My first high school reunion — the 10-year one — happened right after I lost my sight. I didn’t go.
I haven’t been to any since then, either. Friends and family members who go to high school reunions tell me it’s hard to recognize old friends when you can see them. Blind at a high school reunion? I’d feel like I was a punchline.
Back in high school I was in the marching band.
I was a scrawny girl in my teens, and I wore overalls nearly every day. I hoped they’d camouflage the shapeless undeveloped girl hiding underneath. Wire-rim glasses with octagon frames helped me see where I was going, and braces did their best to straighten my teeth. I never had a boyfriend, no one asked me to prom, and I was just unsophisticated and inexperienced enough to think of those four years as fun.
Know what? I still do. I had a ball during my time at York Community High School in Elmhurst, Ill., and many of my closest friends today are kids I met there.
Few of us did anything you’d call admirable, though, and when Mike first read me a letter saying I’d been selected one of York’s “distinguished alumni” I thought it was a mistake. When he got to the part that said the award was called “Dukes of Distinction” I dismissed it as something silly.
I was wrong on both counts.
The Dukes of Distinction award ceremony is an annual grand affair with a string orchestra (York students, of course!) and this year it will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday night, Nov. 6 at York Community High School, 355 W. St. Charles Road in Elmhurst. Two of the 2014 honorees will be awarded Posthumously: Dr. Martin Stoker (Class of 1939) worked with patients in Elmhurst for 48 years, and Joe Vanek (Class of 2003) is a veteran who died in Iraq in 2007 and was awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. The others:
- Dr. Robert T. Chen (Class of 1973) is a medical researcher working on the AIDS vaccine at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
- John Coughlan (Class of 1960) is a retired college coach who was once named NCAA National Indoor Coach of the Year.
- Gary Rydstrom (Class of 1977) is a sound engineer who works at Lucasfilm’s Skywalker and has won seven Academy Awards for Sound and Sound Editing.
- Kathleen Sherman (Class of 1970) is a real-live singing nun who is committed to working for non-violence, especially in Chicago
And then, me. Maybe it was a mistake after all. Or maybe The Dukes of Distinction judge loves dogs. But hey, however it happened, I’m in!
They’re serving free cake and beverages at the ceremony, Whitney and I honest-to-goodness get to walk on a red carpet, and event organizers tell me Les Zunkel (the longtime colorful director of York’s musicals) will be on hand as “stage manager” to guarantee no speech lasts longer than three minutes. I especially look forward to meeting these other honorees — we’re returning to York the next morning to talk with students while class is in session.
So mark your calendars for Thursday, November 6 — the ceremony takes place in a room at York High called the York Commons, described to me as “a beautiful indoor 2-story atrium area that you may remember as the outdoor courtyard.” It’s free, no need to make reservations, you don’t have to be a York graduate to attend, the public is welcome, doors open at 7:00 and the ceremony starts at 7:30 p.m. — let’s make it a mini-reunion! Just remember to tell this Duke of Distinction who you are when you come up to say hello. In exchange, I promise I’ll picture you the way you looked 38 years ago.
You can link to Elmhurst Community Unit School District’s web site for longer bios of this year’s Dukes of Distinction winners. You’ll find photos there, too, in case one of the other DODs has a name that sounds familiar…
Beth, that is awesome! I may try to stop by to watch. I remember you as being so much fun who was kind to everyone. You deserve this achievement.
Congratulations, Beth! A well deserved honor for all of your accomplishments and just for who you are. York is rightly proud to call you an alum (as I am to call you my friend).
Thanks, Terri and Nancy — you make me feel good!
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You look great in your band uniform playing the chimes in the 1975 Memorial Day Parade. DOD!!
Ha! I bet I do. Look great, I mean — those uniforms were so becoming. Thanks for coming up with the photo, Cheryl. Love, DOD
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Beth, congratulations on your award. It is great to see you recognized for all that you do. Your stories and interactions touch so many people and make a difference in their lives. Well deserved!
Congratulation, Beth. I can’t think of anyone more deserving of this honor than you. Enjoy!
Thanks to Laura, and to you, Hank, for the kind comments. But Hank, I’m guessing the reason you can’t think of a more deserving person is because you think you don’t know any other graduates from York Commuity High School…!
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Congratulations Beth! Elmhurst was lucky to have you, as the writing world is today.
Congratulations Beth! I’m proud of you! Annette Stumpf
PS nobody asked me to the prom or other dances either! I went to one homecoming dance where i asked a boy (Jody someone who was a gymnast) and it was awkward. We didn’t miss anything. I think our band parties were much more fun. 🙂
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Isn’t it telling that you can’t even think of his name now? And you are so right: those band parties were fun. And funny, too.
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Congratulations! How lovely that your high school honors alums in this way. And OF COURSE they picked you to honor.
Yeah, they just started doing this last year.
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You totally deserve this honor for all of your many accomplishments, if only Mr. Reimer could be there! So proud of you and Matt would be too! I will be there to cheer you on at the ceremony and meet Whitney. You made high school fun for so many of us.
Oh, that’s one of the highest compliments you could give me, Joan, saying I helped make high school fun. And you know I thought of Matt right away when I got word of this award. He would have come up with some twisted way to refer to the Dukes and Distinction words ala D’Artagnon from –Three Musketeers!? But let’s be honest, if Matt Klir were still here *he* would be up on the stage, he was a very talented guy. I plan on mentioning him my 3-minute speech, especially since one of the other honorees is working on an AIDS vaccine. glad you’ll be there to hear it.
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Your memories of Matt make me smile. No doubt he’d be in the front row for this event. That’s Matt.
I just might contact his sister Crystal, she lives in the Chicago area. Maybe she’d come…?
