If you have trouble using the email program that comes up after clicking on one of the classmate email buttons, just hold your cursor over the button and the address should be shown somewhere on your screen that you can write down and use in your own email program.
Nelda (McMichael) Gruenthal
I would love to attend the reunion, but the reality is, I can’t drive that far on my own. I still get around town (Camarillo, CA) just fine but rarely go more than 20 miles from home. Being a year older than most of you (at 89!), I’ve noticed my reaction time isn’t what it used to be.
I wish you all a wonderful reunion. Please take lots of photos and share them on the website so those of us who can’t be there can still enjoy the memories.
With love, Nelda 09/05/25
Bette (Franks) Bach Fineman
I am the daughter of Bette Franks, who married Richard Bach.
Bette is now 87 and in a memory care unit in Lynden, Washington. She remembers WWHS fondly, her acapella group as well.
Thank you for letting her know about the reunion, but she will not be able to make it.
She is retired from flying General Aviation aircraft, after having had over 50 years of flying!
Hope you have a great reunion,
Erica Bach Berdan 09/05/25
Phil Tenkhoff
My wife, Dorothy, and I are now living in Bellingham, WA. We really love it here and have no plans to move.
Fortunately, we continue to enjoy good health. We have nine grandchildren located in Washington, Oregon, California, and Colorado.
09/06/25
Tom Hulme
In anticipation of our 70th class reunion, Tom contributed this NYTimes article by Frank Brunel about his college reunions. Especially note the final paragraph.
I’ve never attended a reunion of my college class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — I’m bad in crowds and shy about those sorts of things — but I’m back on campus at least once every few months. For the past four years, I’ve lived less than five miles away.
I stand in quadrangles that I first laid eyes on 43 years ago, when I was 17. I amble past dormitories where my 18-year-old self partied with abandon. I stride down a path where my 19-year-old self, on a first date, stole a kiss. I come upon the movie theater that occasionally had midnight shows, the restaurant with the fluffy biscuits, the arboretum with the precious late-summer shade.
So many memories, so very clear. But what I feel as they fill me isn’t a longing for the heedlessness and headiness of youth. It’s relief, because what I recall most vividly about my college years is how much I distrusted the future — how bad I was at living with the sheer uncertainty of it — and I now know that it was indeed navigable and manageable, with as many unexpected highlights as feared hardships. I now understand that many of us are sturdier than we imagine. We can reasonably contemplate our tomorrows with as much hope as dread.
I’m not talking about politics, and it wasn’t politics that put my stomach in knots back then. It was an awareness of all that could go wrong in a life — or at least fail to go right. And it was my talent for sorrow, which sometimes rivaled my capacity for joy. Rivaled but didn’t exceed it, and only sometimes: That’s what I learned over the years and then decades to come. And when I return to the terrain of my youth, I embrace and say a prayer of thanks for that education.
A rather famous alumnus of my alma mater, Thomas Wolfe, wrote that you can’t go home again. I think you can and you must, because if you have the ability and the agency to do so — if you’re still that vital, still in the game — going home is a reminder that you survived it, traveled far beyond it, had an adventure unlike whatever you’d scripted, for better as well as for worse. It reacquaints you with the necessary truth that the uncertain future needn’t be a torment. It’s more a riddle, stippled with possibility.
Tom 09/09/25
Ann (Thompson) Russell
My second husband died in 2020 (unrelated to the pandemic). I still miss him. In 2021, I moved to Gardnerville, Nevada (near Lake Tahoe) to be near my daughter. I am in assisted living and have a wonderful view of the mountains from my apartment. It was strange to move to another state after living in California all my life. My health is declining, so traveling to the reunion is not wise. 09/15/25
Howard Brief
Sorry to say PK and I will be unable to attend the reunion luncheon. We had the opportunity to stay at a house on the Indian Wells Country Club, and it turned out to fall in the same time frame as the luncheon.
Please give all our best to everyone and keep us in the loop for any future gatherings.
