The Dunlap High School Alumni Association traces its beginnings to June 1923, when graduates from the Classes of 1919 and 1920 gathered for a reunion and decided to organize an alumni association.
The first organizational meeting of the Dunlap High School Alumni Association was held on August 17, 1923, at Shehan’s Hall. Later that year, Shehan’s Hall was also the site of the first Alumni Banquet, held on December 29, 1923. Seventy-two alumni and guests attended the three-course dinner. Dunlap High School Principal George F. Coriell served as toastmaster, and Clifford Merrill was the featured speaker.
Historically, the Alumni Association has not charged dues, and each Dunlap High School graduate automatically becomes a member. In 1997, the association’s bylaws were amended to allow individuals who attended DHS but left before graduating—such as those who moved away, married, or entered military service—to become Associate Members. Upon request, these individuals could be added to the alumni list using the year in which they would have graduated and invited to alumni functions.
Dunlap High School’s graduating classes have grown considerably throughout its history. The school’s first graduating class in 1895 included just three students. In 1925, there were 12 graduates; by 1950, the graduating class had grown to 37. Twenty-five years later, 93 students graduated, and the Class of 2000 included 142 graduates.
At the time this history was originally published, the Alumni Association reported 5,251 DHS alumni, including the Class of 2001, along with 49 associate members and former teachers.
The annual Alumni Banquet also became a longstanding Dunlap tradition. Historically, it was held on the Saturday following the observed Memorial Day. As the number of Dunlap graduates increased, the Alumni Board changed its invitation practices beginning in 2000, sending banquet notices beginning with an alumnus’s 25th graduation anniversary unless an individual requested to receive them earlier.