“This was the best,” said one alumna!
Catholic Junior High in Anchorage began construction in 1961 – the same year the first humans left the earth and the Peace Corp was created.
Sister Joel was assigned there three years later. She fell in love with Alaska and her seventh-grade students. There were 12 Sisters of Providence there at the time, remembers Sr. Joel (now known as Sr. Susanne Hartung.)
The school closed in 1969 as a high school and junior high but that’s no reason to skip its 58-year reunion! Last year, a committee formed, determined, and almost succeeding, in finding every one of their classmates from 1964.
It was such an exciting and wonderful event at the home of one of the former students, relates Sr. Susanne. Several traveled many miles by air and car to attend the May 2022 reunion. Special tribute was given to the around two dozen alumni who had passed away.
“I was afraid I wouldn’t recognize these 70 year-olds but name tags helped and I easily remembered them,” says Sr. Susanne. “The stories they told of my teaching abilities were hilarious.
“In reality, those seventh graders were responsible for teaching me the skills of teaching,” she said.
