Authors to gather for MHS reunion

Thursday, June 3, 2010

McCOOK, Nebraska -- McCook Senior High has produced published writers, many of whom will attend the "Bison Fever 2010" all-class reunion in July.

Rounded up by Judy Chinn Wortley, Class of 1958, the authors will present their books at an "Alumni Authors Adventure" on Saturday, July 3, at the High Plains Museum, 413 Norris, in downtown McCook, Nebraska, 1-8 p.m.

Wortley, herself an author, wrote, "Forgiving the Murderer of My Child," chronicling the steps that God took her through to forgive the killers of her son. In her book, Wortley "shares her deep insight on the subject of forgiveness and ministering to the grieving person."

Other authors at the reception will be:

* Joella Williams, Class of 1989, "The Clefs Meet the Bug Band: An Introduction to the Musical Alphabet," book one in a series called "Clef Notes: Discovering the World of Music." It teaches parents and children how to read and enjoy music through a series of bedtime stories. Its target audience is 3-8-year olds.

* Merrill Ream, Class of 1947, "The Merrill Ream 10-Lesson Speed Reading Course." Ream says, "I created and taught my speed reading class to thousands of students in the San Diego area and the U.S. Navy." Ream's online college level speed reading course is offered at more than 1,800 colleges in the English-speaking world.

* Chuck Peek, Class of 1960, "William Faulkner Encyclopedia" and "A Companion to Faulkner Studies." Peek gained international attention as a teacher and scholar on Nobel Prize-winning novelist William Faulkner, and as an editor, with his colleague Bob Hamblin, of "The William Faulkner Encyclopedia" and its companion on Faulkner studies. In England, an essay on Faulkner by Peek was published in the "Companion to 20th Century United States Literature." Peek will also have a collection of his poetry at the reunion reception. His poem in honor of Mike Confer, the MHS 1960 class president killed during the Vietnam War, appears on the reunion web page mccook2010.com

* Corlyn Gettman, Class of 1960, "Sound of the Moon," an autobiography of a young girl growing up in McCook in the 1950s, and the family and friends who helped her deal with a great personal trauma and the heartbreak of first love.

* Jeanne Oldweiler, Class of 1955, "The Ant Hill Challenge," about growing up in Southwest Nebraska during and following World War II. Oldweiler remembers tornadoes, country school, the Kugler Zoo at Culbertson, the German prisoner-of-war camp at Indianola and DeGroff's, Penney's and Brown McDonald stores in McCook.

* Don Morgan, Class of 1959, "The Sutton House," with photographs by John Altberg, Class of 1959. The book details the history of the Prairie School Style house designed in 1908 by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright for McCook residents Harvey and Eliza Sutton.

* Jerda Garey, Class of 1957, "The History of the Mid-Plains College," for which Dr. Jerda Garey wrote the McCook section of the history of the Mid-Plains Community College Area, created with the joining of McCook Community College and Mid-Plains and the vocational technical colleges located in North Platte in 1973. A second book is planned to cover the college history from 1974 through 2000.

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