55th REUNION

Washington High School Class of 1954

Dear l954 Washington Grads and Friends:

The Reunion Committee chose the lovely COUNTRY SPRINGS HOTEL 20 miles west of Milwaukee for our 55th Reunion.. Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009 was an informal get-together from 6:00 – 10:00 pm with hors d'oeuvre buffets and lots of time for getting reacquainted. Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009: 5:00-6:30 pm we had more time to visit, enjoy a great buffet dinner. A combo played in the background, and a few hardier classmates danced.

The Reunion Committee has decided this will be the last reunion they will plan, though they will share the mailing list and any information. Any remaining money will be donated to the WHS Scholarship Fund. If we want to have a 60th Reunion, we 're going to have to recruit a new committee.

Doreen Millonig Sedlar

Georgia Zieman Hahn

return to top of page

Richard and Betty Allie

Richard and Elizabeth Bagin

Brenda (Batzner) and Robert Krey

return to top of page

REUNION PHOTOS

Thanks to Barb and Frank Suetholz and Barb Lewitze Frick for more photos. Send yours to add to our gallery.

Please be patient, though, as it is a bit time-consuming to get the right names with the right faces.
Please let me know if I have made any errors. I can blame it on my rapidly-ageing memory, right?
I'm off to China on Oct 6 and won't be doing much here after that till November. Dolores

Frank and Nancy (Ristow) Lee

Ginny (Hollister) Wenzel and Nancy (Volkman) Mayhoffer

Jerry Nolan, Cliff and Joanne Mantei

buffet line

Melvin Bensman, Barbara (Whalley) Suetholz,
Jane Henricks Stadler

Barbara (Whalley) Suetholz and Barbara (Barnes) Woerner

Ronald Thierfelder, Joan and James Roehr

return to top of page

Please submit your story and photos to 'webmistress' Dolores (Wolfe) Nelson. I can use stories embedded in e-mails or sent as attachments in Word or WordPerfect format, or sent by regular mail (typed preferably but not necessarily). Your photos can be sent digitally in any format but in the highest resolution you can, or I can scan them if you don't have them in digital format. If you send me anything by mail you want returned, send along a SASE please. You can just click on a name to see that person's memoirs and photos, or you can scroll through this. You can use mine as a sample or just tell anything about yourself that you want. Space is unlimited, so submit several photos if you wish.

Richard (Buz) Cooper

55th -- not possible -- we're not old enough.  I was remarried since the 50th.  My wife, Barrie, works in New York, where we live most of the time, and I'm back at the University of Pennsylvania, so we live there. too. We're both knee deep in health care reform (check my blog - http://buzcooper.com ).  Family is well - grandkids growing like weeds. What a great reunion.
All the best
Buz

(Dolores: copied from the blog) "Richard (Buz) Cooper, MD is a Professor of Medicine and Senior Fellow in the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.  During almost 50 years as a physician, he has practiced hematology and oncology, conducted experimental hematology research, directed a cancer center (at Penn), been dean of a medical school (at the Medical College of Wisconsin) and led a health policy institute (also at Wisconsin).  Over the past 15 years, his efforts have been focused on critical issues in health care policy related principally to projecting the demand for physicians and other health care professionals and understanding the future dimensions of the health care system. "

Here is my update for this year's reunion -- which I am unable to attend.

Well, I'm onto my third vocation as a Walgreen clerk as shown in the picture.. For 15 years, I was in the accounting department at the Pabst Brewing Company until it left Milwaukee. Then it was 16 years as payroll and benefits processor for the 500 employee Reinhart, Boerner, Van Deuren Law firm.     Since my folks and other relatives lived into their ninties, I decided I had better return to work. I wouldn't want to outlive my investments. The past 7 years at Walgreens have been both fun and rewarding so maybe I'll just make another 15 year vocation. The three days a week I work keeps my mind sharp and my body active. It also supplies me the "fun money" for the golfing, gambling and the going out to eat that takes up the rest of the week. Plus it gave me the funds needed for the cruise I'm on with my 2 children, four grandchildren, the spouses and one great-grandson which is why I'm missing the reunion.      Moving to Lasa Vegas with a good friend was the best decision I could have made. You don't have to shovel sunshine.     
Best Wishes for a great 55th reunion.                                                                                        
Barbara (Weber) Schwark

Here is an update of my life since the reunion in 2004 and two photos:

After having our three sons and two grandsons, we were delighted to welcome a granddaughter in June 2006.   Warren and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in August 2006. Since the last WHS reunion, we have enjoyed cruises to Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska, trips to Montana, North Carolina, Arizona, the Pacific Northwest, and Europe (including Denmark, Sweden, Finland and St. Petersburg, Russia). Otherwise, our lives have gone on as before. We continue living in Stockton as we have for the past 42 years (in the same house!) and savor our retirement.

