Kaimuki High School Class of 1969          Updated 12/18/22

Click below to see and order candid photos from our reunion:

http://www.photoreflect.com/PR3/thumbpage.aspx?e=5489536

40th Class Reunion

The whole week was a blast!  Starting off with the tennis/volleyball mash, then the wine tasting/pizza dinner, the school tour, golf get-together, the Friday night karaoke (which was a scream), and then finally  Saturday evening when over 200 of us joined together, met old friends,and forged new friendships, the whole week was something to remember. 

Here is what some of our classmates had to say about the 40th reunion activities and experience: 

         I had the most wonderful time of my life going back to school at the 40th reunion. We danced all night long, just listening to the wonderful music and we talked about old time, with the drinks flowing like water.  I now see that we are all getting over the hill.  I'm so sorry that some of my classmates chose not to come....but they should have been there.  We don't know how long we have on this earth and we all should stay connected and appreciate this time in our lives. 

I will be going to the next event.  Log me in! -  Doreen C Rosales Gurtiza

I loved it all! The turnout was spectacular.  All the hard work that everyone did really showed!  I can't wait for the next two years and meeting again in Vegas -  Paulette (Hernandez) Reyes

           This was ...the best reunion our class has ever had. I wish to thank every committee member who worked hard to plan this gathering.  I...am very thankful that I had the pleasure of participating in two fun events.. tennis and the main event.  The evening last Saturday felt too short to get to talk to as many of our fellow classmates of yesteryear as possible.  The day at tennis provided more in-depth renewal time with fellow '69-ers, but there were only a small handful of us.  I hope that our next get-together (2011, hopefully) will bring a big enough group of us together....I really look forward to seeing as many of my past classmates together again.  Thanks again...for all your hard work. -  Charlie (Yoshimatsu) Takeuchi

       We all had a fabulous time.  It was definitely wonderful to see everyone.  The entertainment by the Kingpins was awesome.  Karaoke night was a blast!   Mahalo to the Planning committee for making it very memorable for everyone.- Iris (Sharsh) Khan

       My husband and I attended the karaoke function and it was great!  A couple of singers were really laid back, but they warmed up and surprised us with professional caliber renditions.  I didn't know our class had so much talent!  And yes, we did wear out our welcome with "Johnny Angel" but I'd sing it again!  The food was awesome too! And believe me when it comes to food, I know what I'm talking about!

      I didn't get a chance to attend the other events but I have only good things to say about the main event.  The Ala Moana Hotel was a great place to host it and the food was really ono, especially the roast beef!  Entertainment was primo!  What especially warms my heart are the fond memories that were created by connecting again with my classmates and dear friends. 

     You can count me in for the Vegas trip, I've already logged it in my Blackberry! Let me know what I can do on my side to help!- Cynthia Lung Akau

       Thank you and all the members of the reunion planning committee for just a super job.  All your efforts didn't go unnoticed and were certainly greatly appreciated by myself and others.  I thought the reunion night program was fine, because it allowed everyone to talk and mingle reather than having some contrived "games" to play or an elaborate program to follow...

      Thank you all again. It was a wonderful night.- Rob Yamamoto.

         We had a wonderful time, and we would certainly love to do this again in 2011.  Thank you for all your hard work and planning.  You did an awesome job.  -  Henry and Sheril Passos

      Our class reunion was da BOMB!!!! I had soooo much fun, dancing, eating, talking to friends about the good old days and finding out what they're doing nowadays.  I took some pictures of some of my classmates and sent it to the website.  Also, I'm very interested in attending the 60th birthday in Las Vegas- Michaeline Liu Nakagawa

      Thanks to...the alumni who were instrumental in pulling all the events together so successfully.  I had a wonderful time and much appreciation to Larrene for the name tags.  It was a fabulous idea that made it so much easier to connect with everyone at the events.  The music was great, but my only comment is that it was way too loud and made it difficult to talk to everyone.  At our age, some of us have a harder time hearing under noisy conditions-oh yea, paybacks for sitting in the front row at all those rock concerts.  Yes, your children/grandchildren shoud know that we used to and can still ROCK OUT!

