Alumni flock to Aragon’s 50th

From Alaska to Idaho to just across the bay, Alumni from all around the country traveled to San Mateo last week to celebrate Aragon’s 50th Anniversary. The attendants ranged from recent graduates to members of the first graduating class.

On Friday night, Oct. 14, Aragon held a 50th Anniversary football game against South San Fransico (for coverage of this game flip over to page 16). Alumni were invited to the mezzanine level for a bird’s eye view of the game. Many commented on how the Aragon Football team has improved since their time at Aragon.

Many of the alumni noted the improvement in facilities as a major difference between the football program of their day and today’s. Sharon Woodward, class of 1964, said, “First of all, you got bleachers. We’d have to sit on the field. You have grass or turf. There was a lot of dirt in ’64.”

Speaking about the quality of play, Frank Park, class of 1963, the first graduating class, noted, “You guys have a team; we didn’t have a team. When it came to sports, I assume that it took a few years to get it together.”

On a similar note, Dave Baumann of the class of 1967, who played football, said, “We were an expansion school … We didn’t really have our feet on the ground. And then you read in the paper every now and then that we’re winning titles and championships.”

The next morning, alumni were invited to take tours of the campus. Many marveled at how parts of the school were virtually indistinguishable from the images from their high school memories. Laurie Brown from the class of ’69 said “The girl’s locker room is exactly the same.” Others were surprised at the huge changes to the school. Mike Wood, who graduated in Aragon’s first graduating class in ’63, says “When I came here, you could see over the trees in center court.”

As alumni roamed the halls of Aragon, they spoke about their memories from their teenage days. Lynne Abell from the class of ’70 said “we used to, after school, take blocks of ice and put burlap on them and race down the hill in front of the school.”

Furthermore, alumni often laughed when passing by the new pool. Historically, the pool was the setting of various pranks. “In 1967, some people filled the whole pool with pumpkins,” said Abell. She also recalled “one time there was a Volkswagen on the room and one time [there was a Volkswagen] in the pool.” John Farris from the class of ’66 recalled that his senior year, “everyone came to school in the morning and there was a tombstone in the pool.”

Center court was also a site of many memories. Farris said “there was a senior hill and a junior hill where, during lunch, you could only eat on the hill if you were a senior or a junior.” Wendy Kunz from class of ’76 met her husband on the center court field. “We met here at Aragon… making out,” she said. The couple has been married for 33 years.

After eating lunch and talking with friends, all the celebration participants gathered in the library for the Faculty and Staff Annual Hall of Fame Induction. Every year, five former faculty are inducted into the Aragon Faculty and Staff Hall of Fame. This year, the five inductees were Don Hill, Peter Lawrence, Bob McLean, John Mahaffy, and Margene Noyes.

Saturday night, people were invited to attend a banquet at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

For the next three hours, graduates and their friends enjoyed music, food and dancing. California Assembly Member Jerry Hill presented Aragon a resolution as part of its fiftieth anniversary.

Coordinators Heidi Bowman and Lorna Kelbe were approached by Principal Kurtz and Assistant Principal Mahood six months ago to organize the event. Initially they debated on having it the previous year, but decided to integrate it with the Hall of Fame Induction.

Klebe says “We wanted to celebrate Aragon as a community treasure. It defines the neighborhoods around it. We wanted it so that everyone could acknowledge this.”
Despite the initial difficulties, Bowman was excited at the turnout. She says “There were 250 people at school during the day and more at night. Considering we have 17000 graduates, 5000 would have been nice, but we have 350 people here tonight and that’s great.”

Additional credit for this article goes to Taylor Westmont, Brandon Liu, Sangwon Yun and Sabrina Imbler.

Photo Gallery by Kore Chan and Sam Alavi