Thursday, September 13, 2018

Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, my Alma Mater

~ Harbor View from Balboa Yacht Club in Newport Beach, California ~

 Corona Del Mar High School Class of 1968 50th Reunion 

Life has taken so many twists & turns for me since my graduation from Corona del Mar High School in 1968... I hitch hiked across the USA from California to Massachusetts in 1971 and settled on Nantucket Island for many years.... I flourished as a "street artist" until recession of 1974 put me into a more practical mode doing dishes at a resort hotel, helping to renovate it's dining room, and learning the interior/exterior painting trade. I met Susan on the island back  1985, we stayed married for 30 years & raised our two children, Mary & David (aka Damian), living in Gloucester on the North Shore. After they grew up, we moved to New Bedford, sold our home we owned for 20 years & bought the home near Buttonwood Park where my former wife continues to live. We stayed friends when I decided to move to Sirius Community (in the western part of the state) and I became a full member of this Eco-village. What has been a great challenge for me in my life is dichotomy of my name change. In high school everybody knew me as Henry Ware Royster. Having been raised by my natural mother & step-father Bob Royster and not knowing my blood father who left my mother when I was 6-months old, birth name of Joseph David Bryan was buried, until my experience of an identity crisis in 1974-76 that sent me on a personal quest to take back my birth name, re-connect with lost relatives in Pennsylvania, only to find it created confusion with my identity as an artist (remember, I used monogram "HwR" on my artwork). Solution to this situation was creation of the hybrid name that I am using now: Joseph David Henry Ware Bryan-Royster (Joseph H Bryan-Royster is my  name on Facebook & Messenger). I had made prior commitments to Sirius Community & it's 40th Anniversary Celebration this month, & did not know details of our 50th Class Reunion at CdMHS. By the time heard it was on the 8th of this month and held at the Balboa Yacht Club, it was too late for me to attend.

Joseph a/k/a Henry

 ~ Corona del Mar High School "Sea Kings" Emblem ~

Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CdMHSClassOf1968Reunion/

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