10 Decades of Memories: Jim Vogt's 100th Birthday Gathering Draws More than 90

In the 1950s, when Paul Vogt was growing up in Healdsburg, he took chemistry and physics from the only

"He was the best teacher, really," said Paul Vogt, now 70 and a resident of Scottsdale, Ariz. "He made those subjects come alive.

"It was not unusual to have explosions happening during his lectures," he added. "He planned it that way."

On Saturday, Paul Vogt, who graduated from in 1959, his sister Colleen Estill of Santa Rosa and their brother Ted Vogt of Madera organized a 100th birthday party for their father, who was born on Nov. 26, 1911.

More than 90 family members, friends and Jim Vogt's former students attended the party at the Jim Vogt taught at Healdsburg High for 23 years.

"We liked him," said Norma Jacobsen Passarino, 84, of Healdsburg, a member of Jim Vogt's first Healdsburg High School graduating class in 1944. "He was a nice teacher."

Ben Freeland of Idaho said he drove down to Healdsburg in a caravan with other relatives to attend the party. Freeland, 60, is the son of Jim Vogt's sister Marjorie, who died at the age of 95. Vogt had two other sisters, Helen, who died at 99, and Grace, who lived into her 80s.

"I used to live in Vacaville until 1966, and then we moved to Idaho," Freeland said. "My cousins met up with us in Idaho and we all traveled down here yesterday."

Highlight of Saturday's event was an epic video, "Jim Vogt's Amazing 100 Years," put together by Paul Vogt over hundreds of hours of work.

In the video, Jim Vogt's 10 decades of living are interwoven through a montage of news clips, music of the day, pop culture briefs and changing auto styles and new technology.

"It took me a long time to get the pieces together," Paul Vogt said.

"It was awesome," said Duane deLong of Healdsburg, a classmate of Paul Vogt's. "I saw my mother (Tillie Daniels) in two photos when she was a faculty member at Healdsburg High School."

In his later years, Jim Vogt was an astronomy and physical science instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College. He is also known for being president of the original an avid pilot and ground flight instructor and passionate golfer.

Vogt started the Healdsburg High School golf team and took the team to its first championship in 1958.

Former Healdsburg residents Fred and Evalee Vellutini said they drove four hours in heavy holiday traffic from their current home in Santa Cruz to get to Saturday's event.

"Jim Vogt was a tremendous teacher," said Fred Vellutini, who studied under Vogt until he quit high school at age 17 and joined the Navy. "Otherwise we wouldn't be here."