      I've always had a great time at all our reunions, but this one was MO BETTA than all the rest! Can't wait to celebrate our 60th birthday together! -  Cat Nakabayashi Haywood

      Thank you to ... all the hard working volunteers on putting on a fantastic event. My husband, Russell, had a good time too.  It was great seeing so many classmates; wish I could have spoken with all of them.  We're fortunate that majority still look the same (and therefore,easily recognizable)!  It also shows that we're still healthy and vibrant.  Whoever thought of giving our yearbook as a prize:  it was "genius" as the kids say.  Having the winner, Wendy Nakasone gather autographs again was a lot of fun as we looked each other up....Thanks to all the classmates I got to meet or wave to.  I had a great time!!- Nancie Haranaka Tsubota

Mahalo to all committee participants for all their hard work and for a successful reunion.  It was a blast seeing all of my classmates from long ago.  I had a great time, too bad we were not able to extend our time after the event, as a handful of us wanted to extend our catching up for a little bit longer.  All in all it was an awesome time for me.  I am looking forward to our Vegas gathering. -  Larry Ortiz

Kudos to the committee for their time and efforts in making the Reunion a success.  I would like to mention that Larrene did a fantastic job with our name tags, it helped me get reconnected.  The entertainment by Billy, Royal Counts, Edward's band, Yvonne's band with Kats dancing the hula was awesome.  It was a fun evening for me.  I missed the karaoke night, however it must have been fun since Pat (Shibata Murashige) as still singing "Johnny Angel" at the Reunion.  - Lois Yamasaki

It was the best reunion that I have ever attended.  Very well planned and organized!!  Great job!  Thank you for your hard work to make our 40th so successful! 

I am planning to make it to our 60th b-day in Vegas.  My daughter turns 21 in 2011, so we'll be celebrating her initiation to the adult world. -  Cynthia Ho

     WOW!!! I was so glad that I got to attend both the karaoke and reunion events.  Karaoke night was a blast, I spent quality time with everyone there, especially Iris S.  I don't care about the "threats" we got or what anyone said about our "Johnny Angel".  We still love him and will keep singing about him.  Right, girls!?   I know the guys were digging it!!!

     As for the reunion night, it was just a wonderful blurrrrr!!! Seeing my classmates after all these years just brought back wonderful memories of the good old days.  I still have a warm feeling in my heart from seeing all my friends and classmates.  Big mahalos to everyone involved in the planning of all the events for us.  We definitely appreciated all the hard work and time you all gave to make this reunion the greatest!!  At first, when I heard our name tags would have a senior pic attached, I was not thrilled about it.  Let me say, thank goodness for the pictures.  It really helped me setting faces to names at the reunion.  Last but not least, the entertainment by our talented classmates was Da BOMB!! -  Pat (Shibata) Murashige

SUPER JOB!!!  I'd like to take this time to thank everyone on the Committee for a wonderful job you all did including all the activities leading up to the finale of the Reunion.  I totally enjoyed the evening... Looking forward to the 60th celebration! - Linda Morishita

     I just wanted to thank you and the volunteers for a great job on our 40th High School Reunion.  Thank you and thanks to all of the others who assisted with the planning and the hard work.  I know that it takes a lot of planning and preparation for such an event like this.  I appreciate all the work that all of you have done to make this a very special time for all of us.  It was great to see all of you!- Irene (Tanji) Yano 

Mahalo for all the fun events, and the time taken by all on committees, planning and hosting.  It takes a lot of organizing to entertain and get people together, so I certainly appreciate all those who contributed to a great reunion.  It was fantastic to see so many old friends and to reunite with classmates for the first time on an adult level....On behalf of my husband and myself, we could not have had a better time.  It was one of his favorite trips to Hawaii and he is looking forward to Las Vegas.  So thanks to all who made this reunion super. 

So many people asked me why would I want to attend a 40th high school reunion, ...but I really was hoping to see classmates/friends of long ago and see what life had made of us.  Maika'i to the class of 1969, we are all still living our dreams and doing well.  I really hope to see everyone for our 60th Birthday Bash!  Every event was great and the memories with everyone will continue to warm me in my winter freeze.  That old saying, "Lucky you live Hawaii", has new meaning to me.  God bless you all.  'O wau iho no me ke aloha pumehana-  Roselani (O'Neal) Ferguson  

     Aloha...I wanted to get this thank you note to express my appreciation for all the great work that each of you had put together in planning our 40th Year class reunion.  I had a great time being able to see friends that were not at previous reunions and just to see them knowing that they are all still alive and well.  It was a great week of getting together with people that graduated from one high school.... Just the sense of belonging to Kaimuki High School Class of '69 was awesome.  Having a bunch of things to do together especially when it might lead to seeing someone that I hadn't seen in 40 years was a good enough reason to come and to be there.

