STURGIS HIGH SCHOOL
STURGIS, SOUTH DAKOTA

50th reunion Sept 5-7, 2008

 

AUDREY MCDANIELS ESTES Hot Springs, SD I went to Sturgis High School through my freshman year, then moved to New Underwood, then to California where I finished school and went to work. I moved back to my folk's ranch by Union Center and in 1958 married Ray Estes. He passed away in 2004. Our children are Jeffrey who passed away in 1993 and Regina Eichenberger, who lives in Gillette. Ray and I lived in Rapid City, California, came back to Sturgis in 1966, and moved to Hot Springs in 1977. Ray worked for Homestake until 1977. Then we bought a bar and restaurant where we both worked until we sold it in 1993. I owned a video store in Hot Springs until 2005. About the only classmates I have seen are the Ferguson girls.     RONALD MERRITT Wrangell, AK I married the former Marlene Reid and we have four children, Steve, Lisa (Pearson), Brian and Michelle (McCammon).   All the kids have college degrees of some kind or other.   Steve is a commercial salmon troller.   He and his wife Victoria have one child, Stephanie, who is sixteen.   They live in Craig, AK. Lisa taught for ten years in Arizona.  She is married to an optometrist, Kerry Pearson.  They have two kids, Kyle, 17, and Jenna, 15. Brian and his wife Sarah live in Wrangell and have one child, Tiffany, 13.   Brian has taught third and fourth grade for fifteen years.  He is also a commercial gillnetter. Michelle has three boys, Josh 14, Ben 10, and Zach 8.   Her husband Dan is a contractor.  He built and owns Subway in Cascade, Idaho.   I taught junor high in Wrangell for 23 years and retired in 1989.  I am now a commercial salmon troller.    Generally we fish through spring and fall and then stay in Wrangell or travel in the winter. We won't be able to come to the reunion as fishing season goes through September 20th. My favorite memory of SHS:   Getting Out!   Harold Earl Waterland Howes, SD   I was born in Los Angeles, California. My folks moved back to South Dakota when I was 4 years old. After graduation I worked for my dad on the ranch. I also had a job working with a crew constructing telephone and power lines in Western South Dakota. In 1963 I was drafted into the U.S. Army serving 18 months in Germany. I was an aircraft mechanic while in Germany. After discharge from the army I became a custom harvester, harvesting crops from Oklahoma to North Dakota in the summer months. In the fall I went to Texas and harvested fall crops like corn, soybeans, and milo. In 1970 I married Ginger Samuelson of Faith. Ginger traveled with me cooking for the crew, running after parts and doing anything needed. During this time we had three daughters, Jill born in December, 1970, Kim born in July, 1973 and Kristen born in July, 1977. After the 1977 season I quit the custom harvest business and became a full time rancher and farmer at Marcus, South Dakota. In 1992 I lost Ginger to a heart attack. Kristen was the only child at home and we helped each other. In 1995 I married Vicky Thompson, a local school teacher and neighbor. It was a second marriage for both of us. Vicky had a daughter, Lacey DeKnikker who was 12 at the time. This brought our total to 4 girls and still no boys. As Vicky’s aunt said, “Our grandparents had lived neighbors since 1910 and we finally got the families hooked up.” One thing about daughters, that means sons-in-law and we now have three of those. We also have 4 grandchildren, 3 boys and 1 girl, ages 6 years to one month. Jill is married to Ted Schilling and has three boys. Jill and Ted live in Spearfish, owning and operating the Pizza Ranch franchise. Jill has a Masters Degree in Geo Chemistry but chooses to be a stay at home mom. Kim Waterland is the Office Manager at Spearfish Century 21 Realty. She lives in Spearfish. Kim has a degree in business from Black Hills State University. Kristen is married to Chet Kilmer. They have one daughter, Cadence age one and one half. Kristen has a marketing degree from Black Hills State University and is employed in Media Relations for Black Hills State. Chet is a welder and they too live in Spearfish. Lacey is married to Robert Wondercheck. Lacey has a degree in Graphic Design from Black Hills State University. She works at Takini School near Howes as the Library media Specialist. Robert works on the Thompson ranch and raises cattle and horses. My wife, Vicky, taught 3 years in the Meade District, 29 years in the Faith District. She currently teaches Kindergarten at Takini School, near our home. I am still farming and ranching in eastern Meade County. I have lived in the same place for 37 years but my address has changed 4 times due to the