50-year reunion of Corona del Mar High’s first graduating class includes return to the school it helped shape
When Corona del Mar High School opened in 1962, it had no mascot and no anthem to sing at school rallies and games.
Establishing a school history fell into the hands of the first students to set foot on the campus, which at the time had just three academic buildings, one administration office, one gym, a track and some tennis courts.
Now, members of Corona del Mar High’s class of 1966 — the first students to graduate after having attended the school for four years — will be welcomed back for 50th-anniversary tours Sept. 23 to see where history has taken the campus. About 50 of the grads are expected.
The tours, which will be led by current students, will be part of a series of reunion events arranged mainly by four members of the class of ‘66: Pam Mattson-East, Jerry Hornbeak, Kathy Hitzel and Greg George.
“We’ve always had reunions, the 10th, the 20th, the 30th … and we’ve always had a little group that brought it to our attention,” Mattson-East said.
Hitzel, Hornbeak and George have been involved in planning previous reunions, and this year, Mattson-East decided to be part of that group. They began planning this year’s events in January.
“We’re getting to that age where we’ve lost a lot of people [classmates] to cancer or accidents, and that’s just the nature of life as you get older,” Hitzel said. “We’ll be glad to just be together and remember the times we had.”
In addition to the tours next Friday, alumni can have dinner and drinks that night at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach; lunch on Sept. 24 at Zubie’s Dry Dock in Huntington Beach, followed by dinner and dancing at the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach; and coffee and breakfast on Sept. 25 at the Hyatt.
Mattson-East and her classmates voted in the early ‘60s to make the Sea King the school’s mascot. Hitzel remembers other options included a dolphin, but, in the end, the Sea King ruled.
“It is very rewarding to see that the school where we were the first students has grown and is a thriving high school today,” Mattson-East said. “We were at the grass roots and gave the school its first traditions. They continue, and that brings us joy.”
Of all the memories the reunion’s four organizers have of their days at Corona del Mar High, none is as vivid as when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
Hornbeak recalls the announcement of the president’s death echoing through the campus’s loudspeakers around lunchtime and there being silence everywhere at the school. He helped the audio-visual department cart televisions into classrooms so students could watch the news.
Mattson-East remembers the quad — the school’s central courtyard — as a place for pep rallies and ceremonies.
In 1966, the graduating class of 480 students fit into the quad for their commencement ceremony, after which some moved on to college while others went to serve in the Vietnam War.
Since the ‘60s, the campus has experienced several facelifts, including completion of the middle school in June 2014 and a new theater later that year that includes a “green room,” or performers lounge, and a place to build sets.
The high school currently has about 1,800 students; the middle school about 850.
Though next week’s reunion events are mainly for the class of 1966, members of other classes are welcome to attend. Those interested can email cdmhs1966@gmail.com.
Twitter: @AlexandraChan10
