Normal Community High School Class of 1956

From his obituary:

"James Myers, 72, of rural Elburn passed away peacefully at his home on Sunday, June 26, 2011. He was born August 5, 1938 in Oakland, IL the son of Frank and Marjorie (nee Griest) Myers. He was united in marriage to Gail Wunderle (nee Konkle) August 15, 1987 in Wheaton, IL.

Jim owned and operated Jim Myers and Sons Electrical Contracting for many years in the Kankakee area. Jim taught electrical contracting classes at Kankakee Vocational Career Center. He then taught residential construction vocational classes at DAVEA for over 15 years. He was an active member of Holy Cross Catholic Church in Batavia. Jim served as President of Fox Center Family and Friends for over twenty years and in the 1970’s he took an active part in forming the Illinois Foster Parents Association.

He is survived by his wife Gail, his mother Marjorie; his five sons, Brian (Joan), Bruce (Susan), Bradley, Brent (Patty) and Brandon (Kathi) Myers; four step-children Pamela (Tony) Lyle, Steven (Terri) Wymore, Mark Wymore and Gloria Boland; eleven grandchildren; his sisters Evelyn Oltman and Nancy McAuley; and many nieces and nephews. "

Dear class-mates who couldn't be here,

We really had a good time on Saturday, April 18th, at our class of 56 class luncheon!!!..... We had lots of old friends there....!!!

Coming from the farthest were Linda Allison Fitzgerald from Seattle, WA, Janet Lady and Hayes Hendricks from Arkansas, Sandra Nardin and Dale Pierre from Wisc., Bill Wylie from Paxton, Il., Nancy Richardson Woolley from Springfield, and of course Mary Ann Shutt and Dick McCloy from Zimbabwe, Africa - via El Paso, Il... : )......

Also were lots of our local folks.... Doris Nenne Ropp, Carol Cremeens Marshall, Mary Jean Shaffer Timler, Bonnie Condon Grizzle, Elaine Harper Swope, Donnette Hayslip Holliger, Merrill and Martha (Shutt) Orns, Edith Wood Elder, and Carla Wurzburger Haning. Janet Nardin also dropped in, though not in our class she did things with us too.

Along with the NCHS class of 56 were two from U-High who had been in grade school with us at Central.... Dorothy Anderson and Vickie Hall.

Linda's coming was a real special treat. This was her first time back since graduation. Linda, Mary Ann and Doris were able to go visit Kay Young Seefeld who was going away for the weekend beforehand. She showed them some of the beautiful paintings that she has seen in her mind and put onto canvas. Linda and Mary Ann also visited Marilyn Smith Stewart at her home since she was unable to attend the luncheon due to health. After the luncheon they also dropped in on Lucille Lusher Cole and her mother who both live in the same trailer park at the north end of Normal.

We are the 60 year olds now... and couldn't fool each other on that one! The years dropped away, however, as we shared old memories and the fun things that we had done in high school..... It really doesn't seem that long ago..... : ) We decided that Nancy Richardson and Janet Lady are the least changed by the years. Elaine Harper and Carla Wurzburger have a real elegance about them and are beautiful women! Some of us have gained more pounds around the middle that we wish we could do without and a couple of the guys are definitely not thick curly haired!

Doris has collected together lots of pictures, newspaper articles, etc. related to our class members. Lucille had given her lots from even our elementary school days! It was fun passing these around and seeing ourselves-- "back then."

Mary Ann had some African wood carvings to decorate our tables in our reserved room. We appreciate Old Country Buffet and their great hospitality to us as a class!

Doris is really the "glue" that has helped to make our class "stick together." If you want to know about a class member, she is the one most likely to know. She has been fantastic at keeping us informed on each other.

Several commented that they are already looking forward to the next complete class reunion in 3 years..... Be sure to make it if at all possible!!!

Mary Ann

My wife Nancy and I were married in 1975. Nancy was born and raised in California. She had one child Bryan from a previous marriage and I have two boys, Todd and Doug.

I worked for Rockwell International in Anahiem, Ca for almost 20 years. The bulk of the time was consumed in managing the development of computer monitoring and control systems for the electric utility industry. I spent the last four years in Rockwell's Marine Systems Division.

We moved to Big Bear in the fall of 1990. The defense industry was starting to look pretty bad so we decided to go full time into a small software business we had started a few years before. Our son Bryan did not want to come to the mountains so he rented a room from our neighbors in Tustin. They were really tough on him and helped him grow up fast. They had raised nine kids of their own and liked having Bryan around.

