MHS Class of ’77 plans four-day reunion

     Organizers of the Monticello High School Class of 1977’s 40^th class reunion wanted to mark the milestone in a special way.

     To that end, Dave Haag, Nancy Corbin and Susie (Linn) Pillard planned an entire weekend of activities and invited some special guests to the main event banquet.

     The weekend starts with a “meet and greet” at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 30, at Hillside Sports Bar & Grill in Monticello. Next is a canoe float on the Maquoketa River at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 1. On Sunday, July 2, a golf outing at the Monticello Golf Club at noon precedes the traditional banquet and dancing at 5 p.m., also at the Golf Club. Events culminate on Monday, July 3, with a tour of the Monticello Middle School, which housed grades seventh through 12^th when the class graduated. Following that will be a catered “hot lunch.”

     The organizers said the four-day itinerary served two purposes: To set this reunion apart from past gatherings that featured only one event, and to give classmates more options so if they couldn’t attend one event, they may be able to attend another.

     As for the special guests, former faculty members and classmates who did not actually finish with the MHS class for various reasons were invited.

     Pillard, a retired teacher of behaviorally-challenged students in the Linn-Mar School District who lives in Central City, was keen to the faculty idea.

     “I originally said as a teacher, I thought it would be fun to be invited back,” she said.

     Haag got the ball rolling for the reunion the week after the 35^th reunion in 2012, at which he was “volunteered” to be the organizer for the next one by booking the Golf Club on the same night the Alumni Banquet was to be held.

     “But when the Alumni Banquet went away, we kind of had to shift gears,” said Haag, referring to the discontinuation of the longtime tradition a few years ago.

     Haag recruited Corbin one day last year when she stopped to pay a bill at Spahn & Rose, where Haag is branch manager. Corbin – who lives in Sandefjord, Norway, but has been back in Monticello for two years caring for her parents, Bill and Jane Corbin – in turn recruited Pillard.

     The planning for the reunion began in earnest in January with the three meeting a couple of times a month and increasing the frequency of the meetings as the reunion drew closer.

     “We should have started a year ago, but we’re managing,” said Corbin, who has experience planning in her career with Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

     Haag was tasked with finding classmates’ addresses, while Corbin and Pillard tracked down the teachers, even making rounds at local coffee shops to sleuth out where they live now. Classmates Phil Lambert and Greg Kromminga also helped with various tasks.

     All of the 102 surviving graduates (eight have passed away) were reached and more than 40 will attend at least one event, as will about a dozen former faculty members and as many former classmates.

     “We’re looking forward now to having everyone come together to reconnect and just enjoy being together after 40 years,” Corbin said.

     The MHS Class of 1977 has established a website: https://tinyurl.com/y8twguhr.

     Terry Coyle, MHS Class of 1977, is night editor at the Portage Daily Register and Baraboo News Republic in Wisconsin.