Don and Norma (Smith) Yantz of Poulsbo celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with family and friends at a gathering at the Son’s of Norway Hall in Poulsbo on Saturday, Aug. 30.

Don and Norma were married Aug. 30, 1958 at the Methodist Church in Port Townsend and have lived in Poulsbo since August 1998. The couple met while attending high school in Port Townsend where Don graduated in 1956 and Norma graduated in 1957.

Don was born and raised in Port Townsend and was employed at the Boeing Company after graduation. He left the Boeing Company to join the U.S. Air Force in 1960. He spent the first year of service in a technical school in Denver and then spent three years serving on an English RAF Base in Central England. After leaving the service in 1964, Don spent most of his working career in the telecommunications industry and retired from the AT&T Corp. in December 1989.

Norma was born and raised in Seattle but moved to Port Townsend with her father and mother in 1954. The Central Hotel (in downtown Port Townsend) was owned and operated by the Smith family since it was built in 1875 and sold in 1962. While Norma was going to high school, her father (Warren Smith) agreed to move his family to Port Townsend to live in and manage the hotel in 1954.

When Don was reassigned from Denver to England in 1961, Norma returned to Port Townsend where their son Ron was born in September 1961. Soon after his birth, Ron and Norma joined Don in England. After returning to the Seattle area in 1966, Norma spent most of her working career in customer service with various electronic component distributors. She then joined Don in early retirement in December 1989.