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Beth, I am going to make a point of being there! Congratulations! I did attend our 10-year high school reunion and one of the moments that stuck with me was reading that you had lost your sight. So glad we have reconnected after all these years. And as for the York High courtyard, Beth, if you could see it, you wouldn’t recognize it.
What? You mean the blocks of sidewalk we painted when we graduated aren’t there anymore?
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Beth, I was sure that was me you were describing right down to the no prom date status. You are so deserving. Wouldn’t it be funny if Whitney’s name was Duke ? I hope to be there to share in the celebration.
Hard to blieve that a delightful imp like you didn’t get asked to prom, Nancy. What were those high school boys thinking?
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I’ll be there if only to witness you limiting your speech to 3 minutes. Looking forward to visiting with lots of home town friends!
I think once I get done naming all the family members who also graduated from York my time will be up. SO GLAD YOU’RE COMING, BEV!
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Of course I will be there! You really deserve this–
Are you bringing Gary Eide with you?!
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Greetings Beth-
Looking forward to seeing you again — and catching up on your literary world.
What a coincidence — I look forward to being with you again, too, so I can thank you.
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Congratulations Beth! I am looking forward to the prestigious Dukes of Distinction event and will be there to cheer you on. As a fellow non-prom-goer, I seem to recall us having an anti-prom event one year, too. So many fun memories. I also love it that Gary Rydstrom is being honored and is so successful. And to hear the melodious tones of the string orchestra will definitely take me back. See you there.
Yes, I think we often had more fun than the prom-goers. I know that in my senior year Matt and I pooled all the money we would have spent on prom and bought a pair of front-row tickets to see Elton John instead. I wore the red, white and blue halter-top bridesmaid dress (needed falsies to keep it up) from my sister Marilee’s 1976 wedding to celebrate Elton’s recent “Philadelphia Freedom” hit. Matt wore a tux, of course.
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Dear Beth,
You shall ever be an inspiration. Congratulations! You are a Duke of Distinction and inspiring role model to future high school students and to us all.
Sincerely,
Rudy J. Lubov rjlubov@aol.com rlubov@pdaonline.org 312-282-0459 cell
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How terrific, Beth! A deserved and fine recognition.
Thanks, Lois. If you look closely at the date and time for this event, you’ll see that I just might be wearing my fancy dress to memoir class that Thursday –may need to head to Elmhurst right afterwards — I’ll have you check that my tags are all inside and everything…
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Congratulations! I can’t believe you haven’t always been as beautiful as you are today! (As a teen I longed for scrawny! I was always too padded.!) I do believe you had fun, thoughit WAS great! All that giggling and figuring things out and catching on to jokesand growing UP! I loved High School and still remember names and names and names and something about almost everybody.Sweet old friends.Just babies really, but who knew? What was waiting for us? What ever would happen? How we would work things out? When we talked all night at slumber parties and wondered and wondered and wondered.xooxothanx! as we used to say.judy wood (spock)
Oh, Judy, you are such a poet. I may borrow some of these lines for my speech. Thank you!
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Congratulations Beth! I didn’t know there was a DOD award, makes perfect sense you’d be an honoree. BTW, I’m also a member of the “didn’t go to prom club”. I’m thinking those dances couldn’t have been much fun without all of us there! 😉
Ha! I love your take on the prom thing, Mary — come to think of it, I bet you’re right!
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Always knew you were distinguished. Glad they are making it official!
Hmmm. I can think of a lot of words people have used to describe me. Somehow “distinguished” never came up. After November 6, though, that’s gonna change….!
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Wow! How exciting! You have always been a FOD ( Finke of Distinction) to us, but especially nice to have York recognize you too!
When’s the FOD banquet, then…?
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Beth, congratulations. I will certainly be there to witness you receiving the well deserved honor. You sitting next to me in Journalism is one of my fondest memories of my time at York. I just remember laughing with you the whole time.
We did hav fun, didn’t we? Glad you’ll be coming to the event, I hope we can make *that* fun, too. And distinguished, too, of course…!
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Congratulations! Love your band picture, too. Proud to know a Duke of Distinction!
Mike just told me that my band picture doesn’t support my claim of wearing braces and glasses — that photo was taken in the 1976 Memorial Day parade, I was a graduating senior then and had saved all the money I’d made working behind the counter at Ace Hardware in Elmhurst (and waitressing at Marshall Field’s in Oak Brook) to buy contacts, my braces were off and I was starting to “blossom.” But why am I telling you all that?I’m sure the band uniform shows off my curves.
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Hi, Beth. Congratulations on your Dukes of Distinction honor! I posted about it on our York ’76 Facebook page (attached)…many of our classmates are excited for you. I wish I could be there in person at the reception to celebrate with you (I live in the New Orleans area). Enjoy!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/87582811907/10152793689421908/?notif_t=group_comment
Oh, Sal, you are so involved with York Alumni stuff I just assumed you live near Elmhurst. Rats, I was hoping you could be there on November 6. Gee, guess Mike and I will have to come visit you in New Orleans to show off my plaque….THANKS for the thoughtful message, and, especially, for sharing the news on FB.
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You are very welcome, Beth! Perhaps Mike can take a ton of pics so I can post them on our FB page? And by all means please come down…my wife Deana would enjoy meeting you as well! Take care and God bless you…I’ll definitely keep in touch! 🙂
Congratulations–from a fellow marching band geek. You have done well!
Band dorks unite!
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Beth,
Congratulations!! , It’s fantastic that you’ve been honored and clearly well deserved.
Dan Greenberg
Oh, Dan, so fun to hear from you — I still remember days with you and Cathy Ripkey….!
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Congrats!
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