Web site developed by the Grad Classes of 1962
of Kelowna, BC, CanadaCentral Kelowna School District #23
Graham Street Primary School, Dehart Avenue Primary School,
Martin Avenue Elementary School, Glenmore Elementary School
Raymer Avenue School, Glenn Avenue School, Central Elementary School,
Kelowna Junior High School, Kelowna Secondary School,
St.Joseph's Elementary School, Immaculata High School
UPDATE: for renunion 2024
Our Kelowna class of 1962 reunion
will be held lakeside at the Okanagan Mission Activity Centre
at 4398 Hobson Road, Kelowna
Saturday, July 20th, 3 pm to 8 pm.
chairperson : Lynn Armeneau.
phone # 250-764-8449
email: lynnarmeneau@monasheemfg.comPlease bring your own refreshments and food.
See you in Kelowna July 20th. 3 pm- 8pm..
Okanagan Mission Activity Centre
The're cumin' by horseback, the're cumin' by bicycle, The're cumin' with old motorcycles..
By golly , the're cumin' in big numbers to the 2023 Homecoming in Kelowna....
See you there good friends.....
Yes friends, even more showing up on bicycles today....
"Drive" the Okanagan time machine
from Penticton to Kelowna in 1966
"Drive" the Okanagan time machine
from Kelowna to Vernon in 19662022
reunion Photos now
available.
2021
reunion cancelled
due to Covid-19.2020
reunion cancelled
due to Covid-19.
2019 Photos now
available.
click here.
2017 Photos now
available
click here.
2016 Photos now available
click here.
2015 Photos now available
click here.
2014 Photos now available.
click here.
2013 Photos also available
click here.2012 Photos also available
click here.2011 Photos also available
click here.
Check out the "Old Kelowna"
facebook page
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Click amywhere on the images above
for our current weather by James...
Two old-geezers from the 1961-62 KHS Golden Owls basketball team make an appearance at the 2016 reunion. (Ed Slater and Hans Garsch)
Check out your home town's current weather.
Not too shabby to come home to for sure.. James.
The address to the Kelowna Class of 1962 for the 50th reunion banquet at the Kelowna Golf and Country Club on Saturday, August 4th, 2012 by Mr. Wayne Marsden. Ladies and Gentlemen. I make no distinction between the actual graduates of KHS'62 and all others here this evening. It turns out we're all in this together anyway!
A valedictory address is a speech of farewell. The address I made 50 years ago turned out not to be a farewell speech after all, nor will this one be, I trust. Apart from some military or professional school, it would be difficult to find a group of graduates who have remained in such close contact over the years as to allow the organization of such a splendid and well-attended reunion as the one we celebrate tonight. I continue to be amazed at the energy and capacities and thoughtfulness of our organizing committee and all those who assisted them in matters great and small.
For months, Heather and I have been enjoying the old photos on the Reunion website. Thanks to James for hosting the site, and thanks to all who sent those old class photos, from Gr. I through XII, they inspired hours of reverie and reminiscences about those golden years in Kelowna, culminating in our graduation in 1962 from a school which now exists only in our memories and connections with old classmates.
So, this is no valedictory at all, but rather a speech of joyous reunion, a full half-century run in our life-courses since shaking Mr. Bruce's hand on the KHS stage so many years ago.
Our joy must be tempered however, by regret for the loss of those of our classmates whose lives did not extend to this anniversary. That list is already too, too long – yet all the more reason to appreciate our fellowship here tonight.
We KHS grads of 1962 have a lot to celebrate – we were born near the end of a horrific war, but grew up during years of seemingly endless optimistic prosperity, each year better than the one before – this year a refrigerator, next year an electric stove, the year after that – TV! Black and White, of course, but still – television. In 1950, when we entered grade one, horses were still pulling milk and ice delivery wagons in Kelowna. In 1962, just twelve years later, Yuri Gagarin andJohn Glenn had been in orbit around the earth; soon we would be on the moon. In fifty years? Mars, Jupiter and beyond, no doubt. We witnessed real progress during our school years and had no reason to believe that everything would not just get better for all of us, including by this year – flying cars! Alas, the future we have arrived at is not the one we dreamed of back in 1962. No colonies on Mars – no flying cars! On the other hand, our dark fears of a future blackened by nuclear war or Communist conquest did not materialize either. Although the results are not final, Walmart China seems an improvement over Maoist China.
Our hometown of Kelowna, the province of B.C., and the Dominion of Canada have all been especially prosperous and happy places during our time – our lives undisrupted by war and depression, or by civil unrest and natural disaster. We are the planet's favorite children – Life's lottery winners. Perhaps some of you attended a graduation ceremony this year, to celebrate with a niece or nephew or grandchild. I've noticed that although the production values have increased, the celebration of loved ones' successes remains the same.
