My 1970 Class Continued - Part XI

Gotta say, that compared to the class ahead of us, the numbers exploded in our peer group, and the trend continued for quite awhile.

Here are some more members (more to come), and as usual Left to Right, Top to Bottom:  Mary Tass, John TenHaaf, Ted Vanderlaan, Ron Van de valk, Ron Yanch, Doug Zochodne

Kathy Seaver - Snow Queen

I fired this sequence of frames at the Winter Carnival dance where Kathy Seaver (who is a cousin to me by marriage) was crowned Snow Queen.

A tearful Kathy Seaver talks to an unidentified person. The student at the right is Cathy Rush.

Jim Lamb was the master of ceremonies. The student on the right is Liz Fitzpatrick.

The student on the extreme right is Cindy Germanis.

Kathy is congratulated by Tim McKenna (left) and John Ten Haaf. The year was 1972

John Ten Haaf at Graduation

John Ten Haaf at his graduation from OCHS.

Senior Basketball

Back Row: Chris Montgomery, Mike Slierings, Andre Grotenhuis, John Ten Haaf

Front Row: Joe Fitzpatrick, Pete Neal, Art Chai (coach)

My goodness, there wasn't a very deep bench in senior basketball. I think that there is one substitute available for all the positions.

My Graduation

This is my graduating class. We were arranged in height from shortest to tallest girls, then from tallest to shortest boys. You can see that Yvonne Jensen was the second tallest girl and Joan Downey was the tallest girl. John Ten Haaf was the tallest boy, followed by Andre Grotenhuis, Mike Ivanco, Ted van der laan, Gerald Coe and Rocco Ambra.

In the very front row are Mr. and Mrs. Yanch. They were generous in supporting the school in many ways, including sending their children there. They also endowed it with their money. That year was a good year for me. I was presented with the J.A. Yanch Scholarship Award as Outstanding Male Graduate, and the R.S. McLaughlin Award for Academic Excellence. Those two cash awards contributed to my university education, and it was truly appreciated.

Blocks Of Classmates

These blocks of photos are classmates of mine. We shared most of our high school years together.

Ted Van der laan, Ron Van de valk, Roman Yuen, Doug Zochodne

Victor Suppan, John Ten Haaf, Sue Vitali, Ron Yanch

Physics Hubbub

This was one of the more interesting scenes in my school career at OCHS. Jiri Jelen the teacher at the right of the photo, taught physics. He was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia. He spoke softly and was heavily accented. He never had a commanding presence at school. He favourite line was "I did not become a teacher to be a policeman".

Unfortunately the class dominated him. There was always a din of voices. It was mob rule in Grade 12 physics. Mr. Jelen had his revenge.

At the end of the school term, one could be exempted from final exams upon the discretion of the teacher. By the time that we reached Grade 12, most of us were good enough students to be exempted and most of us were. After all, OCHS in the early days was a brains factory. In this photo alone, is a future: Mayo Clinic professor of medicine, a chief scientist for the country's nuclear power program, a high school science teacher and a government functionary.

At the end of the year, Mr. Jelen exempted exactly two people. One of them was me, and the other was Doug Zochodne who is not pictured here. Doug is a research physician and a professor of Neurophysiology.

Pictured here from left to right are Liz Fitzpatrick, Mike Ivanco, Shawn O'Driscoll, Bert Hoefs, Kathy Kowalski and John Ten Haaf with Mr. Jelen behind the desk.

Copping An Attitude

John Ten Haaf appears to cop an attitude with Victor Suppan (back to camera) at a high school dance. Lynn Belton is in the background.