Class that grew up along Gastineau Channel honored as Douglas grand marshals

The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé class of 1966, this year's grand marshal for the Douglas Fourth of July parade, walks together on Saturday, July 4, 2026. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Independent)

By Jasz Garrett

Juneau Independent

The same class that marched across the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé graduation stage 60 years ago marched in the Douglas Fourth of July parade as its grand marshal on Saturday.  

Judy Tufto, 78, returned to Juneau from Colorado with her husband, Jerry — with cowboy hats and no umbrella for the intermittent rain showers she recalled all too fondly.

“I left the day school was out in 1966,” she said. “I love Juneau. It was an innocent place to grow up instead of in a big city. Everybody knew everybody and we were all friends. We had a good time. And people said, ‘Well, it’s going to rain, aren’t you taking umbrellas?’ And I said, ‘People don’t use umbrellas up there.’”

She said their class was the first to have more than 200 students. Tufto said she moved to Juneau in 1958 and grew up often playing at the Mount Jumbo gym. After high school, she moved back to Colorado where she met her husband. 

Judy and Jerry Tufto walk in the Douglas parade on Saturday, July 4, 2026. Bruce Botehlo tosses taffy behind them. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Independent)

Her most recent trip to Juneau to share memories with her class was five years ago. Tufto said every summer there’s a class reunion, but not everyone can always make it. Her favorite high school activities included stage makeup for theater productions and playing volleyball with her sister.

“How many reunions we’ve had, might not have many more,” Tufto said while reminiscing. “It’s really special. Lots of hugs. It feels like it did back then.”

Cousins start a chant — “candy, give us candy” — during the Douglas parade on July 4, 2026. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Independent)

Tufto said some other members also walked in the downtown Juneau parade Saturday morning. She said she was most amazed by watching all the children at both parades run to pick up candy. 

“It’s kind of like I remember, but so many more people and kids,” Tufto said, adding her childhood wish to be in a parade finally came true. 

While the Douglas parade is what put the 1966 class in the spotlight, 43 graduates and their spouses attended a reunion dinner on Monday. A tour of the group’s former high school and Sentinel Island Lighthouse was also a part of the holiday weekend. Rich Mattson, vice president of the Gastineau Channel Historical Society, also led a historical mine tour for his classmates.

Don Zenger, who traditionally drives the car for the Douglas Fourth of July grand marshal, sits in it for the first time as a honoree on Saturday, July 4, 2026. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Independent)

Others who were unable to travel to Juneau — including the high school’s first foreign exchange student from Germany, Claudia DePers — remotely attended the reunion dinner. 

“We’ve been close over the years,” said Bruce Botelho, part of the class’s planning committee, who has visited DePers in Germany several times.

Botelho said a tour from JDHS to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Auke Bay Laboratory was meant to show how Juneau has changed over the decades. He said carnations were laid in the water near Sentinel Island to recognize the classmates who have passed on. 

“We’ve lost a lot of members, and it’s our chance to think about them as well,” he said, adding that reunions grow more important with age.

The class reunion ends on Tuesday with a picnic at Savikko Park — which was named after the Savikko twins in the 1966 class.

Disclaimer: Bruce Botelho is the Juneau Independent’s president of its board of directors.

• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.