I just got an invitation to my high school class’s fifth reunion. (Yikes!)

They mention a memorial mass and then list those who have passed away from all the classes that are included in the reunion. Here are all of the classes included, and the count of students from that class who died:

• 1959: 1, at the girl’s school that merged with ours
• 1969: 5
• 1974: 5, plus 3 from the all-girl’s school
• 1979: 2
• 1999: 1
• 2004: 2

Besides the fact that it’s pretty scary to realize that two people from my class — both of whom I knew — have died, the numbers just seem really strange to me. (Yes, I realize that we only include classes every 5 years.) In particular, among all the included classes between 1979 and 1999, there were zero deaths, yet 1974 saw eight deaths.

The only explanation I can think of is the Vietnam War, which would explain the surges in ’69 and ’74. However, my parents back up Wikipedia in suggesting that there weren’t many soldiers in Vietnam by 1974, so it doesn’t seem likely that very many people who graduated high school in 1974 would have been sent to Vietnam, nor would it explain why there was still an apparent “tail” from the class of 1979, who would have graduated several years after the war was over.

If you write ’69 and ’74 off as being related to the Vietnam War, even though I’m not sure that’s the case, it’s still troubling that the class of 2004 had what is now the greatest number of deaths of any year, although it’s tied with 1979.

I’d really be interested in seeing a graph of this data across all years, not just those ending in 4 or 9. But it seems like it would be in poor taste to try to contact the alumni office to request it. The numbers just don’t make sense to me, though; it’s too wide a fluctuation to be random chance, I think.