come to visit us periodically, all by himself, and we all loved it when he did!
I, too, remember Liz' pretty, looped pigtails and her sweet smile. She was a dear friend in childhood, and I was so sorry to have lost touch with her after MHS graduation and then to learn of her death. I was never able to find out any more than she was lost at sea. I'm so happy to know the details of that part of her life, which Dave's story provides. Your story gives me a sense of peace after not knowing anything of her life between graduation and the devastating news of her death. I'm glad to know there is a memorial stone for her in the Mount Hebron Cemetery. I will stop by and find it on one of my trips back to Montclair.
Chris, we would all love to see photos of Liz. Thanks for offering do post them!
Oh thank you for sharing these precious photos of Elizabeth, Chris! They are beautiful, and I am so happy to see Elizabeth's beautiful, happy smile in the photos of her as an adult. What a gift this is to me. And the photo of her at the piano as a child is the little girl who was my playmate while growing up. We had so many fun times together and used to run back and forth between our houses at will, always welcome in both places. I should include Jane Riffin (Susswiein) in this, too, as we ran back and forth to all three houses and we all played together all the time. And there was a fourth classmate in the neighborghood, too, with whom we played constantly. All four of us were fast friends and playmates. This other little girl was Barb Mattick, who lived just around the corner on Bellevue Avenue! What fun we all had together! Those were good times and fun to remember!
David Cannon
When my family moved to Montclair from Fairfax, Virginia in 1958, the Cannon family bought the house on the southwest corner of Park St. and Lorraine Ave., across from the Petroff's and catty-corner to the Riffins. The other corner was (and still is) occupied by Lacordaire Academy prep school for women.
Liz Petroff and I barely exchanged words at Mt. Hebron or in Montclair High School, but when I got married for the first time in 1967 to a University of Miami classmate from Ft. Lauderdale (who after graduation taught at Montclair High), Liz gave us a wedding gift, a coconut shell ashtray, which I haven't used since 1984. A few years ago, I came across it and I decided to research what became of Liz because I had lost a 30-year old sister as a result of a fire and the Riffins had a daughter who disappeared in her 30s. Here is what I learned about Liz:
Elizabeth Petroff disappeared at sea February 20, 1976, while sailing from Boca Raton, Florida to The Bahamas with her boyfriend on a catamaran.
The 30-year-old Liz was a high school teacher in Boca Raton at the time, having transferred from the University of Tampa to the Florida Atlantic University Theater and Speech Program, where she participated in every drama production.
Liz’s disappearance never made the newspapers. However, the thin brown-haired woman, with large-framed glasses had been in the news five years earlier. On March 30, 1971, the Boca Raton News carried a story about police patrolling a Spanish River Park because crowds of hippie-looking college and high school students in mod clothing had appeared there the previous weekend. The police turned away a vehicle carrying student Bob Marietta and “Liz Petroff, drama director for Project You, and Miss Maggie Hays, a Pompano Beach High School teacher.”
Apparently, Liz made enough of an impression that the July 18, 1971 Boca Raton News wrote an article about her work at Project You, featuring a photograph of her and the headline “For Project You kids: A new chance at expression.” Liz had introduced a drama group, the Common Pipers, into the program which was attracting a number of high school students, which the paper attributed in part to “the enthusiasm of Miss Petroff.”
She was quoted as saying “‘I think the boys are shyer, more difficult to get involved in the program, but when they do they bring their friends with them…Most of the kids have no dramatic training, so we take whatever material we have and try to fit it to them.” She was impressed by how the material evolved from improvisation into actual 20 minute scripts that the students memorized in four days.
The following year, the April 4, 1972 Boca Raton News carried an article by Michael Couture about Project You arts and crafts program for junior high school students in the South County Neighborhood Center. According to the paper, Project You goes beyond teaching art, “It deals with human relations and taking up the inactivity of youth.” Liz worked with Mrs. Clarke Bourne who was concerned about the fact that there was no place for kids in Boca Raton to go and enjoy themselves. Liz was quoted as saying, “‘I feel that kids don’t have time in the school system to learn about other kids." She felt that sharing the same interests helps "you learn more about the other person.’” The two to ten kids who would showe up five days a week for the program were encouraged to converse as much as possible.
Liz’s brother Chris Petroff later wrote to me, “Lucky for our mom, she had a brother who'd retired to Boynton Beach who could help her out. This happened while I was in living in Mexico and I felt helpless.” In 1995 Chris had the memorial engraved for Liz on the family headstone in Mt. Hebron Cemetery in Upper Montclair.
Claire Widmark (Jennings)
Thanks, David, for your excellent research. I feel like I know who Elizabeth was much better. How horrible it must have been for Elizabeth & her friend to face whatever tragedy took her life, and how sad her family had no closure.
Claire
Betsy Jacobus (Davidson)
I am so happy you were able to find all this information on Liz. It has bothered me since I saw the memorial stone 20 years ago. How great that someone who was quiet and reticent herself was involved in helping others 'come out of their shell'.
Sigrid Walter (Bonnett)
Well said Claire and Betsy.
Barbara Vosburgh (Linnard)
Thank you, Chris Petroff and David Cannon for setting up Elizabeth's memorial page, and thank you Dave for finding the part of Liz' life that was missing to me......the part after we graduated from MHS. Your story is so well written and fills in a huge, sad blank spot for me. I am so glad to know how happy and engaged in life Liz was before she was lost at sea. Thank you for the gift of your research and the sharing of it so eloquently.
I lived three doors down from Liz and her family on Park Street beginning in first grade (Oakwood Ave for a year before that till we found our Park Street house) and four doors down from Jane Riffin (Susswein), and across the street and down a couple of houses from David Cannon. It was a wonderful neighborhood, and I used to play with Liz and Jane all the time when we were growing up. Liz' little brother, Chris, used to come to visit us periodically, all by himself, and we all loved it when he did!
I, too, remember Liz' pretty, looped pigtails and her sweet smile. She was a dear friend in childhood, and I was so sorry to have lost touch with her after MHS graduation and then to learn of her death. I was never able to find out any more than she was lost at sea. I'm so happy to know the details of that part of her life, which Dave's story provides. Your story gives me a sense of peace after not knowing anything of her life between graduation and the devastating news of her death. I'm glad to know there is a memorial stone for her in the Mount Hebron Cemetery. I will stop by and find it on one of my trips back to Montclair.
Chris, we would all love to see photos of Liz. Thanks for offering do post them!
Warm wishes, Barby
Christopher Petroff (Brother Of Elizabeth)
Christopher Petroff (Brother Of Elizabeth)
Christopher Petroff (Brother Of Elizabeth)
Christopher Petroff (Brother Of Elizabeth)
Barbara Vosburgh (Linnard)
Oh thank you for sharing these precious photos of Elizabeth, Chris! They are beautiful, and I am so happy to see Elizabeth's beautiful, happy smile in the photos of her as an adult. What a gift this is to me. And the photo of her at the piano as a child is the little girl who was my playmate while growing up. We had so many fun times together and used to run back and forth between our houses at will, always welcome in both places. I should include Jane Riffin (Susswiein) in this, too, as we ran back and forth to all three houses and we all played together all the time. And there was a fourth classmate in the neighborghood, too, with whom we played constantly. All four of us were fast friends and playmates. This other little girl was Barb Mattick, who lived just around the corner on Bellevue Avenue! What fun we all had together! Those were good times and fun to remember!