Class of 1979 - 30th Reunion

August 7-9, 2009

Whether you attended some or all of the festivities surrounding our 30th high school reunion - or you were not able to make it - below is a recap of what you enjoyed, missed or enjoyed a little too much and need a little reminder:

 

Friday night started the weekend off at the Villard Street Pub, which many might better recall as the McDonald's on the south end of the UO campus. It's now a brewpub, which hosted a gathering of well over 100 classmates and a few spouses willing to listen to non-stop nostalgia and the occasional "OH MY GOD IT'S YOU!" screams. We had an outdoor patio for ourselves, plus an extra bar set up in the closed-off parking lot to keep lines at a minimum all night. The party was well underway soon after 7pm and the last guests finally headed out after midnight, some more wobbly than others. Special thanks to Ellen Woeste Mitchell and Shari Surcamp Higgins for making the arrangements.

Saturday morning, a handful of classmates met up to play golf (most likely the turnout decreased as the lateness of Friday night's activities increased), while others met to climb Spencer Butte. Later, 50-60 people met up with Steve Smith at South Eugene H.S., for a tour of our alma mater. It was both eerily reminiscent of our time there and yet also quite unfamiliar.

Saturday night was dinner at the Eugene Country Club, helped tremendously by name tags painstakingly created by Shari that bore our senior pictures. Almost 170 people attended, of which around 120 were from our class. We had cocktails and chatted then lined up for a group picture on the front steps, happily joined by our principal, Don Jackson.

After the photo session, dinner was served in the main dining area, which had been decorated with pages from our senior yearbook and had just the right amount of purple and white accents, courtesy of Shari and Mallory Davis Powell. Everyone grabbed a table to eat and talk (more talking than eating for many), while a CD playing the top 20 songs from the week we graduated in 1979 played on the house music system. Bruce Davis created the CD as a gift for everyone in attendance. Bryan Nelson provided a second gift, a set of audio disks of our senior talent show and our senior ‘music fest’ from 1979.

As people were finishing dinner, Steve Smith emceed a brief program. He thanked everyone for coming, acknowledged the reunion committee for its hard work and gave a gift to Scott Reames for heading up the reunion committee. He then asked for a moment of silence for the untimely passing of the son of our classmate Dawn Harris Champion, who for obvious reasons was not able to attend the reunion. Steve then introduced our guest speaker, Don Jackson.

Mr. Jackson, soft-spoken and slowed by a bout with cancer and the onset of years, was funny and engaging as he talked about life, education and our class, and he even cracked a few jokes. He then introduced his wife of 57 years, Jan, who delivered a rather long but charming story that quite frankly we might all still be listening to if not for an abrupt burst of applause from the back of the room.

Having regained control of the microphone, Steve wrapped things up and David Liittschwager fired up a fabulous slide show of dozens of photographs he took of our class back in the 1970s for the Axe and our yearbooks. After the reunion, David very kindly set up a web link that will take you to those vintage shots:  30 Year Reunion Slide Show.   A photographer hired by the Higgins also has some wonderful shots on his web site.  You can check them out here:  DSCorey Photography.

 

By 11:30, 30 minutes beyond our contract, Country Club personnel were flashing the lights and edging people out the door to the parking lot, where many continued to gab in the cool air of the evening. From there, smaller groups scattered to continue the evening, including some 20-25 people who kept the party going at the Oregon Electric Station well past 2:00am.

On Sunday morning, more than 100 people (classmates and their families) enjoyed a relaxing champagne brunch at the beautiful home of Bill and Michelle Service. While children played in the swimming pool, a steady stream of classmates dropped by the house, including several who had not been to the other events. The Services hosted the brunch, asking only that those who attended make a contribution to Willamette Family Treatment Services, a favorite charity. By the end of the brunch, more than $1,000 had been raised. This spirit of generosity was a carry-over from the Saturday night dinner, where five people were able to attend who would otherwise not have been able to afford to do so, thanks to many classmates who contributed more than the $45 cost of their own dinner ticket.

By 3pm on Sunday, the last of the guests were heading home, and the 30th reunion of the South Eugene class of 1979 came to an end.

Our hope is that we all will not wait 10 years for our collective paths to cross, and that we'll find opportunities for people to get together more frequently. There has even been talk of the possibility of a 35th reunion in 2014.  If that should come to pass you’ll find out about it on this web page, so please bookmark it and check back occasionally. 

 

If your contact information changes, or if you run across a classmate for whom we have no contact information, you can update us at sehs1979@comcast.net. Shannon Williams did an excellent job tracking down people for the 30th reunion, and it would be wonderful to find even more for the next reunion.  Facebook also offers an excellent avenue for keeping in touch with classmates.  If you haven't joined, Marisa Bellisimo Unvert has set up a group on Facebook for sharing pictures and keeping in touch.  You can reach it here:  South Eugene Class of 1979.

Thanks to the 140+ classmates who attended some or all of the weekend's events. And best wishes to us all as we continue our respective journeys.  We look forward to seeing you in 2019 or 2014!

 

Your Reunion Committee

Scott Reames, Marisa Bellisimo Unvert, Shari Surcamp Higgins, Bill Service, Shannon Williams

Class of 1979
"Missing" Classmate List

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