The WTW 75 30-year Reunion Weekend was held this past June 17 & 18, 2005. By all accounts, everyone had a great time. After previously having a 10-year and 20-year reunion, people were really interested in this one. It is hard for some of us to fathom that the years have gone as quickly as they had, so there was the desire to see long lost friends, running buddies, teammates, and sweethearts. The reunion was a fun event to plan and attendance was better than most of the committee anticipated. Thanks go out to this committee, which included the following people: Bruce Leib Kim Miller Royalty Lisa Stegall Briana Gowing Jeff Fisher Cyndy Simmons Roark Keller McCrary John Bell Also, the Party People were super partners who assisted on all fronts and made it easy for the committee to also enjoy the events. Much of our work over the past year or two was to first try and find as many classmates as possible, pick a weekend that was close to convenient for everyone and to put something together that was fun, but really centered around mingling and catching up. With over 850 in the class, we were successful in finding over 600 and, in fact have had a handful register on the website just since the reunion was held. You can see the current listing of those lost (or at least not found by us) on the website which is now approximately 120. Hopefully this list will be shortened and the plan is to have more frequent get togethers, whether it be happy hours, dinners or other chances for the class to stay in touch. Now to the reunion weekend: Friday night, June 17th really had two events, a Happy Hour for the class of 75 and a reception prior to that held in honor of Coach Pace (yes, Larry/Bubba's father) who was a long time coach at DeGolyer. Coach Pace Roast - Bob Olson put together a great "roast" for Coach Pace and there were 50-75 in attendance there. He was surprised and it was a nice tribute to a great man, who, according to Bob Olson "had a great impact on us when we were growing up". Many in our class who didn't even go to DeGolyer stopped by because our classmates were also there. Happy Hour - The happy hour on Friday June 17th was held a Sambucca in Addison. This is a local jazz club/restaurant and our class packed em in there from 7:00 PM till well after 1AM. We expected close to 150 and had around 200 there. From what everyone can remember, there were some good stories flying that night. With just regular nametags (versus those with pictures on them), much of the first part of the night was picking faces out of a dimly lit bar setting. It was too dark for Susan Lee, who made the trek from Alaska (it's light there most of the time in the summer) to get to the event. The Koch's (Tom and Susan) and the Stewart's (Jim and Tammy) were not only school sweethearts, but came in from the West Coast (Laguna Beach & San Diego respectively). The East Coast states were also well represented by the Bell's (David) and Lewis's (Lisa Bell Lewis) from Birmingham and Shari Bosse Wood (Cincinnati is almost the East coast). It was good to have Tommy Lamberth finishing his move back to Big D from North Carolina and very special to have Missy Boswell in attendance. Saturday Night June 18th Dinner - Bent Tree Country Club. Bent Tree was a great setting for the main event dinner held on Saturday night. There were approximately 240 in attendance and many who said they were only coming on Friday night also showed up on Saturday. With a country club setting, the room was larger and there was a better chance to mingle and actually spend some time catching up with people. The WTW banner was front and center along with a continuously running slide show of pictures from WTW and Marsh days. Although John Bell had pictures from his pre-school days, Marsh was as far back as he was allowed to show that night. In addition, music from the 70's flowed through the banquet hall. The nametags for those who pre-registered included your class pictures from the 75 yearbook. Some looked similar and some we had to look hard at - confirming that there had been some big changes in over the years. For example, Bruce Noller had hair in the 70's. Not so today. Mark Wilson also had a bunch of hair. Now he only has Liz (Piercy) Wilson. After some welcoming remarks by Bruce Leib and an invocation by John Bell honoring the students from our class that have passed away (special tab on the website has this list), the class proceeded to a Mexican buffet and voting for the fun classmate changes that have taken place over the past 30 years. Those categories and winners are as follows: Most Changed Male Niles Seldon (now an Austin, TX boy) Most Changed Female Terry Masters Reich (a Macy's exec in Houston, TX) Traveled Longest to Get Here Susan Lee (Alaska, and she was ready to go back) Wildest Occupation Greg Small (Gynecologist) Least Changed Male Robert Allen (still a local boy) Least Changed Female Rose Foster Olson (too good for Bob) Guy Aging Like Fine Wine Keller McCrary (yep) Girl Aging Like Fine Wine Sharon Blesh (yep, her too) Most Likely To Be Seen in Hollywood Karen Woody (no doubt!) Still Crazy After All These Years Jim Brown (no contest) Class pictures were taken and included a big one and others broken out by elementary schools. Withers was the best of course (says Bruce) Note from webmaster - DeGolyer was the best. Photos were also taken of the drill team/cheerleaders (there were actually cheerleaders there including Pam Brazelton Kanewske), MCT (the wild bunch), choir etc (the Harrells, Michelle and Bob). If pictures were ordered that night, you should have already received them. There is a web link on our site that will take you to the pictures taken that night and we have some others taken by classmates coming to the site as well. If you have a picture taken the reunion weekend, email it to either John Bell or Bruce Leib and we'll get them posted for public consumption. Recap A fun time was had by all. Regrets were few other than 1). The wish to have more classmates there who didn't make it or know about the event and 2). The fact that there were not teachers there as well. Teachers were almost impossible to find and we saw Coach Shepherd (still at the school) on Friday night and heard from Principal Gene Golden, who would have attended if not for a sick wife (our prayers go out to his family). However, this was a great reunion and we actually had a good class looking back at everything. One thing mentioned by everyone was that they are still amazed that it has been 30 years. Where did the time go? Having a reunion makes high school days come back like they were yesterday. A few reminders: 1). Let's keep the website current and updated. If you hear news, have a baby, grandchild or even great-grandchild send us a note. Job promotions, moves, single again, have kittens to give away we'll try and keep it posted and update our database at the same time. 2). If you need information on classmates contact either John Bell or Bruce Leib and we'll tell you what we know. 3). While we have it already on the website, Keller McCrary and his band of volunteers are deep in the planning process for the "all school reunion" this coming September 24th of 2005. Our class is heavily involved in the event and should also have a pretty good turnout that weekend. The new wing of the school should be close to completion by then. Go see: 4). Always wanting a party, many have asked about the 40-year reunion plans. We are investigating the rental of the ballroom at the Treemont Retirement Community (just kidding) but we will have a larger picture screen and will play the music a little louder! Go Horns!!! Recap by Bruce Leib |
Warren Travis White High School Class of 1975 Thirtieth Reunion Wrap-up |
