Class of 1961 didn’t let COVID stop them from catching up

Something we all learned during the 2020 Pandemic of COVID-19 was the fact that we had to come up with alternate means to communicate with people that we were so used to just meeting up for a cup of coffee or taking annual vacations with. There are 9 classmates from the Class of 1961 who didn’t let COVID-19 get in the way of checking in with each other. Since the coffee shops were closed and pretty much everything else, classmates Bob Marrett, Burley Phelan, Alan Westerfield, Ralph Basham, Joe Kurre, Doug Wood, Ed Jones, Tom Dunbar and Buzz Van Meter knew that if they wanted to keep up with each other, they had to discover Zoom and make the most of it. They got together every week via Zoom since COVID ruined their annual trips to Pigeon Forge and St. Simons Island, GA and it’s like they never missed a beat.

Unfortunately, Dr. Joe Kurre passed away in October of 2020 and his dear friends wanted to honor his memory with a plaque for the Wall of Remembrance that hangs right outside the Chapel at OCHS. They also added an engraved leaf on the Tree of Life that hangs in the OCHS main office. ♠