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Our 50-Year Reunion was held the weekend of June 8-10, 2007 at the Hyatt Regency, Newport Beach, CA. Over 200 attended. Thanks to those who participated and to those who worked on the preparations: Barbi Knopp Wesser, Susie Cumins Newell, David Gilmour and Nancy Montgomery Gilmour.

Russ Newell (’56), Susie’s husband, was our official reunion photographer.  His photos can be viewed here.

A few more:


 

 

 

 

 Classmates, spouses and guests who attended
the 50th Reunion:

John Albi (Valerie Vaughan ‘56)
Julie Albi Laul (Virgil)
Jim Allison (Margie)
Tom Arthur
Bob Askin (Jayne)
Joan Aunger Dean
Bonnie Balch Anthony (Don Mike)
Alan Banks (Conception)
Betsy Barclay Jordan
Betty Beaudette Fruchey
Vickie Benedict DiFranco
Carol Beutler Hunter (Bruce)
Kay Bickley Johnson
Don Bingham
Alice Bishop Kennedy (Jay)
Marian Blake Rowe (Guests: Barbie Morgan La Rue & Pam Morgan)
Pam Boller Pingle
Cecile Bowler Driskill
Darrell Brook (Judy)
Judy Bullock Cadenasso (Sil)
Shirley Burgess Vanderbeck
Barry Busby French
Binnie Busby Beaumont
Garrilee Buster Reif (Bob ‘Buz’ Buster)
Toni Calamia Stevenson (Guest: Betty
Lou Stein Wilson ’58)
Wayne Callaway (Susan)
Rene Caron (Sandy)
Carol Carr Mayo
Judy Carroll Eaton (Jack ‘57)
Jim Chilton
John Covey
Susan Cramer Peters
Dick Croxall (Nancy)
Susie Cumins Newell (Russ ‘56)
Eric Cummings (Marilyn)
Karen Cunningham Schaeffer
Sharon Day Hubbard
Gay Ellen DeGero
Bill Dickey
Gary Dittmar (Mason)
Gail Douglas Goodcase
Jack Eaton (Judy Carroll Eaton ‘57)
Bill Eldredge (Molly Sinkule ‘59)
Patti Elias Merritt (Darold)
Dianne Evans Atkins
Joe Farino (Barbara)
 

Stoney Fetterly(Joyce)
Nancy Ford Truher
Jack Foye (Darleen)
Glenn Fraisl (Bonnie) Megan Geffeney Wagner
David Gilmour (Nancy Montgomery)
Jean Golisch Clark (Tom)
Jim Gorjans (Rayma)
Nancy Gough Purnell
Steve Grant (Jeannette)
Marylee Grant Goyan
Joseph Green (June)
Karen Grell Opdyke (Al)
Jo Gene Griffin Hurley (Bob)
Lee Grund (Penny)
Barbara Gumz Willis (Jim)
Jim Haack (Liz)
Bill Hamilton (Marilyn Stennett ‘60)
Dennis Harmer (Virginia)
Sue Hatter Martin (Dick ‘57)
Penny Havens Deley
Dorothy Heffner Voogd (Anthonie)
John Heidtke
Harold Hofman, Jr.
Karen Hunter Slawson
John Jacobi (Lynne Hege Calkins ’59)
Robert Janda (Shirley)
Robert “Bob” Norwood Jones (Diana)
Don Karotick (Evelyn)
Bob Kerske (Evelyn)
Denny Keyes Alspach (Dave)
Pat Killeen (Phil Gosswiller)
Marilyn Kirchner Hlista (George ‘58)
Barbi Knopp Wesser (Don ‘56)
Ken Kreutz (Noni)
Dick Lawrence (Char)
Dick Leach (Sandra Swanson ‘59)
Troy Lemons (Roberta)
Pat Lenz Jones
Chuck Liberto (Patty)
Gordon Maddock
Joyce Mark Goodman
Richard Craig “Dick” Martin (Sue
Hatter ’57)
Charlene Mayne Woodcock

Jerry MacDonald
Jerre McCracken Roberts
Bert McKinley (Jo)
Vermille McLaughlin Sickler
Bonnie Merry Booth (Chuck)
Sue Mertz
Sue Miller Metts
Nancy Montgomery Gilmour (David ’57)  
Faith Moody Fults (Bill)
Doug Nanninga
Ron Norton (Charlene)
Kay Petrusha Thompson
Tupper Pettit
Rod Phillips (Beverly Jean)
Paul Postlewait
John Pullman (Cathy)
Jean Ramage
Janet Reeve Jacobson (Ty)
Myron Reichert (Linda McClean ‘59)
Jean Reynolds Trimble (Robert)
Ralph Rittenhouse (Ann)
Bert Roberts
Barbara Royer Graham (Bill)
Les Rush
Sue Ryerson De Orio (Diana Green)
Colleen Schurter Jannuzzi (David)
Judy Shoemaker Douglass (Don)
Vince Spencer (Charlotte)
Pat Spencer Gruben
Roger Stevens (Coleen)
Linda Stewart Little
Ann Sullivan Howell
Allen Swan
Peggy Tremayne (Harry Fussganger)
Tom Trippe (Kirsten Berg)
Marilyn Tumilty Reames
John Van Ornum (Joyce)
Leslie Van Doren Lynch
Sherrill Williams Mayo (Jerry)
Helene Winer Blumner (Sid)
Karen Wingard
Elsa Woolbert Haines (Bob)
Darrell Yost

