Oak Bay High in 1963, again...

"Ok, Let's Go Oak Bay...!"

Bays, you have arrived for a second time at Oak Bay High School in 1963!

The Vic. High girls have femptoskirts but Chas wants us to be proud that our cheerleaders still have long skirts. Maybe they were short and made longer, see discussion. He decrees one way traffic in the basement. Jungle John is geeky, has a load of books under his arm and keeps taking pictures. "Wallace and Lund" is not the name of a Vaudeville act...or is it?

Hi Folks,
As most of you know Russ passed away last year. Gini, the love of his life and soul mate, said that she wanted to celebrate Russ' life on his birthday.
Here is a copy of the note she sent to friends via their care page.

Dear Family and Friends,

You are Warmly Invited to Join Loving Friends and Family to Honor

RUSSELL PATRICK TYRRELL (Russ, Ruster, Rusty)

with a CELEBRATION OF LIFE

On the date of his birth, Thursday, May 15th, 2008

At 2:00 PM

At the

CAPITAL CITY YACHT CLUB
10630 Blue Heron Road
Sidney, BC (Vancouver Island)...

I look forward to seeing many of you to help celebrate Russ' life, share memories and help us all to close the circle.

Derek

Well, yesterday I sent out a note with the date of Russ' Celebration of Life event in Victoria.
Gini wondered if the lower mainland folks would be interested in knowing about the lower mainland celebration.
So, I stretched my reading skills to actually read the whole announcement and see the second page where the Crescent Beach event is announced.
I'll figure out the "read the whole note" thing one of these days.
Here is the final part of the note with date, time and place of the lower mainland event.

You are Warmly Invited to Join Loving Friends and Family to Honor
RUSSELL PATRICK TYRRELL (Russ, Ruster, Rusty)
with a CELEBRATION OF LIFE

At the special request of daughters, Wendy and Toby,
and for the convenience of Mainlanders

a second CELEBRATION OF RUSS'S LIFE

Will be held on Sunday, May 18th, 2008

At 2:00 PM

At

BEECHER PLACE
12160 Beecher Street
Crescent Beach, BC (near White Rock, BC)

If you are able to join us, we hope this will help you to
choose the location which best suits your purposes.
If you wish to let us know if you will attend or speak, or if you
cannot attend but would like to send a message, please feel
free to send an email to Gini Russell at: russgin@gmail.com

Derek

I have avoided this email for a long time because it is so hard to write.

When members of our graduating class pass on it is a vivid a stark reminder of our mortality.
Today, I must sadly tell you of the passing of two more of our classmates: Rick Stokes and Russ Tyrrell.
I did not have any contact with Rick after high school, but according to the obituary he spent his career as a teacher on the lower mainland, had many friends. His obituary notice follows:

Russ, I managed to keep in contact with over the years and am able to say a little more. The joyous personality stayed with Russ throughout his life.
He retained his many close friends from his youth and made many more over his life. His fight against colorectal cancer was a valiant two year battle where he managed to maintain his humour, good will and as much zest for life as was possible in a difficult life threatening situation. His bravery, humour and zest for life and love never deserted him. Gini, his love, his partner and centre chronicled their battle in the most intimate, loving and personal way throughout the course of the two year battle. If I may, I'll just quote a couple of lines from Gini's care pages:

"It's been said that the measure of a person's life is not how long they lived, but the effect they had on people and how they touched them. Russ had no idea, and was truly touched, in turn, by the kind sentiments and outpouring of support, from old and new friends over the years, and especially these past few months.

Russ took his greatest joy from life's simplest offerings. He had a good life and had no regrets. He felt sad for the children he saw in the cancer clinics who might not be so lucky. How he courageously dealt, for two long years, with the challenge of incurable colorectal cancer has affected us all in a profound manner.

Russ was a quiet person, but managed to attract a lot of attention from an early age and for the rest of his life. He had a delightful, quick wit and it gave him great joy to bring laughter into people's lives. His one-liners endeared him to all who met him. He had an innate talent for fixing things and it also gave him great satisfaction to share his wisdom with those willing to learn.

For 24 wonderful years, Russ and Gini Russell (Parker) treasured every day with each other - their loves of their life, best friend, and life-partner. She cried for him - to have such a beautiful life cut short. Together, they felt incredibly lucky to have such a love with whom to share their dreams and adventures, no matter how short the years together. Russ raised his stepdaughters, Wendy Russell and Toby Russell, from the ages of 12 and 10, was very proud of them and, to them and their partners, he was a father, a joker, a mentor, teacher, a confidant and a friend. "
Russ died Oct. 30, 2007.
RIP my friends. You will be missed.

On that note I'm outta here. Chronicling class activities just isn't fun any more.

Derek

To skip on into all the photographs of O.B.H.S. back in the 'sixties, use the buttons top and bottom.

I.I.S., which it must be said had served well indeed for two years, has been supplanted by Apache. Apache is the h.t.t.p. web server originally written for use with Linux and sweet it is. It is a well thought out, flexible and potent open source program.

If you should have any difficulty, please advise your webmaster and server wrangler.

Can you hear yourself saying: "Who the hell are these guys. I didn't go to school with white haired old men!"

The 1963 tribe gathers once again. This is dinner for the class of 1963 before the O.B.H.S.' 75 year dance.

Reunion Committee Members:

_ The reunion was a triumph of planning and execution right down to laying on perfect weather. Lynda Poyntz had the perfect location for the Friday reception, we had full access to the school, a great photo gathering and then a superb dinner and dance.

_ If you were there then you had a good time Tell the webmaster about it and we can make that public right here. If that email address produces a problem, default to

_ Are there enough of us left and sufficiently mobile to gather in a Victoria restaurant one evening each year and do a dinner? Comments can be posted here for discussion.

Newcomers:
Press "TOC" to go to the Table of Contents. In that Table of Contents, select the first page within "Introduction". You will be transported automatically to the first page of the Introduction. When you arrive at "Introduction", read on by pressing the right hand "Page" button at the end of each page. The introduction just gives a bit of background to the site to come. When it becomes wearing, just "press" the nearest "TOC" button again and skip directly to the photograph album pages.

[Time goes by...]

Thus spake the O.E.D.

Oldtimers:
You old hands, go to "TOC", pick a page and "nostalge" shamelessly!

john@munrotechnical.com