Orem High Class of 1987

Introducing Our New Facebook Page

2011-02-27T09:17:00.000-08:00

We've started a Facebook page as a place to talk about and plan reunions. You can find a link to it over there in the right column.

As we start thinking about a 25 year reunion, we hope this page will help us find people and come up with a time and place that will work for as many people as possible.

Come "like" the page, let us know what you think about a 25 year reunion, tag yourself and your friends in the photos we've uploaded from past reunions, add your own photos or do whatever it is you do on Facebook.

The Old and the New

2010-06-19T07:19:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, on the last day of school, Orem High asked people from the community to come and help move things from the old school to the new one.

They had a great response and by the time I got there, they were nearly done. I moved some costumes over and then just wandered the two schools and took some pictures.

You can see all the pictures in this Picasa Web Album, but here are a few:

The new school meets what's left of C gym.

Looking west down D Hall

The lounge with its stylish tiger print bench covers.

The main hall in the new school. The tan of the lockers just doesn't have the same zip as the 20 coats of tiger blue on the old ones.

In fact, some folks took old locker doors as mementos.

The main entry of the new school with the cafeteria and mezzanine on the left.

The old, the new and the honey bucket.

The old school store.

Looking east down E hall.

I think I had geometry from Mrs Browning in this room.

Dan Miller's biology classroom. Dan is still there, in fact he seemed to be in charge of organizing the move volunteers.

Looking south from E hall.

The Unified Studies classroom.

A gym.

B gym looking good--as always.

How many computers where there in the high school when we were there? This is one of several computer labs in the new school.

Dance Class.

The new weight room is a bit of an improvement over the one we used.

I don't want to say they were disrespecting the past, but I did find trophies in some weird places in the new building. I expect they will find a more permanent home once the dust settles.

Even the current students seemed impressed with the new building. Actually, he's probably just trying to decide if he can get into the duct work through that hole.

Mr Downs in his new digs.

Mr Wakefield's new room.

Many of the rooms in the new building have some great views, but...

Mr Miller's corner office may win the prize. You can't tell from this picture, but he's got panoramic views of Timpanogos and Cascade.

A new home for Mr Mower's taxidermy.

A view of the main entrance from the mezzanine

New art room.

A space for the choir.

And one for the band and all their trophies...

including this one from 1987.

In the past week or so they've started to tear down the main portions of the old school in earnest. I have a few pictures of that that I'll post later.

Oh Boy! more construction photos

2009-03-21T20:30:00.001-07:00

I took the kids on a walk around the old school last week and took a few photos.

The kids loved playing on the tennis courts and the bleachers and riding their scooters down the ramp behind the cafeteria, but were a little timid about walking past the signs that said, "Construction Area Do Not Enter." Rather than tell them how disappointed Joe Mackay would be, we pretty much stuck to pictures from outside the fences.

You can see a slideshow of some of the pictures below or see larger images by clicking through to the album.

Maybe I'll go back later and see if I can get some close ups. Joe, if you're out there, let me know when you are available.

Plans for the New High School

2009-03-14T06:25:00.000-07:00

Watching the growing bulk of buildings at Orem High School got me curious about just what the place is supposed to look like when it's all done, so I poked around online a little and found a few things.

This PDF on the school's website included a map of the plan that looks something like this (click the image for a larger view):

Here's a page from the website of Naylor Wentworth Lund Architects, the firm that designed the building. It includes a few renderings of what the finished product should look like on a day with dramatic clouds and semi-transparent students.

From the high school's website, a page with links to several renderings of the new building on a much less exciting day.

And finally, just for fun, from the high schools website, a now out of date picture of the construction from the air:

OHS v2 Going Up

2009-02-19T20:27:00.000-08:00

I had plans to take and post pictures of the progress of the construction at the high school, but it hasn't happened.

This evening I had a chance to stop by briefly and take a few shots. If you click on the images you should be able to see a larger view.

Here's one looking over what used to be the parking lot at the auditorium. You can see that they've poured the floor for a building of some kind.

This shot is looking north from just south of where the shops used to be over more of that cement floor they've poured. You can see the old smoke stack from the shops and some of the roof of the B-gym (remember C-gym was completely torn down) just left of the shell of a large new building they've been working on.

This picture is just a little to the right and east of that last one. The football field is in the middle of this picture, but hidden behind the new buildings they are putting up.

With any luck, in the next little while I'll get in and poke around the construction site. If I do, I'll post some more pictures.

