On Sept. 13, 2025, the Grant High School graduating class of 1965 gathered at the Colwood Golf Center to celebrate their 60-year reunion. Nine hundred and seven students graduated in 1965, making them nearly twice the size of Grant’s current graduating class and one of the largest classes in the school’s history. As could be expected, a significant number showed up to commemorate their most recent milestone.

Brian Newkirk, the reunion chair, and his classmates began planning for the reunion in July. “It was fun because you got to work with people who you knew from 60 years ago,” says one of his co-planners. A sense of finality accompanied the reunion as they celebrated their impressive milestone. “Not to be gruesome, (but) due to the real issues of aging and ill health, this may likely be our last reunion, so we’re gonna have a whole bunch of fun,” writes Newkirk in the lead up to the event.

Among the crowd were star high school athletes, accomplished artists, activists and veterans. Notable alumna and actress Sally Struthers, known for her roles as Gloria Stivic in “All In The Family” and Babette Dell in “Gilmore Girls,” joined in on the festivities. Reunion events began Friday afternoon on Northeast Fremont Street for “Elementary School Friday” and concluded Sunday morning with a tour of the remodeled Grant. Alumni gathered from far and wide to see old friends, a changed city and a new school.

Portland has evolved since the ‘60s, and shops that used

to house Grant kids after school have been lost in the forward motion. “Two blocks from school, there used to be a restaurant called Yaw’s,” says Struthers. “And we would all, on a Friday night or Saturday night, pile in cars and go to Yaw’s drive-in … you could order all of our favorite thing, which was french fries with gravy and a Coca-Cola … We would all eat our french fries and Coca-Cola and be yelling at each other. That was the place to go.” Though Yaw’s Top Notch no longer exists, Struthers appreciates the familiarity she still feels when visiting her hometown. “What makes me happy is that in many ways, in the good ways, it hasn’t changed,” she says. “I mean, the sincerity and the honesty of people and old friends, and the willingness for anybody walking by you to say hello or to smile and not give you a look like they think you’re crazy.”

Others have noticed challenges that didn’t seem to be present 60 years ago. “For me, it doesn’t feel as safe as it used to,” says Paul Mackie. “Nobody felt threatened, nobody felt like they were on a street they shouldn’t be on, and I don’t think that’s the case today.”

With over 955 students over the four years, the size of the class was a result of the post-World War II baby boom. “When my brother started

here, it was two weeks before we saw each other in the hallway,” says Judy Devet. Current Grant students have been forced to attend class in the Hollyrood building across the dog park. The class of ‘65 experienced something similar, but with even less space to expand. “They turned the coat rooms and the old gyms into classrooms,” says another alum. While overcrowding is generally seen as an issue at Grant now, the alumni don’t reflect on their large class as a problem. “There’s so many friendships that I still have with the Grant people,” says Cliff Fairley. “Even though I was the biggest nerd there ever was, and there were still so many friends for me.” With so many students, there was a place for everyone. Struthers has stayed in touch with her high school friends frequently since graduating. “It’s a joy to stay in touch with your old friends. They know you from when you weren’t even fully formed in your heart, in your mind and your opinions,” says Struthers. “I feel really fortunate.”

High school in 1965 was entirely different from what Grant students experience today. Growing up in a post-war generation dictated the culture that surrounded students’ adolescence. “I was a kid with a lot of feelings, and post war, there wasn’t room for feelings,” says Mackie. “So I realized that I was in a growing discussion around why feelings are important.” War was present in their own lives as they watched peers leave school to serve in Vietnam. “We had a lot of men who enlisted … because the draft was out there, and people didn’t want to be drafted,” says one alum. “Because you’d be military, you’d be armed … It was hard times.” Students who passed away during the Vietnam War and in the years since were memorialized at the reunion in a display honoring those who could not be there.

On Friday afternoon, friends gathered at Amalfi’s Italian Restaurant to connect with elementary school peers. Faubion PK-8, Beaumont Middle School, Beverly Cleary K-8 (previously Fernwood), the now closed Kennedy School, Sabin Elementary School and Alameda Elementary School, all of which fed into Grant, were represented, along with The Madeleine School and the former St. Charles Parish School. “These are always the most fun kids to see,” says an alumna of Beaumont and Grant. “When we’re at Grant reunions, I found that I would always end up gravitating back towards the Beaumont kids throughout the evening, because these were the kids that we were children with.” Alumni recalled the longevity of these connections, persisting throughout high school and laying the foundation for the years to come.

Saturday held the main reunion event: a dinner at the Colwood Golf Center, complete with karaoke and an abundance of stories. Displayed were newspaper clippings, ribbons and yearbooks from 1965, tokens of the class’ legacy.

Apart from their surroundings, the students of the class of ‘65 have gone through great changes in the 60 years between high school graduation and their reunion. “I’m married to a classmate,” says Marianne Sutter. “I didn’t anticipate getting married, for one thing, (and then I got married) to my high school sweetheart.” Marriage, careers and life were all yet to be experienced. Even students as successful as Struthers weren’t sure what direction their life would go in at 18. “I thought I’d go to medical school and I would follow in (my father’s) footsteps,” says Struthers. “It wasn’t until I got to my junior year of high school that I realized that there was no way I could be a doctor because of the fact that in science class (at Grant), I got physically ill when I was asked to dissect a frog and a cow’s
eye. I said to my mother, ‘If I can’t even do that, how am I going to work on a cadaver for a year?’ … She was the one that said, ‘Well, why don’t you be an actor?’”

On Sunday, alumni returned to visit their school in a tour guided by Principal James McGee. Many had not had the
chance to see Grant since its remodel in 2019. “It looks pretty different,” says Fay Shoup, Grant graduate and Ms. Oregon Senior. Many of the staircases, along with the exit signs and the old gym floor were repurposed throughout the new school as an homage to what
came before it. “I get excited when I recognize something,” says Judy Devet.

As the alumni visited the new facilities, they reflected on the programs that impacted them most when they were students. Some remember English classes especially, because students had the option to take a class dedicated to the study and production of Shakespeare’s work. Participation in the class had a minimum GPA requirement, and two productions were put on each year by the students. Other students recall chorus as their favorite activity in high school, which Grant students now know as choir. Fairley was a member of the choir at Grant and went on to become a choir director. “I was a math major in college … but it was a mistake. It should have been music,” says Fairley. He stayed connected to the Grant community through his daughter, who attended elementary through high school alongside Grant’s current choir director, John Eisemann. “I am a choir director, and I think I’ve known almost every choir director at Grant since I was there. And I would have to say that he is the best they ever had,” says Fairley. Grant’s choral legacy lives on in the Royal Blues, remaining one of the school’s most renowned programs for over 60 years.

Grant’s class of 1965 left a legacy still remembered 60 years later, but they were left with a legacy too. Their formative years spent in the hallways of Grant and neighborhoods of Portland shaped their lives and persons in ways they may never have imagined. They serve as a window into the future for Grant’s class of 2026.