President's Letter Summer 2003

Dear Classmates and Special Others,

Our spectacular 65th Birthday Celebration in Chicago left us all looking forward to another gathering, and one is nigh!

By now I’m sure you’ve already put the dates for our special October 3-5 Hanover Mini-reunion on your calendars. Now its time to send in your reservations and monies and make plans for where you will stay. Enclosed you’ll find the event-packed agenda for the weekend, the sign-up form and other relevant documents. We’ve responded to the popularity of last year’s museum event by building a Friday afternoon session around the exciting new show just opening at the Hood Museum, “Coming of Age in Ancient Greece”. We’ve added a Friday morning session where we’ll discuss with students and others the book all members of the incoming class are to read and talk about freshman week, “Pattern Recognition” by William Gibson (you can read the first chapter on amazon.com via a hot link on our class website, you can then buy it to read the rest!); for a parallel experience, think of the class of 1917 sitting down with us the fall of 1956 and discussing “Catcher in the Rye”! Saturday is our Class Meeting featuring conversations with students we’ve sponsored, followed by the scrumptious tailgate, assorted afternoon activities and a gala dinner at the Hanover Inn (we’ve even been able to lower the price to$36!). Sunday features a buffet brunch followed by more alternative activities. All of this in the midst of what promises to be one of the most colorful autumns for leaf peeping. And our week earlier date this year avoids the dreaded traffic on Columbus Day weekend. Don’t delay, send in your reservations today!

Just a few other items for your attention. Ken Johansen and his loyal agents - and over 2/3rds of you - have done it again! Our class raised $447,890 for the college, surpassing our previous non-reunion record of $410,242 and shattering the previous year-out record of $267.676 set by the class of 1955. Our participation rate of 67.5% towered over the college average rate of 45%. Thanks to all who contributed, especially those who responded early to spare the follow-up phone call! We warmly welcome the remaining 32.5% to join in helping us set another record next year!

Finally, our Alumni Council Representative Jim Adler has summarized in an enclosed report some good news from their last meeting, which is well worth your reading.

See you in October!

Rick Roesch, Class President