Written by Kari Sundberg
Jul 21, 2025
Grygla’s first-ever graduates reunite 50 years later to celebrate milestones and memories.
The Grygla High School Class of 1975 gathered last Saturday to celebrate their 50-year class reunion. This was the very first graduating class from Grygla High School, making this reunion a meaningful moment in the school’s history!
Out of 32 original classmates, 18 made it back to town for the occasion. The group met at the Ralph Klein City Park, where they enjoyed a potluck lunch, with pork provided by classmate Mark Sax. Later in the day, the group took a nostalgic tour of the high school building they once walked as students.
Group Photo
Front row, L-R: Curtis Clausen, Rick Olson, Debra Holte Peterson, Julie McLean Sparby, Kathy Rimstad Westrum, Tina Waling Watterson, David Rundell, Joni Peterson Swenson, Daryl Byklum
Back row, L-R: Howard Vigen, Steve Sparby, Mark Sax, Gail Sistad Kotrba, Mylan Loken, Susan Mosher Burrell, Lynette Askeland Carlson, Scotty Torgerson, Dale Holthusen
Classmate Gwen Stanley was also in attendance and is pictured separately, as she wasn’t present when the group photo was taken.
Adding to the celebration were four familiar faces from the early days of the school. Former teachers Don Rindahl, Jan Kragness and Mary Rindahl attended, along with the school's first principal, Dave Kragness. Don and Mary taught during the inaugural year, and as mentioned, Dave served as the high school’s first principal.
The afternoon was filled with storytelling, laughter and lots of memories shared among classmates, teachers and friends…a fitting tribute to 50 years of history since that first graduation day in 1975!
One of the Class of ’75 attendees, Daryl Byklum, shared these thoughtful reflections on what it meant to gather again after 50 years:
High School Class Reunions
Attending a high school class reunion is a trip down memory lane that allows sketches of your teenage past to be highlighted for a brief moment in time. When gathered in one place, seeing your former classmates again is a portal into a time long ago that is incongruent with what present realities dictate. Let me put that differently – who are these old people that showed up and dared to impersonate the youngsters that you grew up with?
Most of us don’t keep in touch with large numbers of former classmates on a regular basis. There are many reasons for this blackout of contact. You may see some classmates on various occasions as one accidentally crosses paths in life but it takes the concerted effort of a reunion to be a clarion call for an invited get-together. It is sad that more routine contacts do not occur but the reality is that life happens, distances grow wider, and schedules don’t mesh automatically.
But this year was a big one. 50. It is hard to even write that number without shaking one’s head in disbelief. Can it really be true that five decades have passed since those green tassels were placed on our heads and we were ushered out the door? Cries of “Congratulations!” and “Write, if you get work!” still echo the halls of our old school building.
It is genuinely hard to gain a pulse for what has taken place each person’s life in such a short period of time as occurs at a reunion. Even getting names straight through the passage of time is an interesting achievement, if in fact it is an achievement at all. People change. Life events happen. Details are missing. And, in this most recent reunion, we failed to wear name tags. We were a class of a mere thirty-two seniors and you would think it would be easy to identify your classmates. Let’s just chalk it up to senility, but names no longer come easily for some of us.
It is sometimes hard to catch the rhythm of what used to be easy conversations among friends. Long lapses of contact can take time to find the common ground that was once a given. Yet, shared experiences through your teenage years are hard to erase. The common ground is there but it may be covered in by the sands of time. In general, reunions need input by its participants. The enjoyment is drawing out the memories that are all inclusive to the group.
This class reunion was special not just because it was our fiftieth. This was a reunion of the first graduating class of Grygla High School. If this count is correct, eighteen of the thirty-two members of the Class of ’75 were in attendance. We share a bond that cannot be broken. For any of my classmates who may read this, I am glad to have attended and even more pleased that our legacy carries on.
To the Class of 1975, thanks for being part of my personal history.