Roosevelt High School's Class of 1957 is having its 50-year reunion on Sept. 8. In anticipation of this event, alumnus Richard Nostrand has put together a reunion book that paints a class portrait, including the past and how far they have come.
THE RESEARCH
Using a survey he gave to attendants of the 45-year reunion, Nostrand, a retired professor of geography at the University of Oklahoma, began to develop what is now the reunion book.
"I retired in August 2004; anticipating this, I volunteered to create this book at the 45-year reunion and handed out the surveys," Nostrand explained.
"This was an idea I came up with around 2002. I was curious to see what happened to everyone, so I put together a committee and worked on the reunion book for about two years," he continued.
"Most of the work was done by Dick," said Brad Edwards, author of the Neighborhood Changes section. "He was the main editor."
The book contains photos from the 1957 yearbook, but Nostrand said there was no help from the school district in this. "I did send a copy to the current principal [at Roosevelt]," he said, "but we did this on our own."
"We did try to reach the school to get the words to the fight song, but they told us they no longer used the same one," Edwards said. "We said, 'Don't use the same one? How can that be?'
"Anyway, we managed to locate the words from old alumni. It was hard at first, because everyone remembered different words here and there," he added.
An alumnus who plays the piano professionally will perform it at the reunion.
The book also notes that the "Mighty, Mighty Teddies" have become the "Mighty, Mighty Riders."
"I wouldn't call the [research] process difficult," Nostrand said. "I have been a professor for 37 years and done research for a long time. I always wanted to reconnect with former classmates. I left the area in 1962, after graduating from the University of Washington...the year before, and [I] have lived in Oklahoma [since]."
THE FACTS AND FIGURES
The book contains a range of information, including which colleges alumni attended, changes in the neighborhood businesses around Roosevelt, Roosevelt statistics from 1957, a directory of alumni and short autobiographies.
The three appendices include a bibliography, the 1957 faculty list and the survey that was sent out to alumni.
"We had a huge, positive response once the books were sent out," Nostrand said.
"There was also a lot I learned along the way," he added, such as the Time magazine article.
In October 1957, Time published a survey that named the 38 most outstanding high schools in the United States. Roosevelt was the only school from Washington to make the list, according to the reunion book.
"Also, I was able to verify things I knew about, like the high number of students who went to [the] University of Washington from Roosevelt - it was about half our class, more than I expected," he said.
According to the reunion book, 343 Teddies (Roosevelt alumni) from the Class of '57 enrolled at the UW at some point, and almost a third earned at least one degree at the UW.
CLASS PROJECT
The University of Oklahoma published the reunion book.
On the cover, which was designed by a recent Roosevelt alumna, is Teddy Roosevelt in a Chevy, with two co-eds by the car and the school in the background.
"We've had 20 people working on the [September] reunion for a few years," Edwards said. "We expect at least 400 alums; over 360 have registered now."
"There are small groups that are close...in every class," said Nostrand. "Most of the class at the 45-year reunion came in groups, and most are nearby, so it's easy to stay in touch."
Four hundred copies of the book were printed and distributed to alumni. "We tried to also keep track of those Teddies that passed away and wrote a bio about each of them," Nostrand said.
According to the book, 85 of the 750 alumni had passed away by January 2007. Each has a memorial paragraph written by a classmate. The list was compiled by Susan Lewis Ziemba, another one of the main contributors to the book.
The final portion of the book contains the biosketches, short autobiographies by the alumni.
"I went through all of them, but only did minimal editing for consistency and spacing," Nostrand said. "This section was actually an afterthought, about a year into the process. I didn't anticipate it; I had only thought about doing the statistical portion, but the other members of the committee suggested this. So we sent a request for biographies to everyone who had replied to our initial survey by that time."
Nostrand paid for the book himself. "I figured this would be my contribution to the class," he said.
"I made many trips back to Seattle do to research at UW and talk with classmates over a cup of coffee. I have continued to visit my mother, who lives in the area, over the years, but then I didn't have time to reconnect with classmates," he said.
"In the end, I got the most out of it. It was fun to see old friends again."
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