Archive for category: 50th Reunion

Your 50^th Reunion co-chairs Cris Cobaugh, Bob Baldini and I are catching our breath after a busy and stimulating reunion.  Over the summer we’ll highlight and share info on several special reunion events.

Borrowing from the idea behind the well-known TED Talks, we inaugurated Class of ’74 Reunion “RED Talks”. Fifteen Notable classmates each gave a presentation on a topic about which they are passionate.  Many of us wished we could attend more than one Talk!  Although these RED Talks were not recorded, you can learn more about our classmate presenters through the links. Here’s a rundown on a few Talks—we’ll share info on other RED Talks in future emails.

Evan Stewart ‘74, senior partner in a New York City law firm, spoke about Myron Taylor, namesake of the Cornell Law School building.  Evan recently published Myron Taylor: The Man Nobody Knew, and will soon publish The Worst Supreme Court Decisions, Ever!  Watch  another talk he gave about his book durning the Reunion weekend.

Angel Harper ‘74, Los Angeles-based actress, voice-over artist and studio teacher, spoke on “From Cornell to Tinseltown…Debunking the Hollywood Industry Myth.”  Angel shared her experiences in the glamorous (and sometimes not so glamorous) world of Hollywood and offered insights on the complexity of the production process for films, videos, theatre productions, and musical acts.

Bruce Mainzer ’74, a longtime Chicago-area resident who retired from the hospitality industry, shared a fascinating story about his mother and aunt, called “Fleeing the Nazis: A Journey of Two Sisters and the Hero Who Outwitted the Gestapo.”  Bruce spent several years doing research in the US, Israel and Europe as he pieced together the story of how his mother escaped Nazi-occupied Prague in 1939.

Julie Kane ‘74, poetry scholar, professor, and the former Poet Laureate of Louisiana, spoke about how poetry pervaded Cornell in the 1970’s and how her experiences on campus inspired a lifelong passion.

Jack Corrigan ’74, a Cleveland native, radio announcer for the Colorado Rockies, and previously the voice of the Cleveland Indians and the Cleveland Cavaliers, regaled classmates with tales of amazing plays he’s called, role models (think Vin Scully) he’s known, and players whom he’s covered in his 40-plus year broadcasting career.

Bert Bland ’74, Associate VP of Energy & Sustainability at Cornell, explained his work as project manager for the Cornell Borehole project.  Cornell has drilled 2 miles deep, near the site of the apple orchards, to understand the potential for using earth source heat/thermal energy to heat the Ithaca campus in winter.

These presentations were informative and great fun.  The best part was the ensuing discussions—the Class of ‘74 knows how to engage!  I can’t wait to see the RED Talk lineup for our 55^th Reunion.

Finally, we need just 30 more gifts to Cornell to meet our 50^th Reunion participation goal.  If you haven’t yet donated, please give any amount to any area at Cornell and put us over the top!  Please make your gift by June 30.

Hope your summer is off to a good start!

Whether you made it to Cornell for our 50^th Reunion or not, we want to share some of the weekend’s highlights with you.  Even if you were in Ithaca, you may have missed some events or just want to relive them.  I know I did, and I do!

Thursday night’s highlight was a wonderful talk by Cornell Historian Corey Earle ’07 in which he entertained our standing-room-only crowd with a look back at our time on the Hill.  Watch Corey’s slideshow here.

Friday’s Olin Lecture, a Cornell Reunion tradition since 1987, featured journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin ’99, on campus to celebrate his own 25th Reunion.  Watch that lecture here.

President Martha Pollack gave the State of the University Address on Saturday as is the custom on Reunion weekend.  This address, however, is President Pollack’s final address as our President.  Watch it here.

Saturday evening ended with the spectacular Cornelliana Night at Bailey Hall featuring the Cornell Alumni Chorus and Alumni Glee Club singing multiple Cornell songs, one of which included a special solo by our classmate Jay Spiegel.  The sing-along concert also featured a lively rendition of our Class of ’74 50^th Reunion theme song Dancing in the Moonlight.

Please enjoy watching all of these.  And watch and rewatch our Class Slideshow.  Check in often to see the Reunion photos being posted daily by classmates on our Class Photo Site .  Password for these is notable.

Don’t forget to create or update your Memory Book page.  And there is still time to make that gift to Cornell to help us meet our goal—please do this by June 30.

Enjoy the memories and keep dancing in the moonlight!

Fifty years ago this weekend we assembled in Barton Hall for our commencement—see the front page of the 1974 graduation edition of the Cornell Daily Sun below.  My memories of that day are not crystal clear, although I do remember clear skies and a lot of excitement—maybe because of what we had accomplished or perhaps of what awaited us (or both).

 Our classmate Barry Strauss, who was a guest columnist for the Sun in 1974 and is now a professor of history at Cornell, wrote this epilogue 50 years ago:  “[The Class of 74] is intellectual , but sometimes anti-intellectual  (remember booing Strom Thurmond?): tolerant and independent, friendly and unfriendly, rather skeptical, not very public spirited, but well-educated. Some of us will slip away from Cornell as easily as we slipped in. Some will pine for it for a year. Some will never leave.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of us left, but many will return next week.  (Note: We’ve smashed the previous 50th Reunion attendance record held by the Class of ’59—but we have still have room for more!)  We will be greeted by a place that seems very familiar–the chimes still ring, the hills are still steep, the weather is unpredictable—but that is also very different.  Regardless of how Cornell has changed, it remains a place of unlimited possibilities.

If you can’t be on campus for the reunion, here are some ways you can participate virtually:

Register for the Virtual Reunion.

Join Corey Earle’s talk about our Years on the Hill–Thursday at 8pm EDT.

Listen in to WVBR which will be broadcasting live from our headquarters on Friday night, 9-11pm EDT.

Go to your Spotify account and search for “Cornell Class of 1974 50^th Reunion” and listen to 10 hours of the best music ever made (selected by our classmates, including you!)

And of course you can participate by making a gift to something on campus that is important to you.

So here’s to our Alma Mater,