Class of 1960 Notes
60th Reunion
By John Wilkinson
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“For as long as we live, they too will live, For they are now a part of us, as We remember them.” |
Carol Schaller, Doug Geiger, Clem Barrere, Tess Felfe Virmani, Jamie Barrere, Peter Felfe
This verse concluded the reading of the names of the 145 classmates who had died since our last reunion. Those reading at the Giamatti Bench on the Old Campus were Bob Ackerman, Donald Dell, Mike Dickerson, Doug Guiler, Rob Hanke, Peter Knudsen, Harry Mazadoorian, Dick Sigal, Peter Wells, Rusty Wing, and honorary classmates Lynn Hanke and Carol Schaller. Bill Weber then led us in singing Bright College Years as we placed Peruvian lilies on the Bench to honor our departed friends.
It was a good reunion and Rusty Wing and Dick Sigal are to be commended and thanked for making it happen at last. Attendance was down (46 classmates, 35 spouses and friends, three widows) but the twice postponement, age, health, Covid, and fear of Covid kept many away. One of our number, who has changed nationality, did not yet have a new passport.
Bob Ackerman, Rusty Wing, Peter Wells, President Salovey, John Wilkinson, Jim Ottaway, John Levin
It was a great opportunity to see friends, renew friendships, even make some new ones; to remember, re-remember, and even to learn anew what was not clear then. The food, service, ambience were excellent. The campus looked terrific. The class sponsored lectures on the climate (Jennifer Marlon, Research Scientist), the shadow war with Russia and China (CNN’S Jim Sciutto ´92), and the Constitution (the Law School´s Akhil Amar ´80), resulted in many questions and thoughtful discussion. The University provided more than two dozen lectures, demonstrations, and tours, a mere appetizer of what is offered to today´s undergraduate. What a feast!
Peter Wells, our estimable Class Secretary, presented plaques, some in person, some in absentia, for “distinguished service” to the Class of 1960. Awardees were Bob Ackerman, David Carls, Donald Dell, Peter Dickinson, Doug Geiler, Rob Hanke, Peter Knudsen, Harry Mazadoorian, Arvin Murch, Al Puryear†, Dick Sigal, Jim Taylor, John Wilkinson, and Rusty Wing.
The trio of John Levin, Jim Ottaway, and John Wilkinson were thanked for their third successful reunion gift campaign. That success of $13,351,909, $1.5 million over goal, was achieved though the efforts of the Reunion Gift Committee consisting of Bob Ackerman, Peter Benfield, Peter Cooper, Donald Dell, Mike Dickerson, Bruce Duggar, Peter Felfe, Doug Geiler, Rob Hanke, Michael Harris, Ralph Hirschorn, Sam Lambert, Tim Light, Bill MacKinnon, Harry Mazadoorian, Steve O´Brien, John Pepper, Monroe Price, Al Puryear†, George Rieger, David Wood, and Tom Yamin†.
Peter Knudsen reported on the successful transfer of stewardship of our three class fellowships to the Class of 1986 and the ongoing “Tuesday Teas,” all posted on the class website.
At the concluding class dinner on Saturday night, our Whiffenpoofs sang with spirited harmony, with a little help from borrowed pitch pipe, Peter Sipple ´62, and new member Chandler Everett. Sixty-two years since graduation have not diminished the solo voice of Stew Cole. And we all joined in singing the Whiffenpoof Song, “while life and voice shall last/ Then we’ll pass and be forgotten with the rest.” Perhaps they are all too saccharine, unduly nostalgic, but those words and those from Bright College Years, “The shortest, gladdest years of life” moved many of us to barely disguised tears. “Oh, why doth time so quickly fly?”!!!
Hope to see as many of you who can attend at the mini-reunion next spring scheduled for May 8-12, 2023, in the Delaware Valley, including the architectural, artistic, historic, and horticultural wonders of Philadelphia and Wilmington, and, of course, our next full reunion in New Haven is only three years away!
Tempus fugit, sumus hic.