Another photo of the hospitality suite, with our leader Ron Farah in the foreground, along with Merl Terry.

Finally, we get to the photographs of all of the attendees for our lunch, rows 1 through 4. We had 19 classmates and 15 guests present for the lunch (a total of 34 people), and after lunch and talking there for about two hours, most of us went to the hospitality suite to talk some more!

When it got close to dinner time, we then went back to the same Bavarian Inn dining room we had to ourselves, and had a another fantastic meal. A few of the lunch attendees were not able to stay for dinner, and a few more classmates and guests arrived to have dinner with us. We had 21 classmates and 16 guests for this meal, for a total of 37 attendees for the dinner. And once again, after several hours more of eating and talking, we went back to the hospitality suite for more sharing of memories and experiences.

The final numbers: We had a total of 22 classmates attend the reunion, plus 19 guests, for a total of 41 attendees. There were 115 in our class, but when you subtract the 26 known deceased and 12 lost, that leaves 77 classmates that could possibly attend. The 22 that did attend was a little short of 30% of the possible classmates that could have attended, not bad when you consider the advanced age of all of us. I personally talked to quite a few classmates who would have liked very much to attend, but could not because of medical problems or previous travel plans. (Note: A listing of the currently known deceased and the lost classmates is below. PLEASE let me know of any updates or changes to either of these lists, as well as any changes to your contact information, especially your email addresses. Thanks!)

You might also be interested to know that I talked with both of our still living teachers, Mr. Franzen (now the Rev. Lavern Franzen, in Florida) and Mr. Staschke (Mr. Marlyn Staschke, in Detroit). Both have had recent medical issues, with Mr. Franzen apparently coming back well. Mr. Staschke attended our 58th Reunion two years ago, and it was great having him and his wife there! Both of them would enjoy talking to any of you that might like to. (Mr. Franzen = 941-486-5041, email = VernFran222@gmail.com) (Mr. Staschke = 313-838-0621)

Well, that is it for now. A huge THANK YOU to our Reunion Committee, composed of Ron Farah, Janet (Gramzow) Kroening, Pennye (Dreier) Wyss, and myself!

Blessings,

Don Becker

DECEASED (26): Ruth Born, Don Catalina, Barbara Erler, Jerry Fagge, George Fuller, Pat Gross, Clyde Gugel, Beverly Jacobson, Carolyn Kemp, Sylvia Koester, Sharon Konz, Charles Krupski, Evelyn Kullgren, Carl Lohrman, Ron McDonough, Art Moore, Karen Perkins, Diann Powers, Jerry Preuss, Leona Retieff, Arnold Ristola Ruth Siegert, Lois Smith, Fred Spaeth, Jim Wacker, Robert Westerberg

LOST (no contact information available) (12): Dollie Carroll, Robert Chambers, Walter Gruenwald, Warren Johnson, Caroline Lauth, Harry Muenker, Gerald Nelson, Jim Pushman, Wayne Reid, Shirley Schleef, Judith Tiedeman, Ernest West

The Detroit Lutheran High School (Joy Road) Class of 1955 held its 58th Reunion on September 24th, 2013, at the Bavarian Inn, Frankenmuth. Twenty-five classmates attended the all-day event, which started at 11 AM and lasted until the evening. Most were able to participate in both lunch and dinner at the Inn, while some were able to attend only a portion of the event. There were 30 people there for lunch, including 19 classmates, and 27 people for dinner, including 16 classmates. Six classmates who could not be there for the lunch attended the dinner. Pastor Ron Farah spoke and served as MC of both the events. One of the highlights was the visit during the afternoon of one of our teachers from way back then, Mr. Marlyn Stachke, and his wife. The photograph below shows Mr. Staschke and his wife along with nine of our classmates. Following that photo are photos of everybody attending the lunch (first), and then all attending the dinner.

The 56th Reunion Luncheon was held on September 22nd, again at the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth. About 31 people attended (according the the photographs--- count heads and add one, for the photographer, who never got into any of the pictures!), 19 grads plus spouses or friends, and we had a very enjoyable time. The food was good, as it always is at the Bavarian Inn, and people seemed to find lots of things to talk about, catching up on each other lives, and many other topics. Two photographs are below, the first one showing a panoramic view of the entire room with all of the people, and a second one, showing each group of people individually, so you can get a good look at everybody. What a great looking bunch of senior citizens! (Note: The panorama is much wider than your screen, so enlarge it so that the height is all or most of the height of your computer screen, then scan along the horizontal portion to see all of the image.)

