Woodrow Hughes

July 2005

After leaving CHS, I survived the Vietnam War by joining the Navy. I served 7 years, including 5 trips to the Vietnam area. I did 13 more years in the California Army and Air National Guard.

I attended Los Angeles Trade-Tech and earned an A.S. in Radio-Communications Electronics. Living in Southern California for over 35 years, I earned a Master’s Degree in catastrophes: riots, earthquakes, fires, floods, crime and taxes.

I worked in the RV industry for several years, then Pac-Bell and AT & T for 10 years. I have worked the last 15 years as a technician for Associated Press. If a news story has (AP) beside it, it went through computers and satellite systems I work on.

I was married 14 years, divorced, no kids.

My hobbies, both acquired in Corvallis, are Square Dancing and Model Railroading. When not doing anything else, I love writing Letters to the Editors and hanging out on the Internet.

Special Message: I was a globe-trotting military kid when I passed through Corvallis. The three years I spent at CHS were some of the most influential in my life.

CORVALLIS LEFT LASTING IMPRESSION ON ALUM FROM CHS CLASS OF 1965

Corvallis Gazette Times, August 6, 2010

I was a globe-trotting military kid when I came to Corvallis in 1962 and entered Corvallis High School in the fall. My dad was stationed at Adair AFS, but we lived in town.

The three years I spent in Corvallis were the most influential of my life.

I watched the Columbus Day Storm blow part our mobile home awning away.

I was here for the Cuban Missile Crisis, and JFK's assassination. I helped evacuate the mobile home park when Mary's River overflowed its banks during the Christmas week floods of 1964-65.

Working in the school, the town and the fields outside of town, I was always busy, from washing dishes and cars to picking beans. The first work I ever did that had taxes and Social Security withheld was working at the OSU Experimental Farm.

I was very proud that two organizations that helped shape my life are still in existence. First, the Corvallis Square Dancers. My girlfriend and I attended their beginners class in 1965. Forty-five years later, am still "swinging my partners."

The Second group was the Corvallis Society of Model engineers model railroad club. They put "the frosting on the cake" of all the trade and technical courses I took at Corvallis High School.

At 17, less that two weeks after graduation, the family was loaded up and headed out toward my father's next assignment.

I am in town for my 45th reunion, and I will never forget the town, the times or the people of Corvallis.

Woodrow J. Hughes
Mission Hills, California