What a great time sharing the 45th reunion with the class of ’68. We can’t say enough about the great results from all the efforts our co-chairs Rick Willets and Paul Tuhus put into making this reunion memorable.
Our Thursday introduction to the College was dreary and wet but the camaraderie under the ’69 tent was happy and warm as we registered for the weekend, collected our bag of memorabilia and information and began to see familiar and not-so-familiar faces. There were more than 80 of them, many with spouses and friends. The list of attendees will be posted on our webpage so please visit that for more in-depth coverage of our weekend in Hanover.
There were many classmates I had neither seen nor heard from in many years. Some of those were Sam Crawford, whose presence was made more memorable by his act of catching up on 10 years of class dues with a check he handed to Paul; Peter Meigs, with Marge, who made the trip from San Francisco; Clark Doran; Tex Talmadge, who made the trek from Dallas; and Chuck Morey, who had recently returned from Moscow where one of his plays, Laughing Stock, recently opened.
During our three-day stay we enjoyed scheduled lunches and dinners plus seminars, guided tours of College facilities and open houses at fraternities and College departments. At those events we saw Tom Hunt, Jud Graves, Jim Staros, Tom Parks and Doran Doeh, who journeyed from Moscow for the reunion.
Saturday morning the class meeting was held where nearly half of us attended and elected new officers. Actually, there were very few “new” officers as several were asked to remain in their positions. However, John Mathias will replace Sandy Alderson, who sent his regrets for missing the reunion due to family needs and also withdrew from consideration for continuing as president. We appreciate all Sandy did for the class and the College during his term and know he will remain active in both. In Sandy’s place, Andy McLane chaired the meeting and will remain a vice president along with Rick and newly added Kelly Simpson. The only other change was the addition of a new office—class blacksmith—which will be more than adequately filled by Dimitri Gerakaris.
There was a stirring medical seminar with a panel including Peter Lawrence,who attended with Karen; Craig Miller, there with Sandy; and Peter Schaeffer. The discussion was broadly based and warned us all of the pitfalls of aging in a time of uncertain insurance coverage and changing work commitments among new medical practitioners. I hope the entire discussion will be available on our website.
Unfortunately I cannot name them all here, but some other attendees were Dona Heller (’69A), Jud Graves, George Ross, Tupper Kinder, Randy Wallick, Doug McKenna, Joe Campbell, Ben Benner and Nick Perencevich. I have intentionally omitted names of classmates who have graced these pages many times before and who attend these events regularly, but they were there.
With no more space remaining for this column please check our website and newsletter for photos of the people and events we enjoyed at the reunion, and if you did not attend start planning to make it to our 50th!
—Steve Larson, 9101 W 146th St., Overland Park, KS 66221; (360) 770-4388; wheat69@outlook.com
