Senior Class President/Class Reunion Chair/Consultant

Class of ‘71 ROCKS!

When I ran for Class President, I thought it was a one year gig and would end when I gave my speech at Commencement. When it came time for our first class reunion, the 10-year in 1981, someone told me that I had to run the reunion because I was class president and our class historian couldn’t be found. So I organized the first reunion, then the second one five years later (1986), then the third (1991), fourth(1996), fifth (2001), sixth (2006) and seventh one (2011). I helped with the eighth one (2016) and I’m the consultant for our ninth one (50-year +1) which will be August 6, 2022 (we postponed the reunion for one year due to the pandemic). I have been given the title Class President for Life since the gig is a life term, not a one year term. But that’s OK because I love seeing how much fun classmates have at our reunions…it’s all worth the time and effort that goes into running a reunion. Hats off to all the classmates who worked on any of our reunions and especially Sandy Sweeney Feloni who ran our last reunion and is chair for our 50th+1 in 2022! #WHP

Class Zoom #2 held March 13, 2021: Ginni Van Vurst Glass, Cyndie Cole, Debbie Berg, Eileen Richmond Blake, Mary Cheal Mercier, Paul Denzer, Lorrie Monahan, Jerry Crubaugh and Mike Scales. Laura Wunderink joined us later.

Our first Zoom video call for the Class of ‘71 held June 10, 2020…historic! I organized the call with help from my son Adam. Thanks to Ginni Van Vurst Glass for initiating the idea for the call and Syncron.

Reunion #8 at Birmingham Athletic Club 2016.

These classmates showed up for a tour of the new high school…my pleasure to show them around!

With Christy and Sue at reunion. #WHP

Dancing at reunion!

Celebrating our 60th Birthday Party at the Birmingham Athletic Club in August, 2013.

40-year reunion held in Traverse City in 2011.

Photo op with one of my best buddies from high school, Doug Byrum. I spent a lot of time at his house having fun and playing basketball in his driveway.

Taking trip down Memory Lane at reunion with Christy Stone Longrie.

Class members at Homecoming Game October 14, 2011: Mike Morelli, Pete Bowers, Rob White, Barbro Andren, Sue Britt Wright, Bill Wright, Ellen Pankratz White and Trent Dalrymple

Classmates stopping by the high school for a photo op in 2008 (Dave Wertz, Doug Byrum).

My letter sweater which I used to wear on “game days”. Since I was on three sports teams (soccer, basketball and track), I had a lot of game days to wear my letter sweater. You can see the three teams on the letter. A star represented being captain of that team…I was captain of the soccer team and basketball team. A “Champs” pin represented a team winning the league championship. I was on two championships in soccer, my junior and senior year. I was on two championship track teams, my junior and senior year. And I was on one championship basketball team, my junior year. The “B” in the middle meant I was a member of the Varsity Club, or B Club, people with a varsity letter who made it through the rough initiation process. The ribbon/medals on the bottom signify winning third (bronze) in soccer MVP voting my junior year and soccer team MVP (gold) my senior year when I lead the league in scoring with 14 goals. The other medals are from track meet finishes in the league and Oakland County championships: I competed in the high jump, 440 dash, 880 relay, mile relay and shuttle hurdle relay. Our mile relay team and 880 yard relay team won 1st in the league. Our mile relay won 2nd in Oakland County meet. My junior year, our mile relay team won 4th in the state, Class A. I was on the Shuttle Hurdle relay that won 2nd in the Oakland County meet. The blue stripes represented years of varsity letters…I received eight varsity letters, two in basketball and three each in soccer and track, hence three strips for three years of varsity letters. The nameplate “Bowers” was attached to my basketball warm up jacket. After my last game, Coach Henderson could not just give me the nameplate for some weird reason, so he had me stand by the waste basket as he threw it away…which I retrieved from the basket to keep forever.

I wore this jacket a lot…I mean a lot. Without all the buttons…I put those on the jacket just for the photo.

T-shirt given to me by Debbie Berg which I wear at least once during reunion weekend.

T-shirt I had printed for those that wanted one. I used the cover of our commencement program for the script.