Lee Ayres, Profile of Donna Unruh Hoberecht

Donna Unruh Hoberecht

Note from Lee Ayres (left): Browsing in the 1960 Echoes yearbook, I find photos of classmates I wish I knew more about. One of those was Donna Unruh, who is included in the “Outstanding Students” photo on page 150. Donna and I once had an interesting chat at a class reunion. Our 1960 Reunion Website editor Marilyn Tompkins Bellert offered to help me with a profile of Donna for the site, so I got in touch with Donna Unruh Hoberecht. I am grateful to Donna for agreeing to be interviewed, working with me to produce this story, and providing the quotations and photographs that are included below. Typical of her thoughtfulness, Donna shared an Arab proverb to use in editing our long conversations: “A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one’s heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”

Here’s the short version. Donna Unruh Hoberecht is part of a large, stable family. She was an excellent student at Wichita East and an outstanding leader at Southwestern College in Winfield. Married to Clint Hoberecht, she is the mother of three and grandmother of seven. She lived 21 years in the Wichita area and has resided for 57 years in the Seattle, Washington area, where she became an exceptional teacher, volunteer, and nature lover. (Right, Donna in 1960)

And now for the rest of the story. Quotes from Donna are in italics.

Father: Herman Unruh. He was born in the small town of Aulne, about 50 miles northeast of Wichita.  A thriving community in the early 1900s, it is a ghost town today.  He attended the American Business College in Wichita for one year before working at Beech Aircraft for 38 years as a Purchasing Agent.  He personally knew Olive Ann and Walter Beech.  When I asked if the “Oh, Donna” song by Ritchie Valens had any special significance for her, she said, “My father was a good singer, so he likely sang that first phrase to me.”

Mother: Iva (Hett) Unruh. She was the eldest child, growing up on a farm with seven brothers and one sister.   After high school graduation, she taught in one-room country schools for eight years in Marion County.  She was a perpetual recorder of life through her diaries and scrapbooks.

Brothers:  Dale (born in 1940, East Class of 1958), and Keith (born in 1945, East Class of 1963)

Donna:  The middle child, born in 1943, Class of 1960 at East High

Extended Family

“My childhood family’s strong connection to our ‘country’ relatives made a big impact on the lives of my brothers and me.   We had many first cousins, and the 30 on the Hett side all grew up in the rural area near Marion.”   Dale, Donna, and Keith spent weeks during their teenage summers staying and working in the “country”, the brothers doing field work.  “My aunt and uncle owned the Aulne grain elevator and were incredibly busy during wheat harvest time.  I stayed with them then, tending their two young boys and doing household chores.   Water skiing on Marion County Lake was a cooling diversion.  Through our continual connections to this large family circle, we benefited from examples of strong work ethics, Christian principles, and service to others.”

Family vacation trips:  Each summer also found Donna’s family exploring a part of the entire western U.S.  Donna’s most memorable trip was to the Great Northwest. “We loved the beauty of the mountains, tall trees, and ferry ride to Vancouver Island, Canada.”  This helped prepare Donna to make the move to the Northwest, years later, when her future husband was offered a job with Boeing in the Seattle, WA area.   (Right, Grand Canyon, 1955))

Church: Calvary Methodist Church

The Unruh family was continually active at church.  The Youth Group held a Spring Banquet each year and took trips to Colorado each summer where they made plans for the year in addition to hiking and holding a Skit Night.   Donna added, “I was surprised to see Tom Hickey’s travel story posted on the website next to my backyard ’Walk.’  He and  his wife Nelda were in our youth group.  And Ruth Ann Lanman Thompson ’60 has brought our group back together for wonderful reunions in Wichita several times in recent years!”

