Fall 2018 Mini-Reunion

Our Fall 2018 Mini-Reunion was held September 28 – 30, and contained a full calendar of events:

Steve Brown writes in Class Notes:

We had a wonderful Mini -Reunion weekend on the last weekend of September in Williamstown. We had classmates and friends of ’71 return for all or part of the weekend which was highlighted by: a class of ‘71 Forum discussion on the Main Stage of the ‘62 Theater, a visit with new President Maud Mandel at our class meeting on Friday afternoon, a presentation by Wally Schlech, John McGill and Bob Schwed on the Main Stage at the ‘62 Theater on Saturday morning, a Williams football victory over Trinity on Saturday afternoon and finally culminating with a class dinner at the Taconic Golf Club on Saturday night with lots of laughter, remembrances of Sey, and lots of good old ‘71 camaraderie.

Eighteen classmates and friends of ‘71 started the weekend early by attending a Thursday night presentation sponsored by our ‘71 Public Forum entitled “Free Speech and Intolerance.” A huge thank you to Jack Sands for his continued effort in making the ‘71 Public Forum a thought-provoking and well attended event on the Williams campus. At least 100 students attended as wll as a number of townspeople, faculty and locals alums. Our class was out in force with the following: John and Karen Ackroff, Sue Brown and me, Rod Brown, Dan and Jody Hunt, Dave and Audrey Kubie, Steve Latham, Ken Richardson, Jack and Arria Sands, Nick and Ann Tortorello, Mary and John Untereker (all the way from Houston), and Peter and Kathy Wege. BTW – earlier in the day, we spotted Gene Bauer, along with Ellen Shortell, trying to make a downhill put on the 6th hole at Taconic.

On Friday, Wally Schlech, John McGill, Mike Rade, Bob Eyre, and Gary Barth spoke to 65-70 students in a jammed Wege Auditorium about their medical careers both in the US and abroad. Our ‘71 medical contingent was joined by Bob Schwed who spoke to the students about his experience as a retired Mergers and Acquisitions lawyer working on the Board of a non-profit that is establishing a healthcare system in Tanzania which includes building hospitals.

Wally has shared his presentation with us.  If you view the thumbnails and hover your mouse over the pictures, you’ll see his explanations.

as has Bob:

Later in the afternoon, we had our annual class meeting. We were fortunate to have President Maud Mandel with us for 45 minutes, most of which was covered by her answering questions from our classmates.

Reunion chair Rob Farnham reported on outreach efforts so far, including recruiting 37 volunteers to make sure all our classmates and friends of ’71 knows we would love to see them in Williamstown in June, 2021. Geo Estes and Ken Richardson gave us an update on the status of the ‘71 Class Gift, and Jack Sands, Bob Schwed, and Mike Rade reported on the 3 specific buckets of our 50th Class Gift (public interest fellowships, out Class scholarship fund, and funding for students doing research with science professors).

John Ackroff gave a very positive report on our Annual Fund. Finally, John Chambers, with John Ackroff’s assistance, wowed the crowd with a prototype of our Class’ website which is equipped with features like “find a classmate”, a digital version of every Williams record published when we were there and much much more. Finally we heard from two Williams recipients of the ’71 Scholarships who thanked the class for its generosity and told us about their backgrounds, how they found their way to Williamstown and their experience as students. In addition to those already listed, we were joined on Friday by Peter Clarke, John and Louise Finnerty, Hugh Hawkins, Roger Kaufman, Tim Murnane and Diana Michaels, Dave and Susan Olson, and Paul and Megan Schneider.

On Friday night we attended a dinner at the Williams Inn with the classes of ‘68, ‘69, ‘70 and ‘72. It was wonderful opportunity to catch up with old friends from other classes.

The Saturday morning highlight was the presentation of Wally Schlech, John McGill and Bob Schwed, very ably moderated by Laura Estes, to a gathering of about 200 alums about their experiences in healthcare overseas, particularly in Africa.
Saturday afternoon featured a tailgate at Farley-Lamb Field, a beautiful fall afternoon, and an exciting football win over Trinity (whom Williams had not beaten since 2011). Jim Lavigne along with his wife, Mary Gavin, returned to the campus for the first time in over 40 years. Jim was accompanied by Bill Pinakiewicz (“Pinky”) ’72, who looked fit enough to get on the football field if the Ephs needed him in the fourth quarter.
We ended the weekend’s formal activities with a wonderful gathering at the Taconic Golf Club for dinner on Saturday.

Before we sat down, a number of classmates shared warm and humorous memories of Sey Zimmerman. We toasted a classmate who had worked so tirelessly for so many years for our class.

Gary Barth won the “long ball” for traveling all the way to our mini-reunion from Santa Rosa, CA, followed by Tim Murnane from Scottsdale, AZ.
I think everyone left looking forward to the next time we could all get together. We look forward to seeing other classmates and friends of ‘71 at one of our events leading up to the 50th.