GCHS Alumni Assoc. final meeting set for 2016

The last regularly-scheduled meeting for 2016 of the Grand Coulee High School Alumni Association will be held Wednesday, October 19, at 1 p.m., at Grand Coulee Community Church, 405 Center Street. The purpose of the meeting will be to go over guidelines for awarding scholarships each spring to outstanding high school seniors.

In its 17th year, the Alumni Association was formed the fall of 2000 by graduates from the classes of 1954 and 1958 with three original purposes: awarding scholarships each year, developing a database of addresses of alumni to be used by reunion organizers, and to form a communication link between GCHS alumni, staff and faculty. As of June 2016, the association had awarded $17,000 in scholarships to graduates of Lake Roosevelt High School. Money for the scholarships is derived from dues of $10 annually for each alumnus, or lifetime memberships of $500 per family. At the present time there are 337 paid members of the association and 52 lifetime members. The association includes not only those who were fortunate enough to graduate from Grand Coulee High School, but any person who at any stage of his or her education was enrolled in the Grand Coulee school system or employed by the district.

All-Class Reunions are held every fourth summer in the year of the Olympics. Individual classes mark special anniversaries, such as the 60th being planned for next May by the Class of 1957. This year’s reunion was the fifth for the association and took place the second weekend of August with a much larger than expected turnout. The oldest attendee, Dick Ross, class of 1946, is the son of one of the original publishers of the first newspaper in the area, predecessor to The Star. His father was also postmaster, and the family owned a clothing store on B Street. Bob and Mary Ross moved to the area mid-November 1933 with Dick and his brother Meryl and were involved with much that took place in early Grand Coulee. Dick was disappointed that none of the other surviving members of the class were in attendance.

The classes of 1946, 1956 and 1966 were recognized the second day of the reunion during the potluck at North Dam Park. Later that day get-togethers were held at the homes of Ron and Wendy Kosloski for the classes of ’65, ’66, and ’67, and Ken and Lynda Price Anderson for the class of ’68. Jim Truax from the class of LRHS ’74, a GCHS freshman the year the schools consolidated, provided special music Saturday evening at the Electric City Tavern with all donations going toward the Mascot History Statue to be placed at the new Lake Roosevelt High School. The next all-class reunion will take place the second weekend of August 2020. GO, TIGERS!