First BGHS exchange student returns

  
German TV film crew captures reunion Aug. 6 of Gretel Rieber, the first-ever BGHS foreign exchange student, and 1952-53 classmate Louise McKay Tucker, in red shirt.  BGHS Principal Tim Lexow tried a 1953 letterman's sweater on Frau Rieber. (Click "read more.")

Gretel Wicke Rieber attended Battle Ground High School as an exchange student from Koln, Germany, in 1952-53. On Monday, Aug. 6, she was back, renewing friendships with former classmates and marveling at how much the school and town have changed over the years.

Believed to be the school’s first-ever foreign exchange student, Frau Rieber was greeted with hugs, smiles and exclamations by former BGHS classmates as she toured the town and school and was the guest of honor at a potluck dinner at Kiwanis Park for former classmates and friends.

Among the greeters were classmates Barbara Johnson Potter, Louise McKay Tucker and David Larson (Class of 1951). Larson’s late wife, Patty Skinner Larson, was the American “sister” to Gretel, who lived with the Skinner family that year, less than a decade after the end of World War II.

“This was a quiet, tidy, pretty little town,” Frau Rieber said as she recalled the slow pace and named just about every downtown business that year. “Now, not so much,” she said, referring to the growth, traffic and commercial signage.

Frau Rieber was accompanied by a film crew working on a documentary for German television about the history of the American Field Service, which sponsored the German girl’s year in the United States.