Classmates

Churchill Coat of Arms
Churchill Coat of Arms




Winston Churchill High School
Eugene Oregon
Class of 1967
Reunion  August 9, 2025
Greeting and Best Wishes.
Our reunion this year will be held at the home of Gary and Gayle Thorsby.
Gary and Gayle have invited us to their house in the northwest Eugene area.
We will have a Potluck meal, so please bring enough of your delicious favorite picnic treats to share with eight persons. 

Ice will be provided to chill beverages. BYOB!  Fun and games until time to go.

 

When: Saturday August 9th, 2025
Where: Thorsby’s home at 3790 Honolulu Ave. Eugene, OR 97404 
Phone: if lost 541-953-9248
Time: 2:00pm to 5:00pm or later


Please RSVP on ‘Contact Us’ tab above
 

Dave Easton

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Married
Children: 2
Occupation: Retired
Comment: It's been a good 50 Years. Attended UofO,married my high school sweetheart and been married for 48 wonderful yrs. We raised two great and successful boys and have three grandchildren. Owned Amazon Market, worked in the golf and paint industry for several years. Retired three years ago. Diana and I have always loved to cruise and travel and now it is a lifestyle. We both love the UofO and have traveled to many of their games. It is a great life including my time at Churchill High!!

Robert Engrav

Then Then
Marital status: Single
Occupation: retired
Comment: One of my favorite authors, Henry Miller, wrote: "If it was a mistake to finish school, it was an ever bigger mistake to go to work." I've made some mistakes in my life, but somehow it's all turned out to be ok! Flunked out of college after 2nd term at UofO, met some Beautiful People, hitchhiked to Santa Barbara. Returned to Eugene, entered computer programming school, which led to a job at Sacred Heart Hospital as a computer operator. Moved to Seattle in 1975, and became a rat trapped in the corporate maze for the next 30 years, spending 5 of those yrs in San Francisco. Learned to live and love the Good Life, fine wines and good food. Moved back to Seattle and was forced to retire, being too old, too expensive, and no college degree - it was a blessing in disguise!  I worked as a florist for the next 5 years. Then my 2nd retirement at age 62.


Currently enjoy travels to Mexico and western US, reading, nature walks, bike riding. A Reiki practitioner for the last 10 yrs, I am now focusing on treating horses and learning to ride again.

Jerry Gardner (Gardner)

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Divorced
Children: 2
Occupation: Retired
Comment: After HS, I served in the military and went to VN. I returned to Eugene and graduated from the UofO. I had the opportunity to attend the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA to study German.  I also obtained a MA from USC in International Relations and worked in military intelligence in Germany for several years. I returned to Oregon with my family in the early 80's but it was hard to find work so I went to Willamette Univ to get an MBA. I worked in economic development for most of my professional career. I retired from the Ore Dept of Agriculture as their Business Development Officer two years ago. I also held the same position with the Ore Economic Development Dept for a number of years focussing on establishing jobs in the mid-Willamette Valley. I was fortunate enough to travel to Asia and Europe promoting Oregon agricultural products over the years. I have two great kids who both live in Oregon and two grand children. I'm glad to see so many old friends have signed up to come to the reunion. See ya soon!   

Janet Gilmore

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Married
Children: 2
Comment: Hey Folks, Looking forward to catching up a bit after 50 years.  I am in denial about how time has passed.  I’ve now spent more time in exile from my beloved state of Oregon than in it, but I’ve returned every year for weeks to months, and sometimes years at a time, to visit family, friends, colleagues—and enjoy the thrift shops. 





After graduating from Churchill, I next graduated from Reed College in Portland during the troubled times, then became inspired by a University of Oregon folklore professor to study Folklore at Indiana University-Bloomington.  There I obtained advanced degrees in Folklore, but in between spent a couple of spring quarters teaching at Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston on the Oregon Coast.  Students inspired my dissertation research there, so I stayed on a couple of years to work and fund my field research with commercial fishing families.  I thought I might live there for the rest of my life. 





