Lincoln High School grads come to Manitowoc to celebrate rare 65-year reunion

MANITOWOC – In June 1958, Bill Hackbarth and his classmates accepted their diplomas from Lincoln High School. It was shortly before the hula hoop craze began. Elvis’s “Heartbreak Hotel” was playing on the radio and the U.S. launched the NASA space program.

“It was an exciting time,” said Hackbarth. “I remember going to drive-in restaurants and running around talking to friends. Everyone who was anyone was there. This was way before social media. We were a very social bunch.”

That need for connection continues for the Class of ’58. They recently celebrated their 65-year reunion, meeting in Manitowoc for a week of good food, good conversation, golf, a city tour and more.

“I can’t tell you how much it meant to me and the others to see each other and catch up,” said Hackbarth, who lives in Appleton and was chairman of the event’s planning committee. “At our early reunions, it was more of ‘look at me, bragging thing, here’s where I work or what I have achieved.’ Now, all that bravado is gone. Now, we are all the same. We just care about each other and are interested in each other.”

Of course, these classmates are now 82 to 84 years old. They have more gray hair and more health problems. According to Hackbarth, there were 397 in his graduating class, and about 200 have passed away.

He and his fellow committee members were able to track down the names and addresses of 171 others. About 30 couldn’t be traced.

“We looked online, we asked people who were friends with them or might have been related if they knew what had happened to them, but in June, we stopped and sent out invitations to those we had,” he said.

Statistics show about 30% of folks typically will attend high school reunions — typically the folks who were involved in athletics, clubs or academic activities, Hackbarth said.

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That number held true, with 49 classmates — and 31 guests — attending the Class of ’58 reunion. About 40% came from the Manitowoc area, and 60% from farther away. Two came from California.

“We talk about things we did together, the jokes, the incidents that happened,” Hackbarth said.

Alan Boeldt lives in Manitowoc and served as master of ceremonies for the reunion. He’s served as emcee for six of the 15 reunions he’s attended.

“It’s like being with family,” he said. “It’s a wonderful feeling, for all of us to be in our 80s and still able to travel and see one another. We were reacquainting ourselves … where are you now? What have you been up to? Just the reality of, ‘Here we are after 65 years, we are still friends and in each other’s lives. It was very moving.”

The class feels fortunate the beautiful brick school and iconic Lincoln tower still exists, even as the inside of the building has been renovated over the years. Of course, there are many more students who drive their own cars to school than there were more than six decades ago, so parking lots have expanded. But Boeldt still remembers his time serving as homecoming king on those same grounds after his high school girlfriend was crowned homecoming queen.

“People chuckled about that at the reunion,” he said.

Lynne DeHahn flew from Santa Barbara, California, to attend the celebration. She’s attended most of the class reunions. She and her husband owned a place in Door County for years and would visit Wisconsin in summer. She also has family in the area.

“My husband is from Massachusetts and he really likes Door County and Wisconsin,” she said. “I like it, too, just not the cold weather. We enjoyed the reunion and the tour of the city. There’s really been a lot of development in the past few years, which is good to see.”

She was quite active in high school — as a member of the swim club, editor of the school newspaper, an exchange student, and a number of other clubs and organizations.

“It might have been a few too many things,” DeHahn said with a laugh. “I was very busy.”

She’s kept in touch with a few classmates over the decades, and said those relationships are important.

“I think your priorities change and older things and memories mean more to you as you get older,” she said. “As our group gets smaller, you realize how important it is to keep the memories alive.”

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Not to be a wet blanket, but that group size is only going to grow smaller.

Insure.com asked Wakely Actuarial, based in Palm Harbor, Florida, to crunch numbers on average death rates for the American population as a whole to help determine a ballpark number of classmates in any given year who won’t be around for their next reunion.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Social Security Administration, Wakely found that, on average, a graduating class of 330 seniors could expect the following number of classmates to die:

• Three by the 10-year reunion;

• Seven by the 20-year reunion;

• 15 by the 30-year reunion;

• 32 by the 40-year reunion; and

• 70 by the 50-year reunion.

Learning of a classmate’s death is a sad reality for the Lincoln Class of ’58. Boeldt, who is a deacon, said he’s done several funerals for classmates. And many who haven’t died can’t come because of medical issues.

The class thought its 60th-year reunion in 2018 would be its last. But then in the fall of 2022, someone on the planning committee called someone else, and the wheels began to turn.

He said they all enjoyed the 65th-year event so much they plan to meet again next year.

“It’ll be smaller and very informal,” Hackbarth said. “But when we asked for a show of hands of who would be interested in meeting next year, all the hands when up. So, we will definitely do it again.”

Contact reporter Patti Zarling at pzarling@gannett.com or call 920-606-2575. Follow her on Twitter @PGPattiZarling.

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc Lincoln High School Class of 1958 has rare 65-year reunion