Note new reunion date

GHS ‘68

REUNION UPDATE NEWS

You want NEWS?

I’ve got News, Good News, and GREAT NEWS!

Great News first.  You’ve probably been following Gator football, wherever you are.  Well, the only team in Gainesville with a better record now than the 11-1 Sugar Bowl-bound Gators is your UNDEFEATED Gainesville High Hurricanes!  Right now they are 13-0 and in the Class 6A (largest classification is 8A), State Semifinals this Friday.  They won their first playoff game by the dominating score of 60 – 3!  Shades of the Niblack years!

ESPN recently rated this year’s Hurricanes the 16^th best high school football team in the U. S. A. !!!

Good News next.  Your Reunion Committee is planning a great 45^th Class Reunion.  If you came to the 40^th, or wish you had, you’re really going to like the 45^th:  golf, motorcycle ride, tours of GHS and our old Gainesville haunts, good music, good food and fun. And high school classmates and stories galore!

That brings me to the Update – this is what you needed to hear.  Best laid plans, right?  After setting the date a year in advance, a conflict with our reunion plans still developed and we had to take action.  The Steering Committee voted to move the Reunion forward (later) by one weekend, so that the new Reunion date is June 28-30, 2013.  We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this causes you and we sincerely hope this change does not present any conflicts for you that you cannot resolve.  We want you to come.

SO HERE’S THE HEADLINE –

GHS ’68 – 45^TH REUNION – JUNE 28-30, 2013

ONE WEEK LATER THAN ORIGINALLY PLANNED.

PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THE WORD.

We are re-finalizing the plans and filling in the details.  We’ll send them to you in the spring so you can send in your reservations.  In the meantime, you can follow classmate news and reunion plans on Facebook at www.facebook.com/#!/GainesvilleflHighSchoolClassof1968  and on the Reunion Blog site atwww.ghs68.blogspot.com .  Check us out!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, and See You at the End of June!

Your Reunion Steering Committee

Susan Hazen Balloon        Jackie Cooter Hoover        Jim Conner        Bill Harlan        Robbie Davis ‘77

 

RIP Gary E. Stanley, Ret. GYSGT U.S.M.C. My brother Gary died last night while officiating a high school football game in Ft. White. He was a true hero to me, a big brother, a man who fought for his country and would fight to his death to defend this country. he was a brother, father,son, uncle and grandfather and his family meant alot to his. he died doing what he loved (sports) SEMPER FI MY BROTHER, till we meet again. To his friends, they can contact me at 850 510-6978

THE GHS CLASS OF 1968 MOURNS WITH YOU JON. GARY WAS ALWAYS AS SPECIAL PART OF OUR CLASS AND WILL BE REMEMBERED AS A PRECIOUS FRIEND TO US ALL. 

Teddy George's mother, Lucille, has died.

Lucille Cairns George

In Memoriam

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• "The board of the Historic Haile Homestead mourns the..."
  - Karen Kirkman

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Lucille Cairns George, 96, died August 18, 2012, at her home in Gainesville surrounded by her family.
Mrs. George's antecedents were among Gainesville's earliest residents. Great-grandfather Dr. Stephen F. Harvard came from Thomasville, Georgia in 1855, ten years after Florida was granted statehood. His entire family save one perished in the yellow fever epidemic of 1871. Grandfather Charles Axson Colclough came from Sumter County, S.C. in 1875 and became a prominent businessman, planter and civic leader. It was in his house at University Ave. and N.W. 1st Street (now gone) that Mrs. George was born May 12, 1916. The present-day Colclough Hill neighborhood in south Gainesville is the site of Mr. Colclough's former planting interests. He was a founding member of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and the Gainesville Country Club. There are several stained glass windows in Holy Trinity given by the family, including one restored remnant that sur-vived the fire of 1991.
Mrs. George's parents were George Holloway Cairns and Lucile Colclough Cairns. Mr. Cairns, a native of Oxford, Missisisippi, was Gainesville's first City Engineer and first City Manager. He installed the brick streets that you still see today in downtown Gainesville, and they were recognized nationally as among the best of their kind at that time. Mr. Cairns' father, Dr. George Adams Cairns, had taught during the mid-1850's at the East Florida State Seminary in Ocala, which was the forerunner of the University of Florida.
Mrs. George attended Gainesville schools and graduated in 1937 from Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, where her mother had preceded her and her daughter Beverly would later succeed her. She then studied at the University of Florida College of Law, receiving her law degree in 1940. After graduation, Mrs. George was employed in the Trust Department of the Atlantic National Bank of Jacksonville and clerked for Circuit Judge John A. Murphree. She was invited to clerk for Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice H.L. Sebring but declined because of her impend-ing wedding. In 1942 she married Theodore S. George, a native of Pennsylvania who was on the faculty of the Mathematics Dept at the University of Florida. Her husband's career then re-quired them to move out of state for several years to Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Patrick Air Force Base (Florida). They returned to Gainesville in 1956 when he became Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University. In 1969-70, they moved to Honolulu where Dr. George served as Scientific Advisor to the U. S. Commander-in-Chief-Pacific, who at that time was Admiral John McCain, father of the present-day Senator.
Mrs. George was well-known in Gainesville for her community activities and sociability, serving on many boards and in elected offices: Junior League of Gainesville (Board member 1961-62); Junior League of Greater Sustainers (President 1971-72); Spring Pilgrimmage (Chair 1985); University of Florida Women's Club (President 1963-64); Florida Museum of Natural History Associ-ates (Board 1985-89); University of Florida Art Gallery Guild (Board 1980-84); Gainesville Garden Club (Board 1987-90); Historic Gainesville, Inc. (Board 1990-95); Thomas Center Associates (Board 1987-90, 1996-2002); Evergreen Cemetery Assoc. (President 1988-89 and Director Emerita); First Presbyterian Church (Session 1996-99). She was a member of the Skippers social club and Gainesville Country Club.
At First Presbyterian Church of Gainesville, she served on the Session Personnel Committee and Property Committee, and she was, at the time of her death, the member of longest-standing, having been born into the church in 1916, where her father was Director of the Sunday Schools.
In 2002, Mrs. George was honored by the Florida Supreme Court in a special ceremonial session as one of Florida's First 150 Women Lawyers. A plaque with the engraved names was hung in the Supreme Court Chambers.
Mrs. George loved to travel and had many international trips with her husband during his various consulting sojourns and later with friends from Gainesville and with her children, including a trip to Russia at age 85. She was "a happy person," as she once described her father, and loved people. She was very attached to her hometown of Gainesville and had many many friends, to whom she was loyal and devoted. The 1871 epitaph in Evergreen Cemetery for her great-grandmother, Latitia Harvard, could as well be said of her:
She was a loving wife, a devoted mother,
And a Friend to All

