A History of the
Alumni Association

he new NHS on Fronmüllerstrasse.

1987 --  First Gathering of Eagles, in Atlanta, GA

After the 1987 reunion, long-time faculty member Helen Crowell said, "One of my biggest thrills was the NHS reunion.  There you were, all grown up successfully."  119 Eagles were there.  Miss Crowell was the only teacher.

1988 --The first Stateside Edition of the Trichter, December 25, 1988.

1990 -- Radison Suite Hotel in Arlington, Texas, site of the second reunion.  238 attended.

1993 -- "A Gathering of Eagles" at Lake Tahoe, CA, site of the third reunion.

Everybody got into the act on Karaoke Night at Tahoe.

1996 -- Doing the Bunny Hop at the fourth reunion in Clearwater Beach, FL.

All 275 Eagles got together for a group photo.

1999 -- Fifth Reunion, in Breckenridge, CO. 508 Eagles attended this bash.

Whitewater rafting at Breckenridge in 1999.

2002 -- Sixth Reunion, in Las Vegas, NV.  Pool Party at the Flamingo Hilton.  639 came to the sixth reunion.

Doing the Stroll in Vegas.

DoubleTree Hotel, site of the 2005 reunion. See you there!

In October of 1946, only a year and a half after the Allied forces resoundingly defeated the German Third Reich, American dependents of high school age in the Nürnberg area began school in a former private residence in Erlangen , a university town nearby.

      The freshmen met in the dining room, the sophomores in the living room, and the juniors and seniors had classes upstairs in bedrooms, according to Ed Thompson, '50, who was there in October of 1946 as a freshman.

      After Thanksgiving, classes were moved into the Science Building at Erlangen University , and in the fall of 1947, the school moved to 19 Tannenstrasse, Fürth , Germany .

      Until the 1948-49 school year, the American high school sports teams (basketball and baseball) were known as the Tigers.  The school colors were red and white.

      The colors were changed to green and white in 1948 when red jerseys for the new six-man football team were unavailable, but green jerseys were.

      In 1951, after four years at Tannenstrasse, the American students moved into a new building on Fronmüllerstrasse, the school that most NHS alumni attended.  The team name/mascot was changed to the Eagles, an Eagle being on the crest of the medieval city of Nürnberg and green and white being the colors on the Fürth city crest.

      In June of 1995, the last graduating seniors were awarded their diplomas from Nürnberg American High School , and the school closed 49 years after its opening. The Cold War was over; American troops were being withdrawn from the Nürnberg area.

      For years thousands of students graduated from NHS and then dispersed all over the world, but it wasn’t until 1986 that two 1962 graduates conceived the idea of an alumni association.

      Here is how the association began in the words of its founder, Terry Jorgensen,’62:

      “It was November 1986, and I had just had my first encounter with a former Eagle alumnus, in Greensboro , NC . He was David E. (“Dandy Dave”) Worland, '62, former All-USAREUR basketball and MVP star, a.k.a. the President of the National Honor Society at NHS, whose parents had taught at our old alma mater (music/band and typing/shorthand). He and I just held onto one another in a big ol` bear hug for what seemed like several minutes… without saying anything… but just knowing we had been part of each other’s lives in a distant land during a Cold War Era, when the only thing warm was our smiles for one another and our loyalty and friendship. I think I speak for anyone who went to Nürnberg High when I say that those friendship-bonding relationships were the strongest I had experienced during my life at that time, and I only realized it many, many years later.”

      Both Dave and Terry realized they wanted to reignite the spirit of NHS in the United States .  Terry took Dave’s challenge to find enough alumni to have a reunion and agreed to pay for the initial start-up costs.

      Jorgensen began looking for people from Nürnberg High by going to the many yearbooks he had.  He used telephone information service and started making long-distance telephone calls, which as he says, were not cheap in those days.  He also used as a resource his parents, who had kept in touch with many friends from their extended 10-year tour in Fürth/Bayern. By June of 1987 he had located some 200 alumni, and then after being referred to Gila (Erving) Montfort,’65, who had developed a list of alumni in the Dallas area, the two combined their lists. They had found 234 alumni. Jorgensen persuaded 119 of them that coming to Atlanta , Georgia , in October of 1987 would be a novel idea and a good place to throw a party.

      The first reunion was a big success, with everyone having so much fun that Jorgensen, Montfort, and David Reberry,’63, decided that a formal organization was needed. Jerry Dennard,’63, attorney-at-law, drew up the requisite articles, and the Nürnberg Alumni Association, Inc. was born as a Texas non-profit corporation (later named a 501(c)7, not-for profit organization by the IRS). The first – unpaid, volunteer – officers of the newly formed Nürnberg Alumni Association were President Jorgensen, Vice President Reberry, and Secretary-Treasurer Montfort, and they decided that a second reunion was in order.