postal department closing post offices. Instead of Marcus I now have to say Howes! We try to travel somewhere every summer. We have been to the west coast a couple of times and to the southwest two times plus making side trips to surrounding states to visit friends and relatives and attend weddings and graduations. All in all it is hard to find us at home. I especially enjoy attending sporting events and make it to all the local basketball games at Faith. It’s been a short 50 years! Harold, 1942 1990 Harold and Ginger 2007 Harold and Grandchildren   Vicky and Harold at Sea Tac Airport, 2008   Harold and Vicky at the Pacific and at Mt. St. Helens   JANICE BONSELL GORSUCH Janice passed away in January of 2008.   She had lived in Newcastle, Wyoming and had one daughter.       Kathleen Selwinder Northglen, CO Kathy went to Sturgis High School through her sophomore year. She played clarinet in the band, worked at Wiggs and ushered at the Dakota Theater. She moved to Rapid City her Junior and Senior years and graduated from Rapid City High School. A highlight was working with Patsy Cline who was a gospel singer and traveled a lot of the time. They would work together to get Patsy back up to speed in her schooling, and they became very good friends. After high school, a woman asked her to drive her to Pennsylvania, which she did, and then she worked in Philadelphia until her parents came out in August of 1958 and drove her back to South Dakota. She worked in Rapid City, then moved to Denver where her brother lived and they both worked for Gates Rubber. She moved briefly back to South Dakota then went to Portland where she met her husband. They lived in Portland from 1962-1968. Kathy has two daughters, Tammatha Kay who lives in Commerce City, CO, and Deborah Lou who lives with Kathy in Northglen, CO. Kathy has visited Sturgis and Rapid City over the years to visit relatives. She is a Jehovah Witness and is presently in the ministry.     DELNO HODGMAN Piedmont, SD Delno was in the Air Force from 1958 until 1970. He married in 1970 and they have three children. One lives in Fairbanks, AK, one in Washington state and one lives in Rapid City and works in Wyoming. Delno and his family lived in Condon and Heppner, OR, then moved to Newcastle, WY about 1978. When he moved to the Hills, he worked for UPS for a couple of years and then drove for Hills Materials for 16 years. He retired in 2003 and they live in Piedmont.     Frankie Ferguson Baker Wecota, SD We live at Wecota, South Dakota which is a small town 10 miles north of Faulkton, SD and 50 miles west of Aberdeen.  We have three children-- Clyde who is married to wife Traci and they have three children-Torey of Sioux Falls, who works for Wausau Lumber, Aimee of Rapid City who has a daycare there and Delaynie who is just eight years old and our youngest grandchild. Twila and her husband Gary Rausch live on a ranch by Onaka, South Dakota and they have three children. Melissa and her husband Chris live in Westminster, CO where she is a RN  and Chris is a Resident Doctor and will graduate in June then will be a surgeon in Aberdeen, SD with Iworks and Werth at Avera Hospital. Mark Rausch is in Sioux Falls and is an aviation mechanic at the Sioux Falls Airport. Nicky Rausch is a senior this year at Hoven, SD and will be going to Northern College this next year on a basketball scholarship. Twila teaches fourth grade at Hoven. Our youngest daughter Darcy Swier and her husband Greg live in Crooks, SD. They have four girls. Tasha is in Vermillion this year going to her first year of med school. She has a long way ahead of her but loves it so far.  Taylor -Mariah-Madison are all still in grade school at Tri Valley.  They all play basketball too and love it. So do we. Darcy works for Wells Fargo and Greg works for Detroit Diesel as an account manager. Elroy and Clyde have a Crop Spraying business and have had it since 1985 when Elroy quit managing a Cenex station that he managed for 23 years. We have three great grandkids-two girls Abby and Cloie and a great grandson Kalen Larson six months old. We live at Wecota and if anyone comes by they are welcome to stop and see us. You would not have any trouble finding us as our town has 19 people that live here. We have lived in Wecota for about 45 years now and wouldn't move for the world.  We love it here. See you all at the 50th Class reunion in September.   