Ruth Van Kommer:
CLASS OF 1969
Douglas High SchoolClass of 1969
Winston, OR
Judson Baptist CollegeClass of 1971
Portland, OR
Umpqua Community CollegeClass of 1971
Roseburg, OR
Petersburg High SchoolClass of 1969
Petersburg, AK
Ruth's Story
Life
I attended Douglas High from 1965-1967. I was raised in Lookingglass and went to the grade school there. I would like to here from people I went to school with. After we left Lookingglass we moved to Alaska, and then I came back to attend UCC. I am married and live in Yakima, Washington. My husband and I own a bicycle, fitness, rack shop there.
We have 3 children, Marcus 29, Gerrit 27 and Janice 25. The boys are both here in Yakima. Marcus is a mechanical engineer here in Yakima, he bought a house in town a couple of years ago. He got married in October 2008, his wife is from Yakima. Gerrit is here in Yakima, he daughter is now 3 1/2, due to the downturn in the construction industry he was recently laid off from the cabinet shop where he works. Janice graduated from Eastern Washington University the spring of 2006, and is attending Washington State University, Tri-Cities branch, for her MBA. She will be finished in December 2009 with that.
We also have a granddaughter, Cortland Nichole, who was born March 12th. We are having a lot of fun with her. It is so much easier to have grandchild-ren than children.
For those of you who knew my family, Mom is living here in Yakima, she turned 83 this last year. Beth is in West Virginia - she and her husband truck farm for a living. She and Gene have 3 boys. Thora is in Missouri and they are missionaries to Benin, West Africa. She and David have 2 children.
Jim is in Seward and still commercial fishes, he does processing on board the boat which is named the F/V Kruzof. If you want to know more of what he is doing, you can log onto JRFisheries.com. Rhonda markets a lot of his fish to Japan for him. He has 2 boys. Ben is a diesel mechanic in the Longview, WA area, and they. Laura does paperwork for his business, and substitutes as a secretary for the school district. ...Expand for more
Joe is a diesel mechanic in Ketchikan, Alaska. He spends a lot of time of Prince of Wales island. He and Johanna have 3 children. Miriam lives here in Yakima with Mom. She was laid off last spring from teaching so will be signing up for substitute teaching. She has 3 Old English Sheep Dogs that keep her busy.
Mom enjoys it when I pass along news I hear from those we went to school with. So if you email me, I will pass news on to her.
I recently saw the fishing boat that Jim has had for 11 years. It was neat to see it. He had it in Seattle so it was a little easier to see it.
I am still playing the trumpet. Actually the horn I had in HS was a cornet, and I still have that, besides a trumpet, and fluegelhorn. We have a community band here in Yakima, and Miriam and I both play in it. We also play at the churches we attend. She is still playing trombone. For a while she was doing a lot of piano playing also. We will do 12 concerts this summer, in the parks, and usually do 2 in the winter.
We actually live 5 miles east of Yakima in East Valley, and have 2 1/4 acres. If anyone comes through please give us a call. We are at work during the week, so can be found at Valley Cycling & Fitness.
My husband was raised in Bellflower, California, and I met him in Roseburg, Oregon. We moved to Sunnyside, in 1979, and Yakima in 1989. We met in Roseburg, but he didn't like the rain on the west side of the mountains.
Some of you may not know that Oregon and Washington have high country deserts in the east side of the state. We get a lot less rain than the "wet" side. I have adjusted to the dryness, but don't mind the rain when I go to Seattle. Beth and I will walk around the Fremont Districtof Seattle in the drizzle without umbrellas. For those of you from Petersburg, I'm sure you understand why it doesn't bother us.
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