Heartfelt thanks, reunion committee, for your successful efforts through the years! I enjoyed the reunion in 2004 but unfortunately will not be able to attend this September.

Carol Bogen van Bronkhorst

Carol and Warren's grandchildren 2008

Walt Wagener

I was graduated from UW-Milwaukee in 1958; in 1959, I had married Mary Gosselink, drove a postal truck in downtown Milwaukee and served as an Assistant Pastor at Summerfield United Methodist Church . I started a seminary program at Garrett Graduate School of Theology at Northwestern in 1958. During that time, I worked for the Jewish Community Center in Rogers Park and as an Assistant Pastor at Fort Atkinson. We were house parents at a children's home in Chicago during my last 18 months in seminary; we cared for 12 girls ranging in age from 9-13. Mary completed her degree at Northwestern and, after I was graduated, we moved to Milton, Wisconsin. Over the next few years, we had two children, John and Ann, and I became full-time campus minister at UW-Whitewater. During the late 60's I had the privilege of marching with Martin Luther King, Jr. in Chicago and Father Groppi in Milwaukee .

In 1969, I became Director of Admissions for Garrett and traveled all over the country. We went together w/four other families from Garrett and bought a farm near LaFarge, WI. Our young family loved the many years we spent on those 120 acres.

I served as a pastor at several southern Wisconsin churches over the next decade. In 1982, while I was serving a church in Oshkosh, Mary and I divorced. We sold the farm and I acquired a 16 foot sailboat; that came in handy when I became pastor in Cudahy and lived a block from Lake Michigan. Both kids went off to college: John graduating from UW-Oshkosh and Ann from the University of Minnesota .

In 1984, I married Judy Rabak. Soon after, Judy began working on a Ph.D. in Curriculum Theory at UW-Madison. My final parish appointment was at Trinity church in Madison . By 1993, Judy had completed her doctorate and took a tenure track position at the University of Nebraska at Omaha . While there, I became a chaplain at Methodist Hospital . There were four chaplains full-time, and I was assigned Cardiovascular Intensive Care. We moved to DeKalb, Illinois in 1997 -- where Judy eventually became a tenured Associate Professor at Northern Illinois University and I retired. I enjoyed attending classes through the Life Long Learning Institute at NIU; we also took advantage of our close proximity to Chicago, where Ann and her husband lived for a few years.

Sadly, Ann experienced adult onset mental illness--she seemed predisposed through a genetic link with two great aunts--and she and her husband divorced. Much to our sorrow, she has disappeared and none of her family or friends has had contact with her for over four years.

In the meantime, John married a Minnesota woman, Deidre Meyers, in 1993, and has been living in southern Minnesota since. They have two boys, Ross (12) and Lars (9). Judy retired in 2007; this enabled us to move to Kasson, MN, (west of Rochester) to be near the kids.

In fact, John and Deidre and Judy and I built homes in the same development and now live across from each other. I enjoy picking up the boys after school every day and we love attending the boys' sports and academic events.

Walt with wife Judy, son John and wife Deidre,
and grandsons Ross and Lars

Walt and grandsons

From the time Judy & I lived in Cudahy, until now, we've owned a timeshare near Eagle River. In the early years, we went skiing in northern Michigan, but in more recent years we've been trading the time for other places in the U.S., the UK, Portugal and France. We just got back from celebrating our 25th anniversary in England's Lake District. Driving on the narrow, rural roads of England is an adventure, but the land is beautiful. We are getting to know the Gopher state and enjoy living here very much, but we're still strong Packer, Badger, Brewer and Bucks fans.

Dolores (Wolfe) Nelson

After graduation from high school, I spent a year at Wisconsin State College-Milwaukee, then worked for a year. In 1957 I was hired by United Airlines as a stewardess. While training in Cheyenne, Wyoming, I met Ed Hansen, an Air Force lieutenant who had graduated from USNA, Annapolis. It was love at first sight, fortunately a mutual attraction. In 1958 I joined Ed in Japan, where we spent the next three years. Daughter Joy was born there. From 1961-5 we lived in Maryland outside Washington DC; daughter Julie was born there. Next came three years (1965-68) in France and Germany with a lot of traveling. During our six years in Ohio (1968-74) I finally finished a BS, MSEd, and taught 7th grade for three years.

We moved to Utah in 1974; Ed retired from the AF the following year. I taught four years in public schools and two years at Weber State University, teaching elementary teachers. I finished an EdD at the U of Utah in Ed Admin and was appointed as an elementary school principal in 1983; I retired in 1998 after fifteen very good years. I have been the president of the Utah Elementary Principals, Phi Delta Kappa, and our local United Way.