Elroy and Frankie Ferguson, 50th Wedding Anniversary Darcy's family: Mariah, Darcy, Greg; Natasha, Taylor, Madison Clyde's family: Clyde, Sonny, Aimee, Delaynie, Traci, Cloie, Torey, Abby Twila's family: Mark, Chris, Twila, Gary, Melissa, Nicky Dogs are Romeo and Quincy Twila's family: Nicky, Mark, Melisa   Gary & Twila Rousch, Nicky, Mark, Chris, Melissa     Aimee   Clyde and Delaynie, first fish     Delaynie, Clyde's daughter Daughter Darcy & Greg Swier Taylor, Tasha, Mariah, Madison   Kalen, great grandson Parents are Melissa and Chris Larson Clyde, Traci, Torey, Delaynie, Aimee, Abby   Clyde's grandchildren, Aimee's girls Darcy's girls: Natasha, Mariah, Taylor, Madison   Torey           Patty Corum Mancino Hatfield, PA    My life has been wonderful.    Chuck and I married right after graduation and lived in Rapid City until he was discharged from the Air Force in 1960.  We then lived in Philadelphia for 11 years before moving to our present home in Hatfield, a small town in the suburbs.  It was nice to get back to a country community.    Life is good . We have been blessed with four children and 11 grandchildren and now await our first great grandchild.  We remain healthy and active and look forward to our golden years.  Fortunately, all our children live within a couple miles of us so we see them often.  They gather here most Saturday evenings for cake and coffee and conversation. We both worked in grocery stores for 35+ years.  Now retired, we keep busy  in many ways.  Chuck has a big yard and garden to care for; I do lots of volunteer work.  We often babysit and attend many church, sport and school activities with the grandchildren.   Making homemade pasta and baking bread and cookies is a favorite pastime.  Traveling has been very entertaining for us.  We've taken cruises, driven coast to coast, and joined  several bus and train tours to see the beautiful USA.  A trip to Hawaii is planned to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary this summer.  An Alaskan cruise is possible for next year.    Occasionally, I look thru a Mato Paha  yearbook and wonder how classmates and friends are doing.  Sturgis High provided so many good experiences and happy memories.  A warm hello to everyone.   I hope life has been good to you.   Chuck and Patty Mancino Chuck, Diane, Gai, Greg, Pat, Irene, Mancinos and their Children   All 21 of the Mancino Family at Granddaughter's Wedding, 2007      Bill Jones Sturgis, SD Greetings to all my former classmates! We are still living on the ranch I grew up on east of Sturgis. We very much love and enjoy the peaceful country life! It has been a great place to raise our children and now the grandchildren come and enjoy the freedom! My wife, Marie and I just celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary in December! We are so fortunate as our children all live within our area. Our oldest son, Todd and his wife Nicole, step-daughter Abbie and son Cody also ranch. He also does carpentry and construction and works for a Rapid City Construction firm. Our oldest daughter, Tammy has a degree in Interior Design and keeps very busy with her design work. She works for a Rapid City firm. Our youngest son, Travis is an Attorney in Rapid City, South Dakota. He will be married in May to a special young lady named Marne. We are very happy for them and excited to have Marne added to our family circle. Our youngest daughter Tricia (a twin to Travis) has a degree in Child Psychology and Social Work. At present she is working retail near her home, until her little girl, Nora Grace goes to first grade! Her husband, John is in car sales in Rapid City and they live in Summerset. I retired in 2000 from working some 39+ years in the Engineering Dept at the Fort Meade V.A.     Retirement is great!! We keep real busy on the ranch, are members of Grace Lutheran Church in Sturgis and are very Family Oriented. We enjoy our family gatherings and our 3 Grandchildren are Wonderful!!     Ralph Jones: (one of the infamous Jones Boys. They've all been hung, except me; and I keep looking over my shoulder.) Richmond, KY Well, here's the long and the short of it. The Short of it: He graduated, joined the Army, worked in a mine and in the woods, went to vocational school, got a programming job, married, had two kids, worked, retired, moved to Kentucky, and wrote this letter. The long of it is about the length of War & Peace. So the Reader's Digest version follows: Life expectancy 14.28 years. Probability of dying this year: 0.024278. (According to: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4c6.html) - Isn't the Internet wonderful? Actually, I'm somewhere between dead and 98. Dad died when he was 61 and Mom died when she was 98. We're living in Richmond, Kentucky. Richmond sits on the boundary between the Blue Grass country on the north and hillbilly country on the east and south. We live over by the hillbilly side and love it. I married Janice Graham from Sundance, August 