     I realize everyone has a different experience of being in high school.  And If you're reading this, chances are you must have had some good friends in school, or at least people that you enjoyed hanging out with and spent time enjoying some part of your life.  I just figured once in awhile someone would give themselves the treat of being able to reconnect with people that you might have enjoyed sometime in your life.  Just a thought, that maybe you'd want to see them before life was done. 

     So to all of you who worked at planning out the whole week, from the Saturday gathering at the school for volleyball and tennis, to the wine tasting at the very elegant setting in downtown Honolulu, to the golfer's gathering, and the karaoke sing along.  It was completed with a great eveing of reconnecting to some very good friends.  Thanks so much for the great memories. -  Joe Camacho

     I had an incredible time and was so happy to see friends that I haven't seen in 40 years.  I hope to keep in touch with those that I lost contract with till now.  Although I only attended two events, I could imagine all events were fun filled and well organized.   I will say this, in my opinion, the Reunion could not have had anything more nor anything better than the way you all organized it with food, entertainment and choice of place to gather. 

    I believe the turnout was spectacular! I will remember that moment in time with a smile and special place in my heart.

    Please thank all the other loyal and dedicated organizers for me and let them know if I can help out with Las Vegas from California.   Do not hesitate to contact me via email.  I look forward to seeing you again in Las Vegas.- Liane Lewis Humphrey

      I thought that it was a tremendous event.  Being really honest, I still had a hard time connecting names and faces.  Hopefully it's not too much of a sign of old age.  I thought that it was especially terrific that folks flew in from the mainland to be at the event.  Tells me that although things may have appeared to have been quite fractured when we were going to school (socially that is) somehow there was a common bond being built that kept us somewhat together.  The diversity of the folks from the class at the event was terrific. -  David Nakada

Earlier in the week David has this to say:

Reunions through time seem to have a life all their own, or at least seem to have evolved since I last attended some 15 years ago.  At last night's event, the wine tasting, I got a real sense that we old Kaimuki High Class of '69er have settled into a very different stage in life.   We all appear to have mellowed with time and are much, more comfortable in our skin, so to speak.  Two decades ago, I'm quite certain that many of us were still a bit worried about how we looked, where we were in our careers and the like.  Not so, last night.  We were happy to see each other, talk about the silliness of our time at Kaimuki and really talked about our kids and what we look forward to doing in the sunset of a career.  It was very nice.  We've appeared to have mellowed nicely. 

As for the event, much credit for the success of the gathering has to go to the hard work of Marsha Yonemori.  Marsha and Blanche (Nakamura) really set a fine table complementing the selection of designer pizza secured by Andy....

It was great to see people we have not seen in a while.  I told Rosemary (Matsueda) Chong that I only see her on the television when she stages that amazingly successful Friends of the Library book sale.  I have not seen Rosemary and Gail (Kogawa) Ikeda in a very long time.  Luana Rees still looks very trim and athletic.  My goodness, I'd say that she could probably still get on the volleyball court and do some damage.

Me?  I am very happy at age 58 to be in a room with folks who are the same age, came from a common place and just enjoy each other's company.  Life is short and is probably getting shorter and I'd have to say that it is nice to go visit a time when something else, much more trivial, less important, serious at that moment, has created a moment to laugh at ourselves and allow us to ease ourselves forward...

Thank you all.....

David Nakada   

Special recognition should go to the following "Super '69 Classmates":

        Wendell Ogitani and Guy Takiguchi who attended all the events!

        Roselani O'Neal Ferguson, from Connecticut,  and Lena Inouye Okuda, from Japan, who traveled the farthest to attend the events!  (Roselani attended all the events, other than the golf, and dragged husband Jim along too!!)

        Steven Loui who bought an aloha shirt, with the class colors, just for the reunion!!! (that's the spirit, Steven!)