Updated May 6, 2009 URL is http://our.tentativetimes.net/youth/ourstars.html
Please note:Southern Wells is on a separate page now.
Norwell and Lancaster Central are on a separate page now too.
Please contribute items for this page. Send them to Sandra Weinhardt [email protected]
I would love to add snapshots from the 1950s here too.
PageWatch no longer works. They wanted money, which I didn’t have. Please check back here periodically to see if the page is updated. Thanks, and I’m so sorry it is no longer a free notification service.
I am Kathy (Rosenbrock) Haller. I graduated from BHS in 1980. I moved to Durham, NC in 1986 after attending Design school at Ball State. I currently work as art director for a trade magazine. I live with my husband and four year old son, Sam. You can write to me at [email protected] Hi! I’m Sandy (Lucabaugh) Dunsmore, email [email protected]
Bluffton High 1971. My family and I just moved to Independence, KY (greater Cincinnati) where my husband Dennis started a family practice residency at St. Elizabeth Medical Center.
After graduating in 1971, I went to Ball State University where I graduated with an elementary teaching degree in 1975. My husband and I lived in Lansing, MI and Mexico City, Mexico before moving back to Bluffton in 1980 where we lived until 1995. Our two sons, Josh and Benj, were born in Bluffton. I taught at Lancaster for six years and then taught the migrant program at East Side Elementary School for nine seasons.
In 1995, we moved to Grenada where my husband attended St. George’s University School of Medicine. We lived in the Caribbean for two years, then went to England for six months of clinical rotations, and finally to Metro Detroit before settling here in KY.
I’d love to hear from anyone who knows me! My e-mail is: [email protected]
Hi… My name is Debbie (Reber) Kozuch, email [email protected]
I graduated from Bluffton High School in 1968. I have been married for 24 years. My husband, Joe, is an Engineering Manager with a company called Nortel, and I work in Guidance at one of the Middle Schools here in Cary, North Carolina. We have one daughter, Jessica, who is graduating from high school this year, and is planning to to go Meredith College. I would love to hear from anyone who graduated in 1968, or anyone who would be interested in corresponding.News from Patrick Manley, email [email protected]
Hi , I’m Patrick Manley
I lived in Bluffton from 1963 to 1980, would have graduated in 1981, but moved to Seattle, WA. Currently still residing there, would it be possible to have a where are they now page as another person suggested? Would like to hear from my old friends. I read the tragic news on my old friend Willie Blair, such a loss. Feel free to post this along with my email adress, [email protected]. Gosh, it would be so hard to change high schools for your senior year. All the best, Patrick, and thanks for writing. And Patrick, so far as I can tell, this page **is** a where-are-they-now, I think….. But I can’t keep it going any longer, so there will be too few additions. (Sandra, the editor)Tony Sills, class of ’95, was killed in a tragic hit-and-run crime near Liberty Center. He died on March 12, 1999. The full report is on the Willie and Sarah Blair pageFrom: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 22:15:22 EST
To: [email protected]
Subject: Almost Bluffton High class of ’66
Hi,
My name is Lloyd P. Short, when I lived in Bluffton, I went by the name Phillip Short (my mother liked my middle name so she enrolled me in school with it). Most of my close friends knew me as "Bud Short".
I attended Park School, then Central School, and did my freshman year at Bluffton High. My father was transferred to Monroe, Louisiana in 1963, so I did my last 3 years of high school there.
For whatever reason, I still remember my kindergarten teacher Miss Stair, then Gillam, Gauldin, Ritchie, and for 4th grade, Miss Bender.
At Central School, I vaguely remember Miss Witkowski, the art teacher, Mr Tyndall the math teacher, who had a Corvette and Mr Mugg the shop teacher who drove a ’55 Ford Crown Victoria. (I paid more attention to the teachers cars than their lessons)
My memories of my freshman year at Bluffton High are pretty cloudy (hey, it’s been 37 years) but I do remember one time making some fake chalk out of dowel rods, weighting them with a nail in the center then painting them with flat white paint. I got into math class early (at the end of the hall on the top floor) and moved all of the real chalk to the end of the black board and planting my "new" chalk at convenient places. The results were just like I had planned, the math teacher told me if I had spent as much time studying math as I did making that fake chalk, I would have been an "A" student instead of a "D" student.
I would like to know what became of the class of ’66. I remember names like Joe Romine, John Thomas, Larry Reed, Linda Wolfgale, Mike Rupley, Cindy Thompson, Mark Ballard, Dennis Markley, and a bunch more.
Have you considered having a "where they are now" section listed year by year? That’s probably a lot of work. The college that I graduated from does that, but they have an alumni association staff working on it.
Well, I’ve rattled on too long now, better go for now. I’m glad I found this website
Bud Short
[email protected]
Margaret (Rose) Bond – graduated 1965.
Many of you will know me as Maggy Rose. Others will know my mom as your old English teacher Dorothy Rose, my dad was Max Rose, & then there’s my brother Dave who graduated in 1963. Both my parents graduated from Bluffton. Dad’s gone now and mom lives in Montgomery, TX. Dave’s in Houston, TX.
After graduating from Purdue in ’69 I moved to just outside Washington, DC & married a PK (peacher’s kid) if you can believe it. Jack Bond and I were married in Bluffton in 1970 & we have lived in Bowie, MD ever since. We have one child Lauren who is a sophomore at Bucknell U. in PA. I am a retired Contract Interior Designer.
