By Paul Rolly

     Sixty years is a long span of a lifetime.

     Sixty years separated the War of 1812 and Reconstruction, the Spanish American War and the Vietnam “conflict,” the Roaring Twenties and the Reagan conservative revolution.

     For the Skyline High School class of 1966, the evolutions over 60 years were stark. Beta bangs were replaced with attractive bald. Beehive hairdos were definitely out. And the membership of the class had dwindled from the largest graduating class in the history of Utah (825) to 621. The classmate count was lowered by 204 deaths. The attendees of the 60-year reunion counted 121 (including spouses), 100 less than the 221who attended the 50th reunion. Eighty-five members have passed in that 10-year span.

    Those who attended the open house at Skyline were treated to a new school, replacing the building that opened in 1962. And for the first time, we could roam the halls of Skyline without dodging large garbage barrels placed throughout to catch the rain water from the leaky roof.

    The dinner at the Cottonwood Country Club the following night revealed memories of those long-ago times still held strong. While classmates’ appearances had changed a bit over six decades, most were easily recognizable (with the help of name tags bearing our high school yearbook pictures). There is something about high school memories that seem to hold more dear than most (with the exception of marriages and the births of children and grandchildren).

     During our high school years, we were searching for our identity. It’s when we wanted to be accepted. To look cool.

     That doesn’t seem to matter now. We’re more assured of ourselves than we were then. What did matter was mingling with the lifelong friends we made when we were packed into the same building with each other for three years, six or seven hours a day. It also gave us a chance to meet up with folks we hadn’t seen since the Johnson administration.

     Some lifestyle changes have definitely marked our generation with lightning-fast advances in technology and our ideas about culture, politics and personal priorities.

     Since high school, we have gone through the revolutionary concept of self-service gas stations introduced by Gas-a-mat with its 25-cent tokens for a gallon of petrol - to the oil embargo of the 1970s and its resulting two-hour lines to fill up tanks - and now to the strait of Hormuz.

     After high school, our generation was thrown into the turmoil of Vietnam and the resulting college protests.

     One of our favorite social studies teachers, Shirley Cutler, started a philosophy club which explored many controversial issues and competing ideas.

 A few years later, when many of us were in college, she was visited by the FBI. Some of those philosophy club members were involved in anti-Vietnam protests and the feds wanted to know if she had been radicalizing her students to become subversives against the government.

     Some things haven’t changed. Skyline had been rated as one of the best academic schools in our day. And it still is. We regularly had championship debate teams under Maj Sylvester. Sixty years later the Eagles still reign as debate champs.

     Our class witnessed the beginning of football greatness which eventually led to numerous state championships over the years. After a recent drought, Skyline seems to be inching up to the powerhouse level we enjoyed many times before.

     One thing we learned by touring the school during the reunion is that Skyline no longer has lockers. Everything is stored on laptops the students carry in their backpacks. No more brief cases.

     Another difference is attire. Most students now would have, in our day, been sent home by Mr. Pizza to change out of their shorts and come back with long pants or appropriate-length skirts.

     The reunion dinner at the Cottonwood Club featured a video outlying our times as youth in the 1960s. It was narrated by classmate Tom Bock, who began his long career as a radio and television broadcaster when we were in the ninth grade. That video was produced several reunions ago and Tom wasn’t available to narrate the necessary updates, so reunion committee member Linda Packer Vincent was able to make seamless changes using AI, a concept we could have only imagined by watching Star Trek.

     One of the many gifts bestowed on us from attending Skyline was the exposure to so many disciplines and career paths drummed into us by excellent teachers.

     Many of our eventual careers were launched in classes such as physics, medicine (through biology and chemistry), politics, government, carpentry, cooking, drama, journalism, art (I’m thinking of you Lonni Wallace Swanson) and music (Clive Romney).

     The Skyline class of 1966 has had its share of doctors, dentists, attorneys and educators. We have had two city mayors (Mike Peterson in Cottonwood Heights and Bill Muse (RIP) in Boulder, Utah, where he trained quarter horses.

     Some of us, in our less than noble moments, made fun of Col. Dunn’s Civil Air Patrol, walking through school attired in uniforms and somewhat standing out. One of those cadets, Lee Caldwell, had a spectacular career. Caldwell reached the top echelon of the military, business and academics.

    After earning several degrees, including a Ph.D., Caldwell was an Air Force Pilot and flew the last group of refugees out of Saigon before it fell in 1975. He was a top executive at IBM, Hewlett Packard and Novell and was a professor and top administrator at Sam Houston University, Utah, Indiana, Georgia Tech and, finally, served as president of Dixie State College.

     Other notable careers included David Finch (RIP), who was a six-time GT2 Class champion in race car driving before forming his own company designing competitive race cars.

     Steve Crane (RIP), an architect, was one of the designers of the state-of-the-art Salt Lake City Library, which received international recognition.

     Jack McDonald was a Division One college football referee for 35 years, the last 20 as a replay official in the booth where he worked several bowl games, including the 2015 national championship game between Ohio State and Oregon. And, as typical for that job, he received several death threats.

     Suzi Maughan was, among other things, a gold miner. Jeanette Wheeler (RIP)worked as a fur trapper in Alaska and as a cook on a Norwegian freighter.

     There are many interesting life stories since we flipped the tassel 60 years ago. But we’ve done that. Our focus now is living long enough to see what great successes our grandchildren - and perhaps our great grandchildren - will achieve.