In 1991 my darling husband Ed died unexpectedly.

In 1993 I found a daughter to whom I'd given birth in 1956 and had given up for adoption. Marcie was happy to be found and now lives in Utah. Over the years I have accumulated seven grandchildren (plus four through daughters' remarriages) and three great-grandchildren (plus two) and gained and lost assorted sons-in-law. In 2000 the court gave me custody of my great-granddaughter Savhannah, then five. I spent the next seven years as an active parent. She now lives with her grandfather.

The past few years have been eventful, challenging, rewarding, sometimes very difficult -- a true roller-coaster. In winter 2005 I accompanied Carl Nelson to India and began a wonderful phase of my life. When we married in April 2006, I moved to his home in Chula Vista, California, south of San Diego. In marrying Carl, I gained three daughters and six grandchildren. Carl and my first husband Ed were company-mates at the Naval Academy. Carl spent 33 years 'driving ships' for the Navy; after retirement he earned a doctorate, has been a professor of international business, and has published seven non-fiction books and three novels. Carl and I live peacefully and enjoy friends and family who live here and who visit this lovely spot. We have traveled to India, New Zealand and Australia, Europe (twice), South America, and within the US. We're on our way to China in October.

In my spare time I am archiving family history and photos. I create scrapbooks, am continually upgrading books about my father's family and my mother's. I like to play golf and walk and read; Carl has even made a fly-fisherman of me.. I created a huge website where the books and most of my adventures are chronicled in photos and scrapbooks. Life continues to be good and to provide both challenges and rewards. One of my favorite sayings is, ‘God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things, and at the moment I'm so far behind I'll never die.'

DECEASED CLASSMATES

Bolin, Judith
Brillman, Carla
Brown, Clayton
Buntrock, Thomas
Cohen, Melvin
Entner, Bruce
Fleischacker, Robert
Fralick, Patricia
Garland, Patricia
Gilbert, Tom
David Hotchkiss
Kannass, David
Klotz, Jon
Leinss, Raymond
McAllister, Joan
Meyers, Burton
Mirochnik, Annette
Perchonok, Kenneth
Platek, Aurille
Radtke, Suzanne
Rasmussen, Waldo
Schmidt, Peter
Schulz, Richard
Schuster, Fanny
Schutz, Valerie
Shapiro, Felice
Shapiro, Lenore

Albert, Arlene
Baker. James
Bass, Judith (Kellman, Stan)
Batten, Sylvia
Bilansky, Judy
Blasewitz, Gary (Louise)
Blivas, Sandra (Weinstein, Jerome)
Blomquist, David
Bodem, Frederick
Brill, Janet
Bromberg, Mary
Callies, Sandra
Canivet, Christine
Cash, Jacqueline (Schmidt, Skip)
Caspary, Peter (Joyce)
Chapin, Geraldine
Ciriaks, John (Nancy)
Cogan, Dennis
Colker, Penepole
Curtis, Thomas
Davies, Marilyn (Tarantino)
Davis, Howard (Sandra)
Dick, Carol
Dixon, Robert
Ellis, Carol
Elmer, Jeanette
Evenson, Donald
Fabian, Jane
Flaschberger, Leroy
Futowsky, Marcia
Giese, Phyllis
Goessl, Patricia (Appleby)
Grabow, Gloria (Piontak)
Greene, Thomas
Guetzlaff, Doris (Nordoft, Al)
Hagon, John
Harris, Bernard
Hartman, Marilyn (Roth, Richard)

Hays, David
Heine, Bernadine (Hipp, Wayne)
Hennessey, Constance
Hessing, Richard
Hoeft, Mary (Finch, Bill)
Hucksdorf, William
Imjela, Roberta
Jahnke, Gunter
Jansen, George
Jordan, William
Kahn, Carol
Kenan, Lois (Kinos, Don)
Kleiman, Sarah (Orlone, Charles)
Koepp, Diane
Kojis, Dorothy (Williams)
Kozlowski, Gerald
Kren, Sharen (Brown)
Kroll, Patricia
Lampela, Virginia
Larned, Faustina
Linzmeyer, Rosanna
Lucas, Florence
Lusher, Kathleen
Maerder, James
Mahsun, William
Malawsky, Donald
Manske, Alan
Martin, Lois
Marx, Barbara (Kobrick, Sanford)
Matheny, Mary
Melang, Diane
Menke, Allen
Monday, Peter
Nemzoff, Jerome
Nordlie, Rita
Novak, Patricia
Ohm. Tom
Pack, Gail

return to top of page