      To get things started, Reberry compiled an alumni information data base before having to drop out of active participation in the association, and Jorgensen got back on the telephone.  He was aided now by the fact that the association had a small web site, and Joe Condrill, who had founded the Overseas Brats, an organization devoted to bringing together all the alumni, teachers, and administrators of the overseas dependents schools, was referring many alumni to the now fast-growing NAA.

      In December 1988, the first Stateside Edition of the NHS Trichter appeared, typed using a primitive word-processing program, edited, printed, and mailed out to approximately 1000 alumni by Jorgensen. It announced a second reunion – in Dallas, Texas .

      In the Dallas metro area, Montfort’s personal efforts locally helped in organizing the second of many reunions to come. There were twice as many that  came as there were at the first reunion, 238. It was a fun-filled weekend. There was time to play golf, to go to the theme park Six Flags over Texas, to eat with friends, and to review old times.  After Dallas, a pattern was set:  each triennial reunion would be in a different part of the country, rotating from East coast to middle America to the West. At this reunion, Jorgensen and Montfort were re-elected, and Pat (McCarroll) Wood,’59, came on board as vice president.

      From 1990 to spring of 1994, Jorgensen and Montfort took turns editing the Stateside Trichter, which announced in the fall of 1992 the Western reunion site.

      In 1993 the Nürnberg alumni set out for Lake Tahoe, California , for a wonderfully scenic weekend, staying at the Embassy Suites Resort, where 336 alumni were entertained. The big banquet night was a BBQ at the Ponderosa Ranch, site of the famous “Bonanza” TV series. At the business meeting, Jorgensen, Wood, and Montfort were once again elected to lead the association.

      In September of 1994,  Betty (Griffith) Qualley,’50, and Barbara (Carter) Jenkins,’51, took over as co-editors of the Trichter, utilizing new, more sophisticated desktop publishing technology and emphasizing memoirs from the early days of the high school. With the death of Qualley, editorship of the alumni newsletter passed to Karen K. West-Burt, ’77.

      In 1995, the doors of Nürnberg American High School closed for the last time, but in the United States the Nürnberg Alumni Association continued to grow.

      In 1996, the alumni headed back east, for their fourth triennial reunion, a wonderfully historic weekend at the famous Belleview-Mido Resort Hotel, in Clearwater Beach, Florida, where 225 attended. The usual suspects were once again elected to lead the association, but the secretary-treasurer job was split, with Lynn Tumey,’77, accepting the post of secretary and Montfort staying as treasurer. 

      In 1997 the first independent association website came on line, with Mike Judd, ’89, as webmaster. In 1998, Judd overhauled the site.

      By now more than 2000 NHS alumni had been found, and President Jorgensen was hoping for 400 at the fifth gathering of Eagles. It would take place in Breckenridge , Colorado , in June of 1999 at the Beaver Run Resort and Conference Center . The summer 1999 issue of the Trichter was crammed with pictures of the 508 former Eagle students and faculty members who came to Breckenridge and partied until the late hours.

      At the business meeting, a new organizational plan was implemented. In place of the cumbersome board of directors consisting of the officers and the representatives from each class, four era positions were established, thus reducing the board from more than 40 to 9.  Officers elected were Jorgensen, president; Ron Burgess,’72, vice-president for operations; Dave Oge,’70, vice president for advertising and marketing; Vint Wilson,’71, secretary-treasurer, and West-Burt, Trichter editor.  Era representatives were Betty Thomas,’54, 40s, 50s, and teachers; Doug Hatt,’68, 60s; Tom Kappelmann,’77, 70s; and Mike Judd,’89, 80s and 90s.

      At the end of 2000, West-Burt resigned as Trichter editor, and Jorgensen asked his former English teacher at NHS, Bob McQuitty, fac, if he would consider editing the NHS newsletter. McQuitty accepted and had the pleasure of promoting the sixth triennial reunion, a gathering of LUCKY Eagles.

      In 2001 Hansi-Barbara (Oechsle) Younkin,’64, became the new webmaster of the association site, and for the first time it was maintained on a regular basis.

      Reunion No.6 took place in Nevada at the internationally famous Las Vegas Flamingo Casino and Resort Hotel in June of 2002. The headline in the summer Trichter of that year read, “639 Get Lucky in Vegas, New Records Set.” It was the biggest reunion yet.

      In the fall of 2002, new leadership was elected as Jorgensen stepped down from his volunteer position as president in which he had served for 16 years. For the first time, these unpaid positions were contested, and a spirited election resulted in the present Board of Directors whose names and pictures can be found on that link from the Welcome Page.

      In the fall of 2003 the association was fortunate to acquire the services of Dan Guy,’71, as webmaster, and the web site is now set up under a new server with more capabilities than the association has ever had before.

      Beginning its 18th year in 2004, the Nürnberg Alumni Association continues to grow and to keep the Eagle spirit alive. Its members are looking forward to the next great triennial reunion in Orlando , Florida , in 2005 at the DoubleTree Hotel at the Entrance to Universal Studios. – Bob McQuitty

Copyright © 2004 Nürnberg Alumni Association, Inc.  All rights reserved.