Schools: Kellogg Elementary, Central Intermediate, Wichita East High

“We kids walked to Kellogg Elementary School, with Patrol Boys helping us to cross busy Kellogg street safely at Pattie.  We went home for lunch and then back again.”   The attendance dividing line between Roosevelt JH and Central JH was Pattie. Most of Donna’s friends at Kellogg entered Roosevelt.  Central Intermediate was near the downtown area about three blocks north of Douglas Av, on Emporia. “In 9^th grade Algebra class, I sat just behind David Unruh (future East classmate and County Commissioner).  We were not related, but, to the other kids, we joked about being siblings.”   (Left, Donna’s childhood home, 514 Laura, Wichita)

Friends at East included Caroline Cathers, Janet Dvorak, and Irene Thomas, who ate lunch together and attended some school games and plays. Donna participated in Latin, Science, and Future Teachers clubs. In the photo at right, future math teacher Donna questions Lee Ayres about whether the season basketball tickets he is selling are really a bargain. (Photo from 1960 Echoes)

College: Donna graduated summa cum laude from Southwestern College in 1964 with a B.A. and majored in math.  “Dr. Leonard Laws led a very strong math program.” Donna was treasurer of the senior class, treasurer of Alpha Sigma Omega (a women’s social club), and member of the Student Teachers Association.  She played intramural volleyball and bowled on a team.  She was selected as the Yearbook Queen “Miss Southwestern” (with a full-page photo) and selected for Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.   Donna describes herself as very shy at Wichita East.  Safe to say, she “blossomed” in college.   

Husband: Donna met Clint Hoberecht at Southwestern College in the fall of 1960 when she was a freshman and he was a senior. Both majored in mathematics.  Clint went on to earn an M.S. in Mathematics at Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio, and launched a 40-year career with the Boeing Company in the Seattle, WA area.  After her freshman year, Donna and Clint kept their relationship alive with letters and visits when Clint came home to visit his family near Peabody, Kansas. They married in 1964 at the Calvary Methodist Church in Wichita.

Family life before children

• Home: Bellevue, WA. Apartment (2 years), then a new 4-bedroom rambler. “When we first lived there, Bellevue was just a small community with no tall buildings. Now, tech companies like Expedia and OfferUp are headquartered in Bellevue, and Amazon is currently building new high-rise offices there.”
• Teaching: Donna taught mathematics (8^th and 9^th grade algebra and geometry) for five years in the Bellevue School District.  “During my first year of teaching, I was standing in front of my first class on April 29 when the big Puget Sound earthquake hit (magnitude 6.7).   My legs suddenly felt like Jell-O!  All classes were told to quickly evacuate.”
• Travel: Clint and Donna spent a week on Oahu; took road trips to Banff and Jasper Parks in Canada; Crater Lake in Oregon; and back to Kansas to visit family.  “Our blue ’67 Corvette made the driving trips fun in those days! After visiting my grandma at a nursing home in Hillsboro, KS, we came out to discover an old Model A parked next to our blue Corvette.  Made for a neat photo op.” 
• Activities: Hiking, backpacking, snow skiing. “We joined the Boeing Tennis Club and played  some challenge matches up the ladders.  Clint joined the Big Brothers program and had a ‘little brother’ who went on to do very well at Microsoft; his family and ours have been close to this day.”

Family life with children

Home: In 1976, Donna and her family moved 12 miles north of Bellevue to a newly constructed house in Woodinville, WA, with a one-acre, forested lot. The move was prompted by a growing family, Clint’s farm heritage, and their shared love for the outdoors.

Children: Steve, 1970; Lani, 1971; Randy, 1974. (Left, Hoberecht family, 1980)

Teaching: Seeing a need for highly capable math students to enjoy more of a challenge and receiving an enthusiastic response from teachers, Donna began providing “math enrichment” for second graders at the local elementary.  This grew into a school-wide program for the next couple of years, as she found other volunteers to help cover all six grade levels.  Teachers recommended the students who participated in the weekly pull-out program.  “The Fibonacci Series, tangrams, sieve of Eratosthenes, logic puzzles, and math games are just some examples of topics the students explored.”  (Right, student plays with a Geoboard in Donna’s classroom, 1981)

When Northshore School District hired a number of people to work as Instructional Assistants to help students who were having difficulties understanding math, Donna took that position for 18 years.   “I liked the schedule of working four days a week and being very available for our own children at home.”  She continued to volunteer at the schools her children attended, being a PTA treasurer nearly every year.  She also co-chaired a Noontime Enrichment Program which was an opportunity for students to explore new interests and develop skills during their noon recess.  These programs included origami, Spanish language, animal care, math games, and sewing, among many other topics.