Now, some news from the reunion and later - It was decided that the next "mini-reunion" would be in two years, around the summer or fall of 2013, and then again at our big 60th in 2015. There was some news about two of our high school teachers: Coach Denis Tuomi had a heart attack in the fall of 2011, but last I heard was recovering quite well. Also Mr. Alwin Wied passed away on September 27th of 2011, his obituary notice is below. As far as I know, that leaves Coach Tuomi, Marlyn Stashke and Pastor Laverne Franzen as the only remaining teachers from our graduating year that are still with us. Let me know if you hear of any others.

On a lighter note, I came across a photo from our time at Joy Road, showing three very pretty young ladies standing against the wall of the Woolworth's store at the corner of joy Road and Grand River. The one on the left is Carlene Malow Wandrie, and the one on the right is Lois Bell Cass. The one in the middle looks familiar but I can't place her... I know she was not in our graduating class. Anybody remember?

What a wonderful 55th reunion! Everybody seemed to have a great time (except poor Pennye, who fell into an open elevator and broke her arm in the middle of the reunion festivities!). The facilities and the location worked out really well, and we had a good response from our classmates. After there were a few last minute cancellations due to medical or other problems, we had 38 classmates come together to celebrate our 55 years! See the group photograph below to see everybody who was there.

Many thanks once again to Pennye (Drier) Wyss and her husband Bill and their committee (Barbara Erler Klosterman, Phyllis Woberman Wirth, and Janet Gramzow Kroening) for the excellent planning for this event!

Now, there is a 56th Reunion Luncheon planned, for Thursday, September 22nd, 2011 at the Bavarian Inn Restaurant. Call or email for a lunch reservation by September 15th, 2011 with either: Pennye Dreier Wyss at 586-784-5409 and penpalpennye (at) att.net, or Janet Gramzow Kroening at 586-775-6393 and aljan123@wowway.com. I know a number of you had asked whether there was some way classmates could get together more often, so I hope you will take advantage of this opportunity and share fellowship with each other on the 22nd.

One last thing - in addition to the large group photo of the 55th Reunion, I have added quite a few smaller photos showing a lot of individuals from the 50th Reunion, just click on the link below the larger 50th Reunion group photo. I hope to do the same for the 55th Reunion in the near future.

Welcome to the Detroit Lutheran High School Class of 1955 Website. I am hosting this website in the hopes that it will encourage members and friends of the Class of 1955 to establish/maintain contact with fellow classmates. If you would like to contact me with information and/or suggestions, click on my e-mail address here to contact me directly with your comments. Another option is to use the guestbook at the end of the website where you can register your visit and add comments if desired. Thanks for visiting this web site, and be sure to come back and visit the website again in the near future. I hope to keep expanding it to include more reunion photographs and information. Our 55th reunion in Frankenmuth in 2010 was excellent, and the 56th luncheon in Frankenmuth looks like another real winner for those who can make it. As soon as this one is over start thinking about our 60th Reunion, in 2015. Hopefully there will still be a few of us around to celebrate it!

Can you remember who our Class Officers were in our senior year? How good is that memory of yours? Well, for those who can't remember all (or any?) of them, I have taken a portion of one of the newsletters that Jim Zabel made for our 50th reunion, and put their photos here. Wow, don't the girls look great at that age! Good thing our minds don't age, only the bodies. Memories are fine things to have.