Biography of the Class of 1957*

We are here tonight to celebrate not only our common heritage, but also our individual accomplishments and the different paths our lives have taken. How could we have known on June 13, 1957 when we stood together on the Arcadia High School track and football field to receive our diplomas, that 50 years of living would produce such a wealth of talent and life experience?

In some ways, we are the usual suspects. We have been educated. Most of us have married...at least once; and most of us have retired...at least once. Many of us are parents, grandparents, even great grandparents. Forty-six of us married a classmate or someone from another class at Arcadia. Nine of us married a classmate or someone from another class, but waited a bit longer...as much as 30 or 40 years...or more! Sixteen of us are still married to our high school sweethearts, and six of us who married our high school sweethearts are now widowed.

Over the past 50 years, we have experienced our share of the good life: we have raised families; restored and remodeled homes; built businesses and companies; and traveled the world. We have studied along the way, and some of us have received advanced degrees—Masters and Doctorates—even in our 60’s. And now we are giving back to our communities and to the larger world.

There have been sorrows. We have lost spouses and partners, precious children and grandchildren long before their time, as well as parents, siblings, best friends and classmates. At least two of us have lost homes and cherished possessions to major disasters. Some of us have suffered ill health or divorce or both; and all of us have lost some of our 1950’s dreams and illusions.

We have lived everywhere...in the mountains, the deserts, Europe, Africa, the Far East...in Idaho...on islands, on submarines, sailboats, houseboats, in log cabins and in a hippie community. Some of us still call Arcadia home, 20 of us to be exact; others live as far away as Baghdad.

We are homemakers, dentists, educators and engineers, attorneys, builders, farmers, firefighters, psychologists and photographers. We are CPA’s, administrative assistants, entrepreneurs, cattle ranchers, restaurant owners and real estate developers, nurses, doctors, designers and decorators. We coach high school sports. We teach piano. We write books, both professionally and for pleasure; and we fly airplanes, commercial and private. We have served in the military and in the Peace Corps. We are travel agents, sales people, veterinarians, musicians, wine makers and business professionals. We have worked in medical research, healthcare, aerospace, computers, banking and technology.

We have won recognition or distinction for our uniqueness, our efforts or our expertise, and sometimes for our valor. Among ourselves we can count a professional singer, a dancer, a physicist and former hippie, a nationally recognized paralegal, a firefighters’ medal of valor honoree, a part-time dental missionary, a former FBI special agent, an international police officer serving with the UN, a Hall of Fame tennis coach, and an individual—alive and quite well—whom we falsely declared dead!

Some of us have been honored at the White House and have met the President of the United States, and one of us was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in musical composition. We have served in Vietnam, Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq and Desert Storm. One of us, a firefighter, bore witness to the Arco Towers Fire and the Watts Riots; another, a doctor, to the death and devastation of Katrina.

For fun we walk, hike, bike, ride our Harleys, race our sports cars, run marathons and ultra marathons (to mountain tops and back), windsurf, water ski and travel to exotic lands. We read books, rappel the rainforest, cook hobo style, collect vintage cars, learn new languages, sail our boats, raise horses and ride them. We square dance, tap dance, play tennis and golf, paint, compete in bridge tournaments, plant our gardens, grow our vegetables, sing in choirs, sew our quilts, and decorate our homes—sometimes with hand-painted murals. We build things in our garages, and sometimes we build a garage just to house the things we build.

We do private catering, get involved in politics and environmental causes, advocate for the elderly, for children, the sick and the disabled. We are actively involved in our local churches; and we volunteer untold hours for schools, hospitals and worthy organizations. We also swim, exercise, practice yoga and Pilates, and do our best to stay healthy.

Some of us are less busy now that we are retired, and some of us are busier than ever. We start a new business, return to work part-time, go back to school, or learn a new skill…or maybe two or three. We love and spoil our children’s children, and at the same time care for our elderly parents…even our spouses.

And in the midst of it all, we celebrate that we are still here and able to enjoy life and each other...50 years later!

                                                                                     - Nancy Montgomery Gilmour

*Read at the 50th Reunion – June 9, 2007.



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