19th, 1967. She finally has trained me to remember 19-67. We have two kids, Clayton 39, LeAnn 36, and our Jen Wilke-Deaton. Jen spent 15 Xmas's with us and we with her for the last 3 years; I walked her down the aisle for her wedding so we claim her as our other daughter. I went to Huron College after we graduated, the less said the better. I joined the Army in August 1959, and still remember my serial number - Regular Army. I enlisted for the 101st Airborne Division and went to the 101st Jump School at Ft. Campbell, KY, in February 1960; where I became a 5”4', 125lb romp'n, stompem paratrooper. I transferred to Special Forces and got out in 1962. After coming back home I joined the Guard and was assigned to C company in Custer. I left the Guard after I went to a public vocational school in Ottumwa, Iowa. I'm jealous of Bucky. I made it all the way to Buck Sergeant and he made it to Colonel. When you're a private in the rear rank, a Colonel sits at the right hand of God. Congratulations, Bucky! Oh yes, I stayed with the Duly's several times on my way back and forth to Ft. Campbell. I really enjoyed their hospitality and my conservations with Rev. Duly. Since I've never had much couth, I didn't send them any thank you notes, now I wish I had. Janice picked out her in-laws first, and then a husband. She was teaching 2nd grade in Hill City in 1965 and would have dinner with the folks once or twice a week. Mom would tell me about this girl I should meet. That was kind of difficult to do, since I was working either the swing or graveyard shifts and was either sleeping or working when she came over. Finally the day came. Several of us were meeting at Johnny's Cafe, in Hill City, to share rides to the Guard Drill in Custer on a Wednesday evening. I saw this girl having dinner. I went over and said "You're Janice Graham aren't you?" “How did you know that?”. “Well you're about the only girl in town, over the age of 18, and not married or pregnant, or both”. Since my name tag said Jones, she knew who I was. After the howdy's were said we made a date to go to a movie in Custer that Friday. It was "Topkapi", with Peter Ustinov, and Melina Mercouri. It was interesting; Topkapi is the Sultan's Palace in Istanbul. I'd been there about 3 years before, when we went to Turkey to play Cowboys and Indians with the Turkish airborne, up near the Greek and Bulgarian border. We were given a week or so we could take in Istanbul. We bivouacked between the runways at the Istanbul International Airport. It was interesting in the morning. We were near the touchdown point on the north west end of the runways. We'd be in the latrine and we'd wave back at the passengers as they were landing or taking off. That was in Feb. of 1965 and as they the rest is history. We were married in August 1967, after I got my 1st programming job. I took a 50 week computer programming class at the Iowa Technical School in Ottumwa Iowa, starting in October, 1965. Thanks to Pres. Johnson and the Manpower Training Act, I was paid $300 a month to go to school which was about the same wage I was making at the time. I finished in September '66, and went to work for the Viking Pump Co. in Cedar Falls Iowa, near Waterloo. We were programming using the BOS (Before Operating Systems). Viking made Industrial Pumps. Our favorite customer was Hershey's. We'd all go down to the shop floor with knives and forks when their very large sanitary pumps came in for repair. They were still filled with chocolate. Janice attended Black Hills, got a 1-year teaching certificate and started teaching at Hereford in 1959. Janice taught 1 room country schools until 1964 when she came to Hill City to teach 2nd grade.  She attended summer school and took a few courses at Mines and graduated in '67 just before we were married. We left Cedar Falls in the Spring of '68 and moved to Pierre and I went to work as a Project Manager and Systems Analyst for the State. My project was Law enforcement/Safety. Most of the effort was the automation of the Dept. of Motor Vehicles.. We stuffed 64 tons of paper into the Central Data Processing's computer. We eventually landed in West Chicago, IL. West Chicago was a small town about the size of Sturgis, 30 miles west of the city. We lived there for 35 years. Clayton and LeAnn were both born in Pierre. Clayton was born February 15, 1965. He was a preemie at 3½ lbs. He's now just a shade under 6 ft & 210 lbs. Clayton graduated from Mines in '92 with a degree in Mech. Engineering. He then went to work on the B2 in Palmdale out near Edwards Air Force base. As he said “I'm tired of sand, rocks and Joshua trees. I'm coming home.” He worked as a mfg. engineer and on