10/04/25
Carol (Nelson) Thomas
I won’t be attending the reunion, but I do keep in contact with some of the gals that I knew in school, and that’s great at 88 years of age and still going strong ... well not that strong. We forget things we do. My family is all over the country, but we do get together ... two of my daughters from New York and one from Alaska were here recently. We just had a good time visiting. It has been two years since my sweet Gary passed away, but we had 65 wonderful years together. I keep busy and slow down once in a while. I just got my driver's license renewed. Didn’t have to wear glasses or anything, and it’s good until I’m 96 years old! My goodness, will I still be driving then?
10/04/25
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Darlene (Gremmel) Goetz
Darlene became a widow 3 years ago and no longer drives. She lives alone in Bullhead City, AZ, with 2 dogs, 2 snakes, and 6 tortoises. Her daughter and son-in-law live 6 minutes away and do a wonderful job as her caregiver. 10/04//25
Joanne (Cline) Taussig
Joanne has a new email address and wants you to record it and write to her (See the link under her photo). This is the third reunion she has missed and won't be attending this one because the freeway is getting more difficult for her from where she lives in Del Mar, CA.
10/04/25
Marlene (Shimmings) Suval
I’m very sorry I will not be able to attend our 70th reunion this month.
Bill and I just returned from a one-week trip to Kauai, HI to celebrate Bill’s birthday. We had a wonderful time. We’re still recouping from that adventure. At our age now, traveling that far is an adventure in itself.
I hope everyone who is planning to attend have a marvelous time. I’m looking forward to seeing all the pictures.
Best regards to everybody 10/04/25
Charles Dayton
I recently turned 88, as probably most if us have. I told my big brother (he's 90) that according to my calculations, I have about 10 years left as our dad made it to 98. He corrected me, that our dad only made it to 96. Then he added that I favor our mom, and she died at 84, which leaves me with a big problem: my wife, Silvia, is really good at throwing out anything that is beyond its expiration date.
10/04/25
Ben West
I recently returned from a trip of a lifetime with my two daughters and one of their husbands. They joined me with a group tour organized by my church to visit ancient sites where the Apostle Paul started and influenced churches. We began in Greece, visiting Phillipi, Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth.
From there, we flew to Turkey to see sites of the seven churches Jesus had special messages for in Revelation 2 & 3: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. The New Testament will never be the same when I read it now.
10/04/25
My family at the Parthenon at the Acropolis in Athens
Pat (White) Strobel
No, I will not be there, but congratulations to all to of you who do appear! Is there a prize for the person who knows the most attendees without looking at name tags?
10/06/25
Kurt Ludvick Haveman
Kurt passed away peacefully in Santa Cruz from complications of Parkinson Disease on Jan. 6, 2024, with Kit, his wife of 50 years by his side.
Kurt was born in Santa Monica, CA, close to the ocean and the only child of Dorothy and Victor Haveman. He and his mother later moved to Long Beach, CA. There he attended Wilson High School and graduated in 1955. Kurt then moved to Seal Beach to pursue all things ocean, fishing and diving for abalone and lobster on the CA coast, Catalina Island, and Mexico. He made a living as a Tiki carver and luau party host and began decorating local Polynesian bars and restaurants.
During the 60’s Kurt did 2 stints in the Army and came home to live in Hermosa Beach, Ca. He met Kit there while attending the local junior college in the early 70’s, and together they continued the theme restaurant business. They moved to Mendocino mountains on 100 acres for a short adventure and then came to Santa Cruz, where they bought a big rundown Victorian house and restored it.
Kurt and Kit began selling antiques in Santa Cruz at flea markets, Collectors Corner, and Modern Life. They then started their own shop in the 80’s: Mr. Goodies with partners that went on for almost 30 years.
He leaves behind 5 children: Hans, Niki, Jacob, Jonas, and Jamaica. Thay also had 10 grandchildren and 1-1/2 great grandchildren. Kurt had a long life of adventure, fun and love. He loved endless yard sales and flea markets, shopping and having interesting things to sell. A celebration of life was held on his 88th birthday.
