When the Redbud High school class of 1949 graduated, they committed to stay in touch, and 60 years later they have kept that promise.

On a cold and rainy Friday afternoon, members of the 1949 class gathered at the Shoney’s on Redbud Road to greet their senior math teacher, Billy Roberts.

With smiling faces, the friends congregated to share memories and stories with Roberts, who had driven more than 600 miles from his home in Maryland to be there.

“He was a good math teacher,” said Emily Thompson, member of the class of 1949.

Thompson and her husband J.T. have known Roberts most of their lives, long before he taught at Redbud High.

J.T., who went to Fairmount High School and graduated in 1945, and Roberts had grown up down the street from one another, and were even roommates at Berry College in the mid-1940’s.

“I remember him jumping over the first floor railing and sliding down the hall in his stockinged feet,” said J.T.

Roberts, 81, graduated from Berry in 1948 and taught at Redbud for two years.

He and his students have met in town since the 1980’s.

“It is nice to see everyone, we will keep meeting as long as we can,” Roberts said.