a Masters in Technical Management, from Mines. He's now a management consultant in Melbourne Australia. He's married to Yaun Li. Li was born and raised in China and became a citizen last year. They have two kids Alister 4 and Elesia 2 ½. Elesia was born in Melbourne. Clayton might get a three month project in Holland. The whole family would go. LeAnn was born January 23d, 1972. She graduated from the Univ. of S.D. in 1994. She and Jen moved to Morehead Kentucky and got their masters in 1998. When they graduated LeAnn went to work as a case manager for Presbyterian Child Welfare in Morehead. Jen took a job as counselor to Abused and Behaviorally Disturbed Children. Both girls are here in Richmond. LeAnn decided that she could do more for her kids as an attorney rather than a case manager. So off to Hamline Univ. School of Law in St. Paul. She graduated in May of 2006. She passed the bar exam and went to work for the Commonwealth of Kentucky as a Public Advocate (defender) for Children and Juveniles. Jenn travels all over the country conducting seminars in her specialty. She's been to all 50 states. She just got back from Alaska last week. Li became a Christian as a teenager in China. Teenagers will hide the radio under the pillow so that the parents will not hear them listening to hip-hop. Li hid her radio under her pillow to listen to Far Eastern Christian Broadcasting programming. She met Diane, an immigration lawyer from Wheaton, just 5 miles east of West Chicago. She enrolled in Wheaton college for a Masters in multi-cultural missions. Li started working as a broadcaster for FECB. She was on the air 1 hour a day, 5 days a week. Things had come full circle as FECB was what she had been listening to. About the same time she and Clayton were engaged, the company merged with an other broadcasting company and the studios were moved to Fullerton CA. Clayton's best friend in college was J.T Rickengach. JT wanted him to go to China to manage his company's operations in China. If he had done so, he would not have met his Chinese wife. We really enjoyed Chicago. The choices were always what should we do, rather than what is there to do. The Chicago/Northwestern ran commuter trains through W.C. Once an hour 13 minutes to the hour. During the rush hours they ran 2 to 5 trains per hour. It was 35 to 55 minutes downtown to the museums, Navy Pier, food, sight seeing, etc. When we moved, in 1973, I went to work for the Midwest (Chicago) Stock Exchange. I quit the exchange and went to work as an independent programmer, working on contract. I had an enjoyable run. I did work for such originations as IBM, Sears, Abbot Labs, 3com. ATT, Swiss Bank, Advantis, etc. Advantis was a joint venture between Sears and IBM. I took a 5 month contact with Advantis and wound up staying 5 years. I developed and maintained a compiler and runtime for telephony applications. I made good money from time to time, but none of it stuck to me; went broke three times. Decided I was too old to try again and retired. Between the Internet bust and outsourcing software development, most of my business went somewhere else. But I had fun doing it. Janice is the quintessential church lady. My last military Advantis was washing dishes when the Christians (UMW) fed the lions twice a month. A good friend, Mel Weist, and I always did KP any time food was served at the church. Mel Weist had been an Artillery Battery commander when he was given a medical discharge. Mel is a West Point graduate. He was a classmate of General Schwartzkopf. We spend a lot of time with doctors and dentists. An ocular plastic surgeon is going to remove some extra skin from my eye lids at the end of April. I had a retinal tear and went blind in my left eye two years ago. The VA fixed it, and I now have 20/25 vision in that eye. I had a checkup yesterday and the eye doctor recommended that I have the surgery. So I'll look a little different than in the pictures. I just hope that I do not have a permanent look of surprise. Yada, yada, ... Enough blather for now; hope to see you then.     Darlene Lamberton Has lived in Lamar. MO for 30 years.   Married for 53 years. Was married after her Freshman year, and planned on going back to school but the  "powers that be" wouldn't let her come back because she was married.    For 25 years she drove truck (reefers) with her husband.  Lives in the country, has chickens, goats, dogs, and is going to start a kennel.   She has 5 kids.  One son lives "next door" and is on a respirator.  Darlene is his primary caregiver and works in a local grocery in the Deli dept.   She would love to come to the reunion but will be unable to and sends best wishes to all.