2011: Janet Lynn Rubert
In 2001, Janet Lynn (Bray) Rubert started the annual Suffragette Tea and Style Show commemorating the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. The event is hosted each year by the Cowlitz County Democratic Women’s Club. Fifty years ago, Janet helped found the childbirth education program at Cowlitz General Hospital. Her leadership of that program earned her induction as a fellow in the American College of Childbirth Education. Janet has been featured in a Reed College magazine for her community service and long-time work with women’s issues.

2012: Harland Gilliland
Harlan Gilliland had been pastoring a Presbyterian Church in Spokane when he was hired as senior pastor at Longview Community Church in 1987. He arrived after the church split and began urging forgiveness and reconciliation. Over time, more than a dozen members who had left returned. During Gilliland’s years, the church hosted ’23 Club dinners. He and his wife, Shirley, embraced Longview’s history and applied for honorary status in the club. Its 1992 annual newspaper ad lists them among the first four couples to be admitted as honorary members.

2013: Dennis Weber
Dennis Weber was invited to join the ’23 Club when he was mayor of Longview. He held that post for 10 of the 22 years he served on the city council (1980-92 and 2002-12). Since 2013, he has been a Cowlitz County commissioner. Previously, he taught social studies at Natural High School and R.A. Long, where he met his wife, Kris McElroy, in 1975. He developed a high school course on Pacific Northwest history and has written in-depth articles for Cowlitz County and state historical societies’ publications.

2014: Maila Cadd
In 1908, Maila Cadd’s maternal grandparents, immigrants from Finland, settled on Columbia Heights. Although she never lived there, Maila bought an acre from them when she was a college senior. Forty years later, after a teaching career in Oregon, she and husband Jim built on the property where her mother, Elsie Wayrynen Rinta, was born. Since returning to Longview, Maila has been president of the PeaceHealth St. John Foundation and the Cowlitz County Historical Society.

2015: Calvin Fowler
Seventy-three years before Longview was founded, Cal Fowler’s great-great-grandparents filed a donation land claim near a murky body of water that would become Lake Sacajawea. Jesse and Margaret Fowler drove an ox team from Independence, Missouri, in 1850. They settled near a slow-moving stream that pioneers called Fowler’s Slough. Cal grew up in Portland and knew none of his family’s history until 1972, when he started a 35-year teaching and coaching career in Longview. Discovering the Fowlers’ deep roots sparked Cal’s interest in Longview history.

2016: Jackie Kelly Evans
At age 16, Jackie Evans began an annual family ritual: She drove her parents to ’23 Club dinners. Six decades later, she agreed to be president — a role she has also assumed with several community nonprofits. Her tendency to accept leadership roles began at Mark Morris High School, where she was in the first graduating class. Her grandfather, J.H. Kelly, settled in Longview in 1923 to start J.H. Kelly Plumbing and Heating. Today, Jackie’s eldest son, Mason Evans, oversees the firm, now a mechanical contracting company with more than 1,000 employees.

2017: Carolyn Caines
Carolyn Caines is a third-generation area resident, Kelso High graduate, retired teacher, novelist, and poet. She has published nine books. Her Finnish grandparents arrived here in 1906. Carolyn recalls attending ’23 Club dinners with her mother in the ’60s and ’70s. When Maila Cadd was club president, Carolyn joined her in presenting a program about Finnish settlers. Carolyn’s program on
growing up in Longview featured her poems and other members’ stories that were published in a book, Longview in the 50s. She says the ’23 Club has fostered many continuing friendships with others who love Longview.

2018: Arleen Hubble
For years, Arleen Hubble jokingly told friends she was a “street walker.” Usually on foot, she solicited ads from downtown merchants as a sales rep for The Daily News. She enjoyed helping her customers organize community events, starting with the Downtown Christmas Parade. Next was marshaling the Go 4th Parade, a job she has done for more than 30 years. Arleen learned about the ’23 Club by preparing its annual ad. She met a friendly club officer who invited her to the 2015 dinner. Then he asked her to lead the flag salute. She naively said “sure,” unaware she was stepping down the path to becoming president.

2019: Jeff Wilson
Even though he’s not a Longview native, Jeff Wilson is hooked on local history. He moved to Longview in 1970 and graduated from Mark Morris High School in 1978. Since then, he has owned successful businesses that allowed him to contribute to historical projects. He was among the main movers to restore the Long-Bell Shay locomotive, now under cover by the library. He has also paid for
historic markers, such as an interpretive panel at Victoria Freeman Park. Jeff holds two elected offices — Port of Longview commissioner and 19th District state senator.

2020-21: Helene Watson
The Covid-19 pandemic extended Helene Watson’s tenure as ’23 Club president by a year. With meetings shut down, she also assumed the duties of secretary/ treasurer, which were a good fit for her college and banking background. Helene continues in that role. Her working life in Longview included jewelry engraving and a supervisory position at Rainier Bank. She left the bank to finish her college degree. Then she worked in Longview Fibre’s purchasing department for 20 years. Helene is the longtime secretary of the R.A. Long High School Alumni Association.

2022: Abe Ott
Abe Ott and his wife, Joanna, grew up in Longview. After graduating from Mark Morris High School in 2001, he studied history at the University of Washington and completed his master’s coursework at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He returned to Longview to write his master’s thesis on the intersection of the City Beautiful movement and the planning and construction of Longview. He is
a business development manager at JH Kelly. At age 39, Abe was the youngest president in club history.

2023: Robert “Bob” Gaston
Bob Gaston joined The Daily News in 1973, the year of Longview’s golden anniversary. He and his wife, Georgeann, have lived on Beacon Hill ever since. By virtue of their three sons being Kelso High graduates, they remain loyal Hilanders. In 1974, Gaston was promoted to managing editor in charge of news coverage. The Daily News won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for its reporting on the Mount St.
Helens eruption. Bob retired in 1999 when the family-and employee-owned paper was sold. He is a former editor of the Cowlitz Historical Quarterly and has served as a board member for FISH of Cowlitz County since 2000.