Remaining members of Pontiac High School Class of 1950 come together for another reunion

It was 1950.

The Korean warfare had simply begun. The US Senator Joseph McCarthy launched a marketing campaign to seek out Communists in America. Charles Schulz’s comedian “Peanuts” with Charlie Brown and his canine, Snoopy, debuted in American newspapers. Foolish Putty was the nice and cozy toy on the Christmas record of each youngster. And Diner’s Membership launched the primary bank card.

Three lessons of a complete of 582 college students graduated from the Pontiac Excessive Faculty and held a reunion each 5 years because the class. This yr there might be no completely different, though much less and fewer graduates have attended current conferences.

Maxine Smiley, 93, organizes this yr’s seventy fifth reunion to be held tomorrow, Thursday 21 August within the Iroquois Membership in Bloomfield Hills.

Ken and Donna Burr, class of 1950 graduates, fashioned a committee of classmates and arranged the primary reunion in 1960 and continued with eight extra occasions till 2005, when Donna Burr died. Smiley deliberate the following 4, together with this yr’s lunch.

There have been 15 graduates on the reunion of 2022, thought-about the seventieth reunion as a result of the 2020 occasion was canceled due to the COVID-19 Pandemie. Smiley stated that there is usually a most of six PHS graduates, all of their 90s throughout in the present day’s occasion.

“They (Ken and Donna) did for 45 years in reunions and had been all the time there and all the time saved in contact and there by no means appeared to be a reunion that was not concerning the hazard due to their arduous work,” stated Carol Burr, the daughter of the couple. “They liked their classmates.”

Ken was treasurer of the committee and opened a checking account for contributions from former classmates used to pay for the reunions. The account remains to be open and pays for lunch for all attending graduates, household and care suppliers.

After commencement, Smiley instantly went to work for T and C truck and coach in Pontiac as a secretary. She labored there for 9 years after which stayed at residence for 17 years to lift her three kids. She went again to the workforce and have become personal secretary for a corporation in Birmingham for 21 years earlier than retired.

“That was precisely what girls did then,” she stated. “We did not get many alternatives to go to the college, so we went out instantly and acquired jobs and I used to be fortunate to be good in my work and labored for 30 years and based a household with my husband Bruce.”

Smiley stated the early days of the reunions had been two or three-day weekend occasions.

“Sooner or later could be a social day the place everybody would come collectively and share time with one another and we’d all eat on the finish of the day,” she stated. “The subsequent day could be the reunion day after which everybody would exit of breakfast the following morning earlier than he went residence. They had been all the time good occasions.”

Their first reunion was within the Oaks membership in Pontiac and over time they held reunions at Deer Lake Athletic Membership in Clarkston, the Kingsley Inn and St. George Cultural Heart in Bloomfield Hills and had their final 4 within the Iroquois Membership.

Smiley stated she is trying ahead to what the final reunion may very well be in entrance of the category.

“I do know it’s turning into more and more troublesome each time, however that is our twelfth reunion and they’re all filled with recollections,” stated Smiley. “This can be the final one, however we’ll see what occurs. I bear in mind everybody and I’ll all the time do this.”

Initially printed: August 20, 2025 at 10:56 am Edt