Mrs. George is survived by daughter Courtney Hyers (Kemper) of Manakin-Sabot, Virginia, daughter Beverly George of Gaines-ville, Son Theodore George of Atlanta, and grand-daughter Courtney Cairns George of Gainesville. During her last years, Mrs. George was assisted by many fine caregivers, and the family would like to make special mention of Imelda De Leon and Glenda Mattair for their kind devotion over many years. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to First Presbyterian Church of Gainesville, where a Memorial Service will be held on August 23, 2012, at 11 AM. MILAM FUNERAL AND CREMATION SER-VICES 311 S. Main Street Gainesville, FL 32601 (352) 376-5361.

Obituary for Eddie Herb, '68 class mate

HERB, EDMOUND

Edmound Jerald Herb Jr. (Big Ed) died of liver cancer December 9, 2011 at home in the arms of his beloved, surrounded by friends and loved ones. At Thanksgiving he stated that he had made his peace with God and was ready to join Him. Although he had shown interest in several different religions, he declared himself a Baptist.

Ed was born in Lake City July 29, 1950 and lived most of his life in North Central Florida. In his youth he was a member of the Boy Scouts, the Four H Club and the Future Farmers of America (FFA). His FFA teams won many competitions. In 1967, the land judging team won the state competition and went to nationals in Kansas City. He never lost his appreciation of livestock and gardening and enjoyed going to the Florida State Fair in the last year of his life.

Graduating from Gainesville High School in 1968, Ed played football for the GHS Purple Hurricanes. He earned his bachelors and masters degrees in rehabilitation counseling from the University of Florida. He was a Florida Gator fan. He worked for the State of Florida at Tacachale and the Department of Corrections as a mental health counselor.

He loved to fish and kayak the waterways of Florida. One memorable trip was getting stuck overnight on the Oklawaha river surrounded by hundreds of glowing alligator eyes. Traveling was another love. In May of this year he was thrilled to get to the Museum of Natural History in New York City to see the African animal collection of Teddy Roosevelt. In 2007 he marveled at the monarch butterfly migration in Mexico.

He enjoyed riding his Honda Goldwing in his last months.

For twenty five years Ed was sober by the grace of God with the help of the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. Generously sharing his experience, strength and hope with those seeking recovery from addictive illness, Big Ed helped hundreds of others get and stay sober. His influence was evident in the outpouring of love and support from the Gainesville AA community in the last weeks of his life. As people shared stories about Ed with his family, they got to learn a heartwarming side of him they had not been privileged to know.

Ed is survived by his mother, Edna (Townsend) Herb; sister, Rena (Jack) Ackley; nephews Benjamin and Jacob (Seanor); numerous cousins and his beloved, Annie Opuda. His father Edmound preceded him in death.

Ed was buried at Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery where he will be visited regularly by wild turkeys and sandhill cranes.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 7 at 2pm at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship church, 3536 NW 8TH Ave Gainesville.

Donations in his memory may be made to Haven Hospice, the Alachua Conservation Trust, Mayo Clinic or North Central Florida Intergroup.

Published in Gainesville Sun from January 4 to January 5, 2012