When I returned to Bloomington to finish up though, I got tangled up with another folklorist and lived in Lexington, Kentucky, for several years.  We lived a year in far northern Wisconsin, his home state, where I finished my dissertation, and then I spent some time in Seattle, recovering and exploring work opportunities.  But soon I returned to Kentucky, where our daughter was born, and then we moved to Wisconsin, where our son was born.  We’ve stayed there working as public folklorists, doing contract fieldwork and exhibit and festival production for small non-profit art, history, and cultural organizations.  I continued my commercial fishing and fish foodways study in the Pacific Northwest and western Great Lakes areas.  Late in life, I joined my husband in becoming a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor in Folklore and Landscape Architecture. 





Both kids have now graduated from college in Washington (WWU-Fairhaven) and Oregon (OSU), and both continue to live and work mostly in the NW.  Since my aged mother died in 2015, we’ve all been spending a lot of time in Eugene managing the homestead, where my husband and I hope to retire and keep working on the deferred maintenance, updates, and landscape restoration—amid City and utility regulatory aggravations, climate extremes, and threats of earthquakes, tsunamis, and North Korean missiles.  Where else would I want to be?!

Sheryl Hackett (Winchester)

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Married
Children: 2
Occupation: Retired
Comment: How do you sum up 50 years?  After attending 3 years at the U of O I transferred to OSU for my senior year then back to the U of O to graduate.  Although I am 1/4 Beaver I am still 100% a Duck fan. After graduation I worked 10 years for the Lane County DAs office as an investigator. There I met my husband of 43 years who retired as a Lieutenant from the Lane County Sheriff's Office. After our two children were born I went to work for the City of Veneta as Court Clerk, Planning Specialist, and City Recorder.  My husband retired early and began a consulting business and worked part time at the Oregon Police Academy until I retired in 2011.  At that time we gave up country life and moved to Bend where we currently reside. We spend our time hiking, snowshoeing, kayaking, and skiing. My first time on ski's was the winter before I retired and my first time skiing the summit at Bachelor was on my 62nd birthday. Lots of hobbies but my passion is genealogy. We have two children, daughter is a doctor and son an attorney which sounds like we have great access for health care and any legal matters, except she specializes in pediatric cardiology and he in bankruptcy so hopefully we will never need their services. We have 4 exceptional grandchildren that we enjoy spending time with.   We have done a lot of traveling to watch our oldest granddaughter play softball. The three youngest are all boys and every summer we host them for a 1-2 week "Cousin Camp".  Keeps us young (and exhausted). 

Carolene Harrison (Clark)

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Widowed
Children: 2
Occupation: Child care provider
Comment: When my husband passed away in 2014 and then <3 months later I lost my dad, I really kind of thought I was going to be lost myself. But Jesus stepped in along with my friends and family and 5 years later I'm doing fine. I'm still watching children 5 days a week like I've been doing for the past 30 years. My son lives in Huntington beach California. My daughter lives in North Carolina. Her son is going to make me a great grandma in September! I miss them all very much. Darn those plane tickets they are so expensive. I also operate a soup kitchen here in Springfield. Every Saturday we cook for between 85 and a 110 peoplepo. If you wanna come and volunteer that would be great! It'll be good to see you all and I'm looking forward to it.

Deke Heard

Marital status: Committed Relationship
Children: 1
Occupation: Living the Dream
Comment: I picked-up our old yearbook thinking I could review some faces and names so as not to be as embarrassed as I surely will.  Seeing many faces and names brought a smile to my face and warmth to my heart. But then I realized that there were way too many classmates that I had no idea about. Way too many. The splitting of Jr. Hi student bodies into the three different High schools had some bad side effects.  I really, really would have liked getting to know you all better.


To those of you returning to Eugene after long periods away; Welcome Home.  So many changes, you won't be running the gut. But I hope your experince back will bring forward some fond memories.   Dick (now "Deke") Heard

Marv Jameson

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Married
Children: 4
Occupation: Retired
Comment: So,after attending the reunion this weekend I've decided that I should probably add some information here.





