Newberg High’s Golden Gathering Marks 25 Years, Welcomes Class of 1976

NEWBERG, Ore. — Twenty-five years ago, a group of Newberg High graduates who’d just celebrated their own 50th reunion decided one party wasn’t enough. They wanted a standing invitation — one that would go out every year, to every class that reached the same milestone. This August, that invitation goes out to the Class of 1976, the newest members of a tradition now old enough to need a succession plan of its own.

The reunion, known as the Golden Gathering, is open to any Newberg High School graduate 50 years removed from their diploma. It will mark its 25th year Aug. 9, when alumni from the classes of 1950 through 1976 fill the school’s common area to trade stories and meet that year’s scholarship winners.

Golden Gathering organizer Sharon Woodhouse said that even in an age of social media, in-person reunions are important — maybe now more than ever.

“[An in-person] reunion is important because you get to see all these people from your past,” she said. “You don’t only see the updates they choose to share, but you hear it from them and the full stories. You can see them, touch them. Whenever we get together, it’s right back to our high school days.”

A picnic that outgrew itself

In 2001, members of NHS’s Class of 1950 organized what was supposed to be a picnic at a Dundee park for alumni who’d hit the half-century mark, according to the NHS Golden Gathering website. Rain, or planning, or both, pushed it indoors to the Dundee Grade School cafeteria instead. About 250 people showed up anyway — “golden grads,” their spouses, and a handful of former teachers — and the name stuck. Bev Heater Zurcher, a 1950 graduate, organized that first event and chaired the group for its first four years.

Woodhouse joined the group in 2015, when her own class crossed the 50-year threshold. She became treasurer in 2017, but said she never expected to run the thing.

That changed when Ken Carsley, a 1961 graduate who’d chaired the Golden Gathering since 2016, died unexpectedly. Woodhouse had been serving as his vice chair in what she believes was almost a formality.

“He told me our bylaws said we needed one, and that I wouldn’t have to do anything,” she said.

Running the Golden Gathering, it turns out, means more than showing up in August. Woodhouse and a handful of other longtime volunteers now meet three times a year — before the event, right after, and again in the fall — to plan logistics, recruit the incoming class, and keep the group’s scholarship fund solvent.

That fund has grown considerably since its first award: a single $1,000 scholarship given to a Newberg High senior in 2008. This year, the group will award four $2,500 scholarships to graduating seniors, chosen from a pool of 18 applicants. Woodhouse said the selection committee weighs financial need heavily, reasoning that top-ranked students often have other scholarship options.

“We look for need,” Woodhouse said. “There are kids that come from a single-parent home, that have kids at home. It’s important to us that we help those who need it.”

The fund, managed through Edward Jones, holds enough to cover roughly 13 more years of scholarships without another dollar added — though the incoming classes tend to add plenty anyway. This year’s Class of 1976 alone contributed nearly $400 upon joining, Woodhouse said.

For years, the reunion itself was hosted at the cafeteria of A-dec, the Newberg dental equipment manufacturer, through the generosity of Ken and Joan Austin, both NHS graduates. Joan Austin died in 2013; the gathering eventually relocated to the high school itself, where Principal Mark Brown now arranges for current NHS students to help with registration each year.

“Second maybe to graduation, this is one of my favorite things that happens at NHS every year,” Brown said. “Every year I’m blown away by the sheer number of alumni who are 50 or more years removed from NHS come back to be a part of the event. It reminds me about how special Newberg is.”

Brown started working with the Golden Gathering when it was still hosted at A-dec. His initial connection was through his grandfather-in-law, Bill Killen, who was chairman of the Golden Gathering until 2016. But as the former activities director for Newberg High School, he helped organize the student connection with the Golden Gathering, coordinating student photographers to catalog the event, as well as the local cheer team and other students who help Golden Gatherers find their classmates and hand out ice cream.

Brown said that NHS is proud to have such a vibrant alumni community, and hopes the tradition continues even in the age of social media.

“Once a Tiger, always a Tiger,” he said. “Even though you’re not on campus every day, you’re still a Newberg Tiger. We want to support you maintaining those connections and that community. It’s a very special thing.”

Passing it down

At 79, Woodhouse is looking for her own successor — or at least someone willing to learn the job before she needs to hand it off.

“We need to get some of the younger ones to kind of shadow us and see what we do,” she said, “so that then they can step in and I can enjoy myself with my classmates.”

It’s a problem every reunion eventually faces: the people who remember why something started aren’t the people who’ll keep it going. But Woodhouse said the appeal of the Golden Gathering hasn’t dimmed for the classes coming up behind hers, even in an age when old classmates are one Facebook search away.

“You get to see these people, you get to talk to them, you get to touch them,” Woodhouse said. “Whenever we get together, we go right back to our high school days. Nobody talks about what you do for a living, how many kids you have. It’s all, ‘Remember when?'”

This year’s Golden Gathering runs from 1 to 3 p.m. Aug. 9 at Newberg High School. For more information about this year’s event and ways to get involved, visit the Newberg Alumni Community Facebook page.