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I had just been reassigned to Victoria with CIBC, when I met my old schoolmate Gerry Reimer one summer day in 1968. We talked for sometime, and parted, each determined to organize together a class reunion. Several days and phone calls later, it was evident that the response would be overwhelming.
Within days, we were receiving calls from Grads of other classes, '52,'56 and others wanting to have reunions as well.
Within a few short weeks our class reunion was shaping up to look like a school reunion....Meetings were held with reps from other classes...It was soon determined that
we should approach the school for facilities.
With the help of Mr. James Muir, this was arranged. During one of these sessions we discovered that Mr. Eric Forster, the one and only principal of MDHS, was retiring mid
1969.
Many more meetings followed involving registration, finance, volunteers, timing, travel and a host of other matters. The support was extraordinary. We even had a paper
published, with write-ups and pictures
In all, some 800 students and teachers were contacted, and somewhere around 500/600 attended. One teacher, I believe it was Mary Francis, came from South Africa for
the event.
The headlines in the paper read something like "Eric Forster retires after umpteen years as principal of MDHS" and there was Gerry, our MC for the evening, making a
presentation to Mr. Forster......they were shaking hands.....right out of Ripley's.."Believe it or Not".
Yes, that school reunion in 1969, when Forster retired, started out to be a class reunion for the Class of 55, somewhere along the way, Gerry, I guess we got carried away.
From my failing memory,
Tom Gordon.
The paper referred to by Tom was called THE SUMMIT and it was published through assistance from the Saanich Dogwood Star.
The entire paper is available on the Mount Doug Alumni Association's website.
But you can view it immediately by clicking on the thumbnail below left.
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