Hoover High graduates from class of ’37 host gathering

Ten members of the Hoover High School class of 1937 gathered at the La Cañada Flintridge home of classmate Tom French.

The group of friends meets for lunch every three months at a Glendale restaurant.

Except for two of the friends who are 93, the rest are 92. All but one continue to drive and all are active in community organizations, travel, present-day politics and hot topics and family life. They often reminisce about the “good old days.”

Among their accomplishments, French designed his home around two native oak trees and plays piano by ear. Philip Rush is a retired Navy Captain and visitors come from Washington, D.C. each year. Leslie Jonkey, a former Lockheed engineer, designed and built an elevator in his beach home. The women in the group maintained careers on top of raising their families.

Inez (Smith) Truger and Tom French met in the first grade at Eugene Field School. Leslie Jonkey and Clara Mae Tronowsky met in the second grade at Columbus Elementary. Tronowsky is a former Glendale school teacher. The others all met at what was then Eleanor Toll Junior High School and at Hoover High.

A few of the friends who missed the gathering because of other commitments were Carmela Paonessa Hicks, Dorothy Fuge Atkinson and Don Perry.

Clara Mae Tromowsky