Our software business was nation-wide. We had to hire employees and buy an office building. Technically qualified employees were hard to find (not to mention those who were willing to work) in Big Bear, but we managed until the summer of 1995. At that time, we sold our assets to one of our competitors in Minneapolis and began the good life in the mountains.

We love living in Big Bear. The Big Bear Valley is located about 100 miles east of Los Angeles in the San Bernardino mountains. The valley is at the 7000 foot level. We have a beautiful mountain lake that is 8 miles long and about 1 mile wide and is stocked with trout. The south rim of the valley has two major ski operations. Big Bear is a very much a tourist area. We have about 10,000 full-time residents and 30 to 40 thousand people on a weekend. The valley is dense with pine trees and boulders. We have snow in the winter and beautiful cool and dry summers. The winters are mild, 20's at night and 40's during the day. We can have big snows, two to four feet at a shot, but the warm sun melts it quickly. Unfortunately, this year we are expecting an "El Nino"- which is BAD for California. Lots of tropical moisture and flooding expected. Lots of rain will cause floods and close the ski resorts which is very bad for our economy.

Our home is built with 12 to 14 inch hand-peeled lodgepole pine logs on a heavily wooded 2.5 acre lot on the eastern rim of the valley. We can't even see our nearest neighbors. It's quiet, peaceful and beautiful. We have tons of birds and wild animals. That includes a bobcat I ran into a couple months ago. I don't know which of us was more surprised!

We seem to be busy all the time. We have a boat and spend time on the lake. We also play golf about once a week. We have a nice nine hole course near one of the ski slopes. We can generally play up to the end of October. In the winter we take our boat to Lake Havasu on the Colorado River, about a 3 hour drive. The winters are very mild there and we go over four or fives a winter to visit our boat and play a little golf and do more relaxing.

Nancy loves to feed the birds & animals and simply "nature- watch." We have two indoor de-clawed cats. One fat cat, we used to call "Peanut," but have now had to change her name to "Tubby" since she eats anything she get her paws on. The other is a spunky runt-of-the liter 2 year old Siamese named "Muffy." She can't do anything wrong as far as we are concerned!

Jim and Nancy

Jane and I became grandparents for the first time on August 25. Our grandson, Jordan Daniel Kern, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Steven Kern of Wayne, NJ. I have created a special Internet website announcing the birth. The Internet address is www.wfksoft.com/baby

We also want to announce that our oldest son, David Matthew, married Karen McCann on September 6. Jane's cousin, Father Bill Holcomb of the Diocese of Alabama, officiated at an outdoor ceremony at the Toms River Yacht Club in Toms River, NJ.

We have finally got all our three children married.

Walt

We spent the last part of April and all of May and June in Scotland where my father was born in 1905. I have been working on the Shanks genealogy for several years and it was exciting doing it in the homeland. In addition to visiting many historic sites, we visited many family sites and I stood at my Great-grandfathers grave in the Jedburgh Abbey cemetery and my Gr. Gr. grandfathers grave site in Airdrie that was dated 1820. Best wishes to you , your family, and all of our NCHS classmates.

Bob

We got really "fed up" with AOL, so I joined on to Len's server.

We had our 38th Anniv. this year, and this is #64 for Len's parents. I wonder if we will live to see that one ?!?

I don't know if you heard that my sister died on Memorial Day in May. She (Roberta Ropp) had colon cancer that went to the liver and she lived just 8 months after her surgery. It has really been devastating for me and my mother. She was my only sibling and we were very close. She had been an Elem. Teacher at Oakdale School in Normal for 25 years.

We've done quite a lot of traveling this summer. In June we went out to LA to see our son Jeff and have been back and forth to Normal quite often. In July we got to Branson, MO and saw some great shows - Andy Williams, Mel Tillis, Brenda Lee and some others I have already forgotten.

At the end of July we flew into Vancouver and spent one week doing Victoria, Vancouver and driving East. Boy, that was a gorgeous drive! Then we spent another week at Banff and did Jasper, Lake Louise, the Glacier, and Calgary. It was a great vacation and some friends joined us for the second week in Banff.

We just got back yesterday from a three day golf get-away at Starved Rock. We stayed at the lodge and played at courses in the area. Len loves it and is good. I play lousy, but enjoy the outdoors and refuse to be a "golf widow"!

School started here last Monday and I am signed up to Substitute in 2 districts, but haven't gotten any calls yet - thank God! I'm just not ready this year to begin.

I am still planning to have a Northern NCHS Get-Together some time in Sept. or Oct.