1954 Class Reunion

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Your Reunion Planning Committee

1954 reunion committee members:
Left to right: Gordon Olson, Don Richardson, Gene Messenger, Doraine (Anderson) Peterson, Cliff Vennerstrom.
Not pictured: Mae (Lundblad) Peterson

Letter from Planning Committee

Dear Class of ’54,

Remember when we first met—just a jolly bunch of clueless, befuddled, naive 18-year-olds? Well, no longer. As our classmates who attended the Golden Reunion luncheon on October 16 can attest, we are much, much older now.

We started the celebration, courtesy of Bethel University, at 11 a.m. and lingered in the banquet room until after 2 p.m. (well before the sun went down, I might add). A number of us went back in the evening for the alumni dinner to further visit with people we had not seen in more than half a century. It was a great day for us all. If you were not there, you missed a very special time.

There was a time for reminiscing and catching up on each others’ lives. Every member of the class had a chance to tell about careers, residences, grandchildren, other life highlights, and in several instances, what they most remembered about the old complex across from the State Fair Grounds. Nancy Fernland sang two songs for us. The songs, which were sung to old show tunes, picked up details that endeared us to our common life on Snelling Avenue: “These Were a Few of Our Favorite Things” and “We Grew Accustomed to That Place.” When my memorable moment came, I read a poem in which I recalled the terrible drubbing our football team took at the hands of St. Olaf in 1953. I titled it “The Midday Rout of a Team Held Dear.” Since this was an election year, I made up all of the facts, except for the final score (78 to 0).

Among the recipients of special distinction awards, Bud Lee got a prize for driving the longest distance to attend Homecoming (from Ferndale, Wash.), and Gene Messenger scored by being the first to come up with an old Eric Borgeson joke, favoring us with two in fact. We finished our afternoon together with a short hymn sing led by Wally Olson with John Soneson playing the piano. The hymns were “Day by Day,” “Children of the Heavenly Father,” “Thanks to God,” and “How Great Thou Art.” These hymns were chosen in part because they were the songs we once enjoyed singing together in chapel and in part to salute the Swedish pioneers of our faith and our school. We sang with great gusto.

If you missed this reunion, be assured that we missed you, too, and hope you’ll be able to get to the next one. Blessed indeed is the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love.

On behalf of the Reunion Committee,
Don Richardson