When co-sponsoring a Math Club, Donna helped 5^th and 6^th graders prepare to compete at Math Olympiads.  The Washington State PTA has a Golden Acorn Award program to recognize individuals who have given outstanding volunteer service to children and youth.  Donna received one at the elementary school and another later at the high school. 

Family Travel: Summer road trips and occasional flights to Kansas.  Road trip to Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm (photo at right).

Activities: All their children played soccer through the WA Youth Soccer Association. Clint coached and refereed, and Steve and Randy did some refereeing as well.  “For a few years, all five of us were playing soccer, Clint and I on adult recreational teams.”

The children were also involved with music lessons in piano, trumpet, and violin and participated in school band, and orchestra. “Lani and I enjoyed playing in the Bell Choir at church.”

“In 1985, our family hosted a teenage girl from Okinawa, Yukari, who came with a group to experience life in America for a month. We formed a close bond and welcomed her back two years later for a stay at Christmas time. We took her snow skiing, and she felt snow for the very first time.” (Right, Donna, 1986)

Family life in retirement

Children

• Steve was with Microsoft for 25 years and now works at Oracle. Married with two children. He plays on an adult soccer team and lives in West Seattle.
• Lani taught mathematics at Hudson Valley Community College in New York early in her marriage. Now married with three children and lives in Woodinville, WA.
• Randy, a West Point graduate, served in the U.S. Army for 21 years and achieved the rank of Lt. Colonel. His tours of duty included Iraq and Afghanistan. Now with PACCAR at Bellevue headquarters (they build Peterbilt and Kenworth Trucks).  Married with two children and living in DuPont, WA.

Grandchildren: When the grandchildren started to arrive, Donna retired from part-time teaching. “I loved reading books to our young grandchildren and have planned an annual ‘Cousin Sleepover’ at Grandma and Grandpa’s.  Due to the pandemic, we had to do a Zoom event last year.  I do regret not giving my own mother more of those joys with our children because we lived so far apart.  She was always supportive with tons of letters through the years, and we made the most of those times when we were together.” (Left, Donna’s grandchildren, 2017)

Travel: Besides many U.S. road trips and a tour of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, Donna and Clint’s memorable trips with each of their families include a 12-day sailing trip through the Inside Passage of British Columbia with Lani’s family; a stay at Whistler, Canada, with Steve’s family; and a trip to Germany to visit Randy and Nicole and watch Randy compete in the Frankfurt Ironman Triathlon.

Retirement Activities

“Geocaching is an adventure we have enjoyed with members of our family.  We have discovered caches in Canada and Germany as well as the U.S. Geocaches are hidden all over the world.”

Donna is a member of the Washington State Native Plant Society. She and Clint developed a nature trail in their backyard.   Their yard is a Certified Wildlife Habitat through the National Wildlife Federation, and they have enjoyed seeing deer, raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, and an occasional black bear around their home. Click on the title to see “A Walk on a Woodland Trail.”  The garden has been featured twice in tours organized by the regional chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society.

Mentors who influenced Donna

“Perhaps I had teaching in my genes.  One of my great grandfathers taught in German schools, and my mother and her sister both taught in Kansas country schools.  At the large family gatherings at the Hett farm, I often corralled my younger cousins upstairs to play “school.”  Math teachers who inspired me included Miss Benedict at East High (at left), and Dr. Laws at Southwestern College.  When I later worked as an Instructional Assistant in math, I had a dynamic supervisor, Lois Beal, who shared her enthusiasm for our work and provided great training sessions.  She insightfully issued each of us a portable MAC computer even before the classroom teachers had them!  Lois and her husband Jack Beal, emeritus professor of math education at the University of Washington, grew up in Fredonia, Kansas.“

Thoughts about life

“I think we should pursue our passions and those things that we value and enjoy; and through those activities, try to share some joy to others whom we meet along life’s path. It’s been said that “Friends come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.”   Hopefully, I have made some positive impact on those students and friends whom I have encountered over the years, as they have also influenced my life in big and small ways.  And I also think if we learn to use earth’s resources in a responsible way, we can pass on a better environment to future generations.”

 

Editor’s Note: Many thanks to Lee Ayres for the idea of interviewing a classmate for a profile, conducting  interviews, writing the story, and working with Donna to polish it. They enjoyed renewing their friendship, which is one of the goals of a reunion.