One of the reasons for this website is to try and keep in contact with all of our classmates. We had quite a few e-mail addresses of classmates from the various reunions, but you keep moving and/or changing your e-mails. Some of you have contacted me to let me know of your email and/or other contact information changes, and I appreciate that. We are getting to the age where many of us are retiring (if not already retired), and many are moving to different locations, where you tend to lose contact with old friends and classmates. By means of this website, I hope to try and establish/re-establish contact with as many classmates as possible, and provide a means for you to leave messages for each other in the Guestbook. If you have lost contact with someone and you would like to find them, you can e-mail me and I will provide any information that I have about that person. Unfortunately, some of our members have "disappeared" and we have lost complete contact with them. If you know of class members who were not invited to our last reunion, they are "lost" and we need contact information for them. A listing with all of the names and current locations (cities only) of classmates can be found here.. The current listing of only deceased and/or "lost" class members as of July 2011 is here. If ANYONE has more recent contact information about any of these classmates, or know for sure that any of the "lost" ones have passed away, please let me know.

Don Becker

Our 55th Reunion

Our 55th Class Reunion in 2010 was held at the Bavarian Inn Lodge & Conference Center in downtown Frankenmuth, MI. It was outstanding, and all had a great time! We had 38 Classmate attendees as shown in the panoramic photograph below (actually three different photos that were combined into one).

List of attendees for 55th Reunion:

Bottom Row- L to R: Pennye Drier, Jonada Dumke, Mary McCabe, Sandy Eitner, Joann Helwig, Barbara Erler, Ardele Salatis, Maggie Gruenwald, Carlene Malow, Elaine Dober, Jean Bryer, and Jackie Radcliffe;

Middle Row: Diann Powers, Liz Spaeth, Marion Edwards, Charlene Mell, Cynthia Ryce, Nancy Tesauro, Marion Richert, Merle Terry, Larry Witto, Ron Farah, Jan Gramzow, Lee Ahrens, Phyllis Biesenthal, and Lois Bell;

Top Row: Don Becker, Warren Newman, Wes Wilkie, Joyce Ramsey, Bob Metzger, Jerry Fagge, Bob Sylvester, Herb Wirth, Phyllis Woberman, Stuart Lapin, Ron McDonough, and Dick Blatt.

And, thanks to Diann Powers Richards who submitted our reunion story to the Michigan Lutheran, and the story was published in the December issue of the "Michigan in Touch" newsletter. A copy of the story is here.

Our 50th Reunion

Our 50th Class Reunion in 2005 was also held in the Traverse City area, and was fantastic. It was held at the Spider Lake Retreat Center, and 39 Classmate attendees are shown in the accompanying photograph below. I believe two others had to leave early, so are not in the photograph.

Now, more photographs from our 50th have been added (September 2010), and can be seen below.

      DLHS-50thReunionPhotos

Composite Photograph - Class of 1955

Below is a copy of the Class of '55 Composite Photograph. It is a digital copy of my original composite. In case you want to look at individual faces, a much larger copy can be opened by clicking on the link below it. The large one is still only about 500 kB in size, so should not take too long to load even for people with a dialup internet connection.

Large Composite - Class of 1955

Our 45th Reunion

Our 45th Class Reunion in 2000 was also a thoroughly enjoyable event for those who attended. As I recall, there were 37 classmates who attended the reunion, of which 35 are shown in the group photograph below, taken on the Sunday morning. I have a lot more photographs, and will try to put some more up on this website before long.

Our 40th Reunion

Our 40th reunion was held in the home of JoAnn (Helwig) and Leonard Bantleon's (DLHS '55 and '54, respectively) beautiful home in the Detroit area. We all had a great time exchanging new information and reliving old experiences. As you can see from the photograph below, we were all getting a little bit older at each reunion.

Our 35th Reunion

This one at the 35th reunion shows former teacher and choir director LaVerne Franzen directing his former choir members in, as I recall, a slightly rusty rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus. What was not remembered in musical notes was made up for in gusto! This reunion was held at a hotel conference room in the western Detroit area.

I hope that you enjoyed looking at ourselves and each other, with "before" and "after" photographs, so to speak. See how many of the names on the reunion photograph you can recognize... can you name them?

Now, two last photographs to jog your memories... the Junior Choir from Christmas of 1951, when those of us in the choir are seen here as "lowly" Freshmen, and still attending classes at the West Grand Boulevard school. Do YOU remember that time? The photograph was taken in Bethany Church, on East Outer Drive, where we had a concert several weeks before Christmas.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

Don Becker, Class of 1955

Email: dbecker99(at)verizon.net

Telephone: 240-867-3710

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