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MEMORY LANE: North Van class that graduated 60 years ago preps reunion

North Vancouver’s graduating class of 1958 is gathering in May to celebrate its 60 year reunion. Go back with them to 1958. B.C.’s centennial year was all about Progress! and Growth! Resource industries were thriving.
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North Vancouver’s graduating class of 1958 is gathering in May to celebrate its 60 year reunion.

Go back with them to 1958. B.C.’s centennial year was all about Progress! and Growth! Resource industries were thriving.

Flying Phil Gaglardi and Premier W.A.C. Bennett were opening up the province, building roads and bridges, expanding the B.C. ferry system to move more people and extending the PGE rail line from Squamish to North Vancouver to move more lumber.

The big picture of B.C.’s growth back then, and its influence on life today, is visible only in hindsight.

The people of North Vancouver knew that Ripple Rock was exploded to open up Seymour Narrows to shipping. They knew that the new Deas Island tunnel under the Fraser River was open.

But their interests were closer to home. The Upper Levels highway went all the way to Horseshoe Bay.

Ferry service from the foot of Lonsdale across to the city shut down and the Second Narrows bridge collapsed while under construction, with severe loss of life.

Even so, North Vancouver was riding high on the post war prosperity boom, sharing a sense of possibility and new horizons.

The grad class of 1958 was assured of finding work in the shipyards, the mills, on the tugboats, but most went on to university and careers in education, business, the arts and architecture.

Many were the first in their families to do so, and most made their homes and raised their families in North Vancouver.

Their parents were born during the First World War. They weathered the Great Depression and the Second World War. A lot of people were newcomers, working in the shipyards and aircraft factories, living in wartime housing.

Families created neighbourhoods across the community, down into Norgate, reaching up into Highlands and Lynn Valley.

Their children, that future grad class of 1958, were born in 1940 and entered elementary school in 1946, the year after the war ended. They were Cubs and Scouts, Brownies and Guides, Cadets; their parents were the group leaders. They played baseball, football and rugby; their parents coached the teams.

Students funneled from elementary schools into Sutherland junior high and then into North Vancouver senior high school.

This cohort of students would be the last from across North Vancouver (about 400 including the 100 students that attended Delbrook) that would graduate together.

Thereafter, more high schools were built to accommodate growth in North Vancouver neighbourhoods, and each had its own annual graduation ceremony.

At North Vancouver high school, many teachers were veterans who brought a new approach to teaching that flourished under principal Mickey McDougall with his commitment to youth and his community.

By the time the class of ’58 graduated, the values their parents and teachers taught them and the bonds they formed with one another, for some back to elementary school and even earlier, continued all the way into the future and influenced the spirit and character of their home community. 

Four members of the organizing committee – Margaret (Dance) Chalmers, Don Homer, Ed Jackson and Bill Wedley – reckon that these values and B.C.’s bright future converged in the late 1950s to produce graduates who made a productive and lasting contribution to their community and beyond.

A classmate who joined the Canadian Navy, vice-admiral Robert George, will do the honours as Master of Ceremonies.

The class of 1958 is defined by a shared history forged over a lifetime. It’s in the camaraderie, the joshing and the banter. It’s in the stories about schoolmates, those still with us and those that are gone.

It’s about diligence and commitment and lending a helping hand, and it is epitomized in the Barry Sullivan bursary established by the grads of 1958 to commemorate their friends and to help new graduates as they move on to higher education.

Reunion weekend runs from May 11 to 13. Organizers have built in plenty of time for catching up and for reminiscing.

For the reunion’s program, go to classcreator.com/North-Vancouver-British-Columbia-North-Vancouver--Delbrook/class_index.cfm and register at the 60th Reunion 2018 tab.

Grads from the class of 1957 and 1959 are welcome to attend the brunch on Sunday.

For more information phone Ed Jackson at 604-987- 4269.

Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. Contact her at 778-279-2275 or e-mail her at lander1@shaw.ca.