Imagine yourself now at our own '62 event. Folks your present age could have been your grandparents. They would have graduated 50 years earlier, in 1912, into the iron teeth of the Great War and the killing fields of France and Flanders. They returned to a bustling but now permanently uncertain world, which careened into the Great Depression and then the war we were born into – WW II. Our lives have not been like the lives of those 50 years our senior – we knew not the flying bullets, or the soup-lines, or the terror of war. Yet history leaves no one untouched – whether people live in terrifying or placid times – whether one becomes a CEO or a mill-hand, whether world traveler or homebody, every life course, however complex or simple, will provide one with ample opportunity to learn the important things in life – the hard way. All mankind seems united in this – we all insist on learning life's lessons the hard way.
In war, or at peace, one learns about fear and discovers courage. Whether wealthy or poor, gains and losses come in their turn. Whether famous or humble, one learns about true friendship, and false. All of these lessons, these truths, we learn the hard way. But finally, we learn them.
“We are learned” to quote Homer Simpson.
Fifty years of life experiences have shaped and tempered and transformed us all, in ways we could not possibly have imagined. I, for one, feel blessed for the opportunities life has afforded me, and my school years in Kelowna were a part of that blessing.
From the nurturing Miss Dewar and Mrs. Moore of Raymer Avenue to the more strenuous years with Miss Jacobsen and Mrs. Burbank of Central Elementary saved by the avuncular Ab Greenaway, whose old classroom has been preserved as a museum – a museum! If you visit the classroom – don't sit down, they may make you part of the exhibit!
Then Mr. Bunce's Jr High with all its memories, and finally Mr Bruce and Barwick's KHS, a desolate site now, but alive in our memories. I laugh when I recall the good times with old friends back in the day, whether in Walt Green's chemistry class or Gino Porco's Billiard Emporium (as Walt called it) across from the Arena. Whether at the Rendezvous or the Milky Way Cafe, whether at the Aquatic or the A&W out at Capri, sudden and unscheduled meetings with friends were always welcome.
In the days before tweeting and texting, before even cell phones, if you can remember that, running into friends and going to places where you might run into friends was the highlight of most days. So it's wonderful to be running into all of you here tonight – it really is the highlight of my summer.
As I marvelled at our 40th Reunion, the incredible spectum of lives lived by you splendid fellow graduates is a tribute to your ambitions and hard work, and also a testament to the often thankless support we received from our parents and families, and from teachers and friends throughout our school careers. Often, without the special help of one of these, we may not have stayed the course.
We are the golden children of a golden place and time; we should share this living wealth with each other and with our families and communities. May we continue to reunite and refresh our old friendships. I look forward to seeing you all at the 60th!
Wayne Marsden, KHS Class of 1962 Valedictorian,
August 4th, 2012
InMemoriam page.. click here
Sadly, many of our teachers and classmates
have now passed away.
They may be gone, but never forgotten.
If you have not already done so: PLEASE
ADD YOUR CURRENT CONTACT INFORMATION WITH US TODAY
by clicking on this link. and ask ALL your classmates buddies to do the same.
Thank you from the Kelowna Class of 1962 Organizing Committee
Our most current name and address list of the classes of 1950- 1962 click here.. 
The list also has their school class photos.
by Mr. Harry Almond,
deceased: July 2nd, 2014, Kelowna, BC
Welcome to the Sixties;
The senior years,
Perhaps a transformation
Of demeanour years?
Welcome to the Campbell years;
The 'scape from scramble years,
The yearn to amble years,
The do it now
Because there are no later years!
Welcome to the Sixties;
The leaner, meaner years,
The toothless, soothless years,
The joyless, boyless years,
The eat less, meatless years,
The what the heck years.
Who knows?- Perhaps the glory years.
Welcome to the new realities.
A change of pace,
A scorn of old banalities.
Welcome to the Sixties;
The put them on the shelf years,
But also the
Let's not give a damn years.
Welcome to the Grandmama years,
The can I still wear this style years,
The no I can't but yes I will years.
Welcome to the shorter nights,
The longer days,
The which day is it years.
The does it matter- Oh
Lets go golfing years.
Welcome to the Sixties:
The pottering in the garden years,
The nattering to the neighbour years,
The everything seems more labour years,
The limpid, lazy, langorous, lotus years.
Welcome!
Harry Almond, June 22, 2002
James Anderson and the KHS- Immaculata Reunion committee
by Marshall Jones, Kelowna Capital News, February 10, 2002
Reunion Committee Members;
Maxine (Purdy) Chouinard, Fran (Gisborne) Farr, John Kelly, Barb (MacPhail) Williams, Mary (McKinstry) Hamann,
Lynda (Bazett) Would, Mary (Hallisey) Durose, Bill Thompson, Jim Anderson, Lynn (Carr) Armeneau, Norma (Robertshaw) Lupton