Digitizing Orem's Past

2008-08-03T05:27:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting article from the Salt Lake Tribune about a project underway to digitize and preserve old photos of Orem. The article begins with a story about Germans in a World War II era prisoner of war camp near the present-day location of Canyon View Junior High and ends with information about how to submit any photos you may want to donate.

Speaking of old photos of Orem, here are a couple of great ones of the construction of Geneva Steel with Mount Timpanogos in the background from the Library of Congress' donations to Flickr.

A Call for Websites

2008-07-31T20:08:00.001-07:00

Do you have a family or personal website or blog that you would like to let other members of the class know about? Send us the URL and we'll post it here and on the class website.

OHS Construction Update #3

2008-07-27T11:52:00.000-07:00

This past week we got a newsletter from the Alpine School District that included an update on bonding projects. Here's what it said about Orem High:

The construction on the rebuild of Orem High School on the existing property began in April. Partial demolition and the construction of parking lots and tennis courts started in June. The entire project is scheduled to be completed by July 2010.

I went by the other day to check it out and took a few pictures. I'll post a few below, but you'll find more here.

Here's a new parking lot they've added north of the school.

The hole that was the C-gym.

A shot from the north-west corner of the school lot showing the new parking lot they've added in front of the building.

Looking across the new parking lot at the welcoming main entrance.

Some people might be confused by this.

Looks like they are almost ready to pour the new tennis courts.

The remaining 3 tennis courts are getting new net posts and new fencing.

A little more parking behind the east bleachers.

Orem High Contruction Update #2

2008-07-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

Here are some more photos of what's going on at the high school. It's not as dramatic as the piles of rubble, but it's progress.

Looking south along the front of the school.

Would the person who stole the D from "Golden Tigers" please come to Mr Delaney's office?

Looking north from what used to be the parking lot.

What's left of the shops from the south-west corner of the lot.

What's left of the shops from what used to be the driving range.

The 3 remaining tennis courts and the football field from across a newly leveled portion of the former driving range.

OHS Debate Reunion July 12, 2008 at Cascade Elementary

2008-06-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

We received this message from Danny Newall the other day:

There is an Orem High debate/forensics reunion for all debate participants from the "Steve Bringhurst era" (1977 to 1991) planned for Sat. July 12th, 2008 at the pavilion at Cascade Elementary School at 6 p.m.

It looks like it will be a very informal bring-your-own-food/pot-luck affair, and they are asking $3 to help pay for the pavilion.

Most of the "big names" from the various years have said they will be coming.

If you need more information, let us know.

The continuing deconstruction of OHS

2008-06-16T20:12:00.001-07:00

Seemed like things were going pretty slowly with the demolition for a while, but tonight when I went by I found some real progress.

They've pulled out all the grass and trees from the front of the building and are getting things leveled off.
Here's a view across the parking lot at the gym and the rubble pile of what was the shops, the KOHS studio and Neil and Jerry's Theater.

I got there just in time to see them tearing down the A gym. Here's a photo, followed by a short movie.

And here's a look back at the gym across a cement pile that used to be the tennis courts and the shops.

You can find bigger versions of these and a few other pictures here.

Changes Coming for Orem High

2008-06-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

I went by Orem High the other day and took a few pictures of some of the things that are happening there, just in case some of you might be interested.

They've torn up the single strip of parking out in front of the school (looking east from 4th east):

They were packing up the marquee when I drove by (looking east from 4th east):

They've torn up the driving range and torn down the tower (looking north from 3rd south):

They're ripping up the track and the football field (looking north from the tennis courts):

Here's the new driving range they have put in the north-east corner, over by the soccer fields (looking south-west from Campus Drive):
I'll try to take pictures of the construction every now and again as it progresses and post them here.

Changes to the OHS 87 Website

2007-10-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let you know that we've updated the main OHS 87 website.

We've added some information about plans for the future and some photos from this year's reunion. There's also a place for us to add photos from the high school days and current photos of people from the class and their families, so if you have any photos you'd like to share, please send them to us.

2007-10-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the OHS Class of 1987 news blog.

We'll use this blog to post news from the class, updates on get togethers and let you know when we've added something new to the main website at www.ohs1987.org.

If you use RSS you can subscribe to the feed for this blog to get automatic updates when we add news.

If you have OHS 87 related news or an event you'd like to have us post to the blog, please let us know.