Dillard "Dill" and Virginia "Gin" Shipler of Richland celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary Dec. 26 at the Columbia River Gorge Hotel in Hood River, Ore. They were married in 1960. They are high school sweethearts from Klamath Union High School in Oregon.

Dill was in the Army at the time of their marriage and served in Korea during the war. He returned to college and after discharge, received a bachelor's degree with a major in math and science from Southern Oregon College and a master's degree with a major in physics from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. He is certified by the American Board of Health Physics. Dill started his career teaching high school and then as field executive for the Boy Scouts of America, then back to teaching at Oregon Technical Institute where he was introduced to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland. He followed national research and development projects with Radiation Management Corporation, NUS Corporation, Science Applications International Corporation, Advanced Sciences Inc., Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland.

Gin received a bachelor's degree in social science from Central Washington University and a master's degree in librarianship from the University of Washington. She worked as an administrative assistant, a librarian and bookkeeper. She was an academic librarian at Columbia Basin College and a user adviser for OCLC, Inc., in Columbus, Ohio, developing computer programs for the Library of Congress to be used by library networks nationally and internationally.

They have three children, Charles, Gregory and Christopher. They have seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.