Classmates’ 60th Celebration is Grand

On the heels of the blockbuster 2008 film release The Bucket List comes a real once-in-a-lifetime personal challenge set forth by an aging team of four Lakeview High graduates. What was their task? Only to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and hike back out the next day. What were these almost-sexagenarians thinking?

“We wanted to do something special and ambitious to celebrate our 60th birthday season,” says Gerard Marshall, organizer (and youngest - by five months) of the expedition. “ The four of us have remained friends since high school and it was important to accomplish this quest while we still could.”

The four friends Marshall speaks of include Eric Dobberteen, Dave Shepherd, and Mike Anderson, all originally from Battle Creek and all graduated from the Lakeview High School together. 

"We've known each other for nearly 50 years. Mike and I were in 7th grade math class together," says Dobberteen, an attorney in Los Angeles. "We used to all cruise the gut through downtown Battle Creek in high school, then end up at Speed's hamburger joint."

"Sometimes," adds Shepherd, "we'd have to wait on Gerard. He'd have to finish playing us his latest almost-learned song on his accordian before we could leave his house. His tribe of brothers and sisters would all be made to listen with us too. We'd silently keep still while his adoring family looked on, but secretly we were hoping he would make it through his song without making a mistake. Otherwise he'd stop and start over."

"We were all good boys then, just a little mischievous," says Shepherd. "But today, when we reminisce about those high-school days, if anyone else were to listen in, it must sound to them like we were wild and crazy animals. We weren't, believe me." 

Besides attending their various LHS class reunions, including their 40th in 2006, the four pals attempted to rendezvous every year just to engage in something fun to nurture their friendship.

“Some years we would meet in Battle Creek and take in a LHS football game, tour the old neighborhoods, or visit the cemetery where our parents are all buried now,” adds Dobberteen. “Last year we canoed down the raging Muskegon river in upstate Michigan." 

“In 2007 we also agreed on hiking the Grand Canyon and began our personal training regimens for the strenuous event while awaiting our application approval,” says Marshall. “When we were assigned a departure date of July 4th, it seemed quite fitting as we are all proud Americans and military veterans too.” (Colonel Marshall retires from the U.S. Army Reserves later this year.)

“Originally, my vote was to take a cruise to celebrate our big birthday milestone,” Anderson reflects, “but the more I thought about it, the overnight Grand Canyon hike seemed more like something our generation would do. And the Independence Day date coupled with record heat just added to our boomer craziness.”

“The other three had better training environments than me,” adds Shepherd. “Eric lives a short drive to the California mountains. Gerard lives near bluff trails along the Missouri river, and Mike’s in the heat and hills of Georgia. They could practice their power hiking. I’m the only one who still lives in flat frozen Michigan.” Shepherd resides in Alma.

After 10 months of physical training, the team gathered at the South Kaibab trailhead to begin their steep descent. And on the afternoon of July 5th, after over 17 hours of grueling step-by-careful step hiking, atop the canyon rim these tired, dusty, sweaty, swollen sojourners proudly announced for all their boomer generation to hear ...“we did it!” 

More than a story, fable, or myth, and more than a living-years “bucket" to-do list check- off challenge, this is a genuine story of a friendship - a real friendship of boys-to-men-to-dads-to grandfathers - that is rare to find these days. And the friendship carries on...

"We're already planning our next adventure," adds Marshall. "I just got my pilots license so a whole new world of possibilities open up for us."

 "We were looking for an echo,
 an answer to our sound,
 a place to be in harmony,
 a place we almost ..."

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