After high school I attended LCC majoring in auto repair.  After 2 terms at LCC the selective service sent me notice to appear for a physical.  Rather than wait to be drafted I chose to enlist in the Marine Corps, I got one of the last 3 year enlistments given out.  The Marine Corps put methrough a bank of tests and determined that I should be trained in electronics.  After bookcamp in San Diego and Infantry Training Regiment at Camp Pendleton I returned home for leave and then returned to San Diego for Basic Electronics School.  After BES I transferred to Twenty-nine Palms to train on an air search Radar device.  All told I spent 1 and 1/2 years in California. I then transferred to MCAS Cherry Point, NC. Ispent most of the rest of my enlistment in North Carolina.  I did go on one operation that took me to Greece for 9 days.  We got 3 days liberty in Athens on the way over and then 3 days liberty in Valencia, Spain on the way home.   While stationed in NC I met my first wife, a woman from Pa.  After leaving the service I moved to Pa where I lived for about another 11/2 years. We moved back to Eugene so that I could attend LCC where I majored in Electronics Engineering Technology.  After graduation we moved to Corvallis so I could pursue a degree in Electrical Engineering from OSU.  Just before graduation from LCC my son was born.  The first term at OSU I obtained part time employment at Hewlett/Packard they'd just opened their plant in Corvallis. Working almost fulltime, taking 17 credit hours, and trying to raise an infant son took it's toll after 2 terms and the opportunity for full time employment came available.  I left school and started what was to become a 30 year career at HP.  During that 30 years my wife and I had a second child, a daughter, I got divorced,and married my current wife who had 2 sons.  I left HP in 2007 and have been semi-retired since.  I've had a few part time jobs.  For the past 8 years I've worked as a Softball Scorekeeper in the spring and summer for Corvallis Parks and Recreation Dept. My and I are avid OSU Beaver fans, we live walking distance from campus, we've been to every PAC-12 football stadium except Colorado, we attend as many Beaver games as we can with season tickets for Football, Men's and Women's Basketball, and Baseball.  We attended the final 2 games of the 2007 NCAA Baseball College World Series.

Connie Jensen (Callies)

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Married
Children: 2
Occupation: housewife
Comment: I was taking classes at LCC, where I met my husband, John.  We just celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary in June.


​With Johns family construction business, we traveled to several states and stayed in some great places.  John retired in 2007.


​We have two beautiful Daughters, two great son-in-laws.  We have eight super-wonderful grandkids! They all live in the Bend area.  We have a cabin in the Crescent area, so we get together as much as we can.  We spend Christmas there too.  We usually get lots of snow, so all of us play in the snow.


​We live on Siltcoos Lake.  We have lived here since 1985. We love it here. 


​In February, we travel to Mesa, Arizona.  Johns Dad lives there.  We meet family there and spend about a month. On our way home this year, we had reservations to see: "Brooks & Dunn & Reba"! at Caesrs in Las Vegas!


​ What a great show.  We had good seats really close to the stage.


​Our 50th Class Reunion was alot of fun!  Saw friends I haven't seen in awhile, and  ones I hadn't seen in quite awhile.  Plus former classmates.  Have alot of great memories of High School.

Jan Kersgaard

Then Then
Now Now
Marital status: Single
Occupation: Teaching Nurse Aides
Comment: After graduation I picked beans one last summer.  Then got my RN diploma in Portland, worked one year at Western Lane hospital in Florence and went to the Appalachian hills of Kentucky where I worked and studied nurse midwifery for 2 ½ years. Got a BSN from OHSU in 1999.  I worked as a midwife in Shiprock New Mexico at a Navajo hospital and at Sacred Heart in Eugene.  In 1977 I left for Pakistan where I worked for the next 32 years (with occasional visits to US) teaching nursing and midwifery at an 80 bed hospital 100 miles from the Afghan border.  We cared for wounded “freedom fighters” during the Russian occupation, held prenatal and vaccination clinics in surrounding villages, persevered through droughts and power shortages.  We saw village men and women learn to care for very ill and wounded patients, assist with births, administer anesthesia for surgery, and take over the village outreach.  I made many wonderful friends and was very blessed.  I can’t imagine having done anything else. 


 


I returned to Eugene in 2009 and am now teaching Nurse Aide students at LCC 12 hours a week. 


 


I look forward to catching up with classmates at the reunion and on this site.