The Lincoln High School Class of 1970 held our 52nd Reunion on August 5th and 6th with a tour of the “new Lincoln” building and an evening of dinner and reconnection of classmates at the Stockpot Restaurant at Redtail Event Center.

Under a tent on the warm summer Saturday evening, the class caught up with each other’s diverse lives, watched a slide show of vintage photos and enjoyed a buffet dinner. Class of 1970 Classmates, many of whom are 70 years old this year, enjoyed sharing memories of our time at Lincoln more than 50 years ago. Over 80 classmates attended this highlight of the reunion weekend. After half a century, the class spirit was strong, and a good time was had by all.

The Class of 1970 donated $1,423.56 of class funds from the proceeds of previous reunions to the Lincoln High School Alumni Association to build capacity for organizing reunions for other Lincoln High School classes. In receiving the gift, the LHSAA Board said: “Being a non-profit organization, we depend on alumni donations and involvement within our association to provide the beneficial services and programs established for all members of the Lincoln community. Thank you for your generous contribution to the LHSAA.”

The 52nd weekend started on Friday with a step behind the construction tape onto the beautiful and innovative “new Lincoln” grounds. A group of 40 classmates met in the Commons of the new high school. Building Tour Committee Chair Meg McGill welcomed the group and asked each person to describe a positive memory of a “place” in the old school.

Class of 1970 Reunion Chair Greg Leo presented Principal Peyton Chapman an “I Miss Abe” T-Shirt from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, IL, provided by classmate Dr. Tom Tarter in appreciation for the superb new school tour. The tour of the impressive new facility was led by Principal Chapman, who has been instrumental in the design and construction of the ‘New Lincoln.’

1970 Classmates were impressed with the carefully designed and abundant state-of-the-art resources at the core of this modern, high-tech, urban high school. The state-of-the-art library, complete with a counter made from the wood of a tree from the property, spoke to the heritage and craftsmanship, blending the traditional with the modern, a theme that connects Lincoln’s legacy with its bright future as a place for future generations of ‘Inspired, Global Thinkers’.

Submitted by: Greg Leo, Spring Student Body President, 1970, 52nd Reunion Chair, 2022

August 5th ~ Classmates on the 1970 Class Reunion private tour of the new Lincoln High School 

       

Event planners (pictured from left to right) Holly Sidesinger Menefee, Cheryl Delashmutt Sommer, Ken Eagon, Pam Sandberg Lemire,

Leigh Mills Wilson, Meg McGill, and Greg Leo celebrated over three years of work to coordinate their twice delayed reunion. 

Other Class of ’70 volunteers who worked on the events included Cathy Saito Yarne, Gail Hartvig Morse, Lynn Metz Chase, Sue Borgensgard Blindheim, Jeff Krausse, Betsy Peets, Eileen Cowley Sargent, Debra Hagen Baldwin, and Gail Bowden Wade.  

I takes a village to put on a reunion!

In loving memory of our classmate and friend

Dr. Neil Talbot Jumonville, LHS Class of 1970

October 7, 1952 – September 8, 2022

Neil Jumonville had the rare gifts of intellectual understanding, social responsibility and charm. Initially an LHS drop-out, he and Tom Tarter hitchhiked around Europe in the summer of 1970. When Neil returned to Portland, he rose like an academic rocket, first at PCC, then Reed, Columbia, then Harvard, for his second MA in History and Ph.D. in history. He was one of the top experts on the cultural history of the radical left in NYC in the postwar period. His book "Critical Crossings: New York Intellectuals in Post-War New York" set the standard for this period of American Cultural History. During his time at Columbia, Neil wrote for the Village Voice, developing a style that defended ideas of cultural inquiry and challenged the status quo of political and intellectual thought. Neil had a first-rate mind which he used daily to challenge orthodoxy, question conventional wisdom and refine his understanding of the cultural core of American life.

At Lincoln, Neil wrote for the Cardinal Times and was the center of a group of friends who adventured, learned together and ran in a tight pack - Leo, Tom Tarter, Phil McKinney, Don Davis and Dixon Shaver, and others. Now only Leo, Tarter and Davis survive. I remember the summer job where we stacked automobile tires in a warehouse in Northwest Portland, made tolerable only by running banter of quips and jokes. Neil worked on a brush-clearing crew for parks one hot sticky summer. He was no stranger to hard physical labor and reveled in a good basketball game, his Thursday pick-up game being a lifelong discipline he took from Lincoln to every campus on his journey.

During the 1989-1990 Academic Year at Harvard, Neil took me under his wing. He recruited me into the Senior Commons Room at Dunster House, where every Thursday night, I tutored undergrads in Government and Politics in exchange for a hot meal. We had several fine evenings with the graduate students of the History Department, eating potluck and debating the great themes of American History. Neil was the ringleader for these academic seekers and collaborative fun with his "Algonquin table," like a collection of emerging intellectual leaders in American History, culture and politics. We picked apples on crisp fall weekends, enjoyed Boston's summer concerts, and savored the many speakers, presentations and intellectual conversations at the long tables of the Dunster House Senior Commons, which are at the cultural core of the Harvard experience. Whenever Neil organized an outing, it was guaranteed to be fun! He pressed the outer limits of inquiry with a critical eye, clever wit and a wry smile. This is how I choose to remember Neil; it was my friend at his best.

The tragic irony of a man with so great an intellectual gift dying of Alzheimer's, slowly losing his brightly polished mind over an eight-year battle, breaks my heart! I remember Neil's wry smile, his genuinely funny quips and the empathy he felt for others, rather than his painfully slow decline into the shadows. Rest in Peace, my friend, your life of inquiry and service has made the world a better place.

Greg Leo, Spring Student Body President, 1970