I have been spending the last several years on the board of the local chapter of Camp Fire. I ran their primative camp and outdoor training program for about 10 years. Been doing "Rose" genealogy research for 25 years and that mainly keeps me busy these days. I get back to Bluffton every few years – last time was for our class reunion. Anybody else out there from the good old class of ’65? My email is [email protected]
Looking forward to hearing from you guys!!!!
Anna Melinda Cowens Gerber drowned in the Wabash River on Saturday, March 21. The Bluffton News-Banner reported the circumstances as they unfolded, and you can read the account on the memorial to Melinda on her brother’s site.
Mrs. Gerber was a registered nurse who had practiced at Lutheran Hospital for 13 years. She had been a migrant-school nurse and was employed as a substitute nurse and substitute teacher in Wells County.
You may well wonder how this could happen in our little puddle section of the Wabash River. Unfortunately, it happened when the river was badly flooded and had a terrible, icy current. The van was actually shoved an entire mile downstream, underwater, to Salty Coulter’s house, where it was finally discovered days later. This is a river we can normally just wade across.
Sat, 10 Jan 1998
From Ann Hamilton Shields, ’71, I’m a 1971 BHS graduate, and enjoy reading the Bluffton news. A quick update for me – after living adjacent to Yellowstone Park for almost 18 years, my family and I moved to Berlin Germany in 1992. Since 1994, we have lived in a little village about 30 miles from the French border, in the Rhine & Mosel wine regions.
I am a civilian RN for the US military in a high risk labor and delivery unit at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. The opportunities for travel are unlimited, and I really enjoy the cultural diversity of the military population. My husband Mo is a retired HS teacher, and we have a 14 year old daughter, Abby. I’d love to hear from old friends at [email protected]
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998. From Stanley A. Miller email [email protected]
My name is Stan Miller. My twin, Tim and I have located around Lincoln, Nebraska. We both graduated in 1970, where "the boys were great and the girls were heavenly."
I stumbled on this web page and am glad someone takes the time to keep us updated on alumni. I married a gal from Ft. Wayne back in 1975 and moved to Nebraska, home of college football champs 3 of the last 4 years, sorry Big Ten! I’m a convert to the max for Husker football, but my other heart still lies with Indiana basketball.
E-mail us if you have a chance……[email protected]
30 August 1997. Laura Kleinknight graduated in 1982 from Bluffton High School. She graduated in 1991 from Arizona State University with a degree in Elementary Education, then graduated in 1995 from Arizona State University with Master’s degree in Elementary Education-Reading endorsement. She teaches eighth grade Language Arts at Frank Borman Middle School in Phoenix, Arizona. E-mail address is [email protected]
I hope a lot of you can write to Laura. Thanks for sending the news in, Laura, and have a great school year.Mike Murray and Mary Petzel Murray from the class of ’86 are married. They have a daughter who is three and a new baby. Lydia has passed away.Lena (Lakes) Zook (class of ’67) and Floyd Moser (class of ’66) were married on July 5, 1997 at the First Church of Christ in Bluffton! After the wedding, they went to Lena’s 30th high school reunion and danced their first dance together as husband and wife.
This very romantic news was sent in by Amy Zook [email protected], Lena’s proud and delighted daughter.
Dieter Reich, age 45, had a farming accident and died of burns at the Saint Jo Hospital Burn Unit on May 25, 1997. His mother Ursula resides in Bluffton, his son Christopher lives in Bremen Germany and his brother Hans Joachim now lives in Geneva, Ohio.Michael D. Murphy, age 32, class of ’82, died on April 26 1997 of a brain aneurysm. His parents are Patrick and Lucille Murphy, 411 West Miller, Bluffton IN 46714. No preferred charity is listed, but some people were giving checks to the First Church of Christ in Bluffton, a Thoma-Rich spokesman told me. Survivors include parents and one brother, David, and two sisters, Linda Spreng and Diane Cornett.John Jaskie, class of 1980, is a Fort Worth TX police officer. In a routine traffic stop on Valentine’s Day, a back-seat passenger in the car fired his gun at Jaskie, striking him in the chest. Amazingly, the bullet smashed a small microphone clipped to Jaskie’s lapel and caused only powder burns and scratches. (The shooter was quickly captured.) Happy ending! Jaskie was a three-sport athlete at Bluffton, in football, basketball and track. He and his wife Bonnie live in Grand Prairie, TX with their two daughters. (Thanks to the Bluffton News-Banner for this info.)Steve Miller would have been in the class of ’94. He moved away after Middle School, but would like to hear from anyone he knew: Welcome to Steve Miller [email protected], now a junior at Bowling Green State University.Joe Meyer graduated in 1992 from Bluffton high school. He’s now an Airman First Class USAF. His job is heating,air conditioning,ventilation,and refrigeration. He’s been in for 18 months and is based at Holloman AFB New Mexico, outside Alamogordo. You can email Joe at [email protected]Lisa (Liby) Wagaman, Bluffton High School, class of ’78 has a new address! She writes "I am now living in Dallas, Oregon. My new e-mail is [email protected] I am a Floor Supervisor at Spirit Mountain Casino in Grand Ronde, Oregon."
Sounds like a lot of responsibility, Libby. I hope everyone writes to you. Do you have a guest room where you live???
This page is sort of an unofficial alumni letter. Every one of our "kids" is a credit to us. Wells County is a terrific place.