Urbana High School’s Class of 1962 celebrated its 60th reunion on Sept. 24 at Jupiter’s at the Crossing in Champaign.

Here’s more on the Tigers and a wonderful weekend, courtesy event organizer Linda Ogle:

  • This was our eighth reunion since graduating high school. We had a 10th in 1972, a 20th in 1982 and a 25th in 1987. In 1994, we celebrated our 50th birthdays; in 2000 we celebrated the millennium; in 2000, a 46th reunion; a 50th in 2012; and a 60th (and final ‘in person’) in 2022.
  • We had about 246 class members in our graduating class; 83 are deceased. We had 49 people at our 60th.
  • I remember attending our 10th and 20th reunion committee meetings. After those two reunions I knew we had to do something different. I had a simple two-sided standing bulletin board I borrowed from a church and pinned things on the board … it definitely was an ice-breaker. Each reunion, my display grew. I also had a large map of the USA with pins showing where all our class members live. I kept an up-to-date class directory. I got to be pretty good at finding people; however it’s getting harder because privacy has tightened up.
  • Class members are moving around more as they get older — many with two homes: a winter home and a summer home.

Our class has a basic website, which is easier than printing a directory at each reunion. We also have a private Facebook page. I try to keep it interesting, because it’s a little heavy with obituaries. Every day I would have the ‘Cheer of the Day.’ I use to report football scores but since Urbana hasn’t played for two or three years, I can’t do that. People loved hearing if the Tigers won

  • or lost.
  • Another thing our group does is have a monthly luncheon. We pick different places to go. We’ve been doing that since about 2005. Food keeps us together! The last few years, the guys have had a golf outing in different places. COVID put a stop to that but they are hoping to reinstate it.
  • Saturday night we had a slideshow of pictures, which was fun. We also did a Zoom meeting. Our techie class member, Jim Harnberger, got it set up. It was good to see people ‘live’ on screen. We’re talking about the possibility of doing an annual Zoom meeting. There’s a lot of class members who don’t do social media. We currently have 76 members in our Facebook group. All four of our senior class officers were in attendance: Bob Vedder, president (came from Florida); Bob Hanes, treasurer (came from Texas); Dave Crouse, secretary, and Bill Goldstein, publicity chairman, who both live in Champaign.

We are loyal, we are true, we’re the Class of ’62. Our class purchased a brick (2012) when they renovated the football field.