The most difficult job we have running this web site is the identification and confirmation of classmate deaths.  Information surrounding the death of a classmate is typically sparse and may be word of mouth. In many cases the absence of any information about a missing classmate is suggestive that they are no longer alive. In other cases there may be partial matches with death records complicated by the use of maiden and married names in females and the use of nicknames in both sexes.

In the course of our efforts to find missing classmates we do searches of the Social Security Death Index as well as state and local sources of death documentation. Often the only information available about a classmate is a close match to a death record. In the case of the Social Security Death Index we define a close match as being: (1)  exact match to the first, middle (name or initial) and last name, (2) birth year of 1942, 1943, 1944 or 1945 (3) Social Security registration from Michigan in the 1958 to 1962 time frame. Even with this information and the absence of any other information documenting life beyond the date of death, we have still searched for a second confirmation of death before listing the classmate in the "In Memory" section