Long-time Sherwood resident honored at 80th Sherwood High reunion

SHERWOOD, Ore. — Surrounded by several of her friends and acquaintances, Sherwood resident Marion McTimmonds was honored at a Marjorie Stewart Senior Community Center coffee group event on August 18, celebrating her status as the oldest surviving student of the Sherwood High School class of 1946.

This is the 80^th Sherwood High School Reunion according to Teresa Peters, McTimmonds’ daughter and organizer of the event.

According to Peters, the number of students was very low in 1947 because many of the men had joined the military.

McTimmonds, now 97.5 years old, remains active and started the senior center coffee group a couple of years after COVID hit the community. Most of the coffee group members are Sherwood graduates from the 1950s and 1960s, including Peters and her husband Nick Peters.

McTimmonds’ mother and father, Albert Meinecke and Hertha Conzelman, were members of the Sherwood American Legion and Auxiliary. Albert was a farmer and harness maker, and later a mail carrier from 1911 to 1957.  

“Right after high school within a couple of days, I had a job at Tigard Sherwood Truck Service and answered the phone and did the billing,” McTimmonds said.

After serving in the forklift industry in Rhode Island, McTimmonds moved back to Sherwood in 2004 after her oldest daughter became very sick.

“When Marion was growing up, she lived on Meinecke Road, which is her maiden name (Meinecke), so up until a couple of years ago the house she was born in was still standing. It was near Stella Olsen Park,” Peters said. “The house her great-grandparents built is still there. It’s near what is now the middle school on Meinecke Road. It’s an old farmhouse — white in color with white picket fence. That’s where her grandparents lived.”

Peters reflected on the importance of the reunion event.

“It seems like with Marion’s 80^th high school reunion, she was always the one who would plan them every year,” Peters said. “It has been a few years as they all got older, in their 90s, no one was driving or some passed away, she’s the only one left. It just seemed like something fun to do.”

Peters said she thought it was the first 80th reunion for Sherwood High School. 

“There were a couple others that were near her age that were here, in their 90s,” Peters said. “We had 21 other Sherwood High School graduates … There were a couple from the 1970s, (and) one came from 1980. It has just been a nice group to help celebrate.”

Also in attendance was Dave Gilmore, a director of the Sherwood Historical Society.

“This is the 1946 high school reunion. There are a lot of folks here who are not from that era, but there’s friends and family and so forth. I know some of these folks,” Gilmore said. “I’ve been here since 1998, so I’ve gotten to know a few friends through those years. I’m a member of the legion, so you get to know folks from the legion. Many of those people are here today, too.”

Wilbur Waldo was another acquaintance of McTimmonds’ at the event, and said he met her a year and a half ago.

“I didn’t go to Sherwood grade school…  so I missed out on meeting her until recently. I’m making up for lost time,” Waldo said, “I told her she should clone herself so she could have some classmates. She is young at heart.”

Peters said the event’s guests were mostly long-time Sherwood residents.

“Almost everyone is a graduate of Sherwood High School. A few friends have come and joined the group, too, but the majority are from Sherwood,” Peters said “I am very impressed (with the turnout). I know Marion is very happy and excited.”  

McTimmonds said she was happy with the reunion.

“It was very nice,” she said. “I enjoyed it and I’m just sorry that I am the only one left. It’s kind of lonesome up at the top.”