Summer 2008

Reunion Report
by Gordon Silver and Steven Siegel

It’s hard to believe, but it’s true! Forty years have passed since our graduation from Cornell! To celebrate the event, a hardworking group of classmates helped plan and run an amazing reunion, June 5-8. The 40th was clearly our best ever. Maybe it was the wonderful class events or the fabulous weather or the great lectures or the Reunion Run, golf tournament, and class barbecue. Or maybe it was the fact that by the 40th, people are relaxed and mellow and more interested in catching up with old friends and meeting new ones than announcing their own success. There were many reasons – and it was a great weekend!

Special credit goes to our hardworking reunion chair Henry Siegel, who went all out for the class, and the amazing Nancy Nystrom Frantz, who handled registration. Pete Woodworth was in charge of favors, Kathy Maney Fox did the great decorations, Joel Kurtzberg handled affinity communications, and Jim Gutman put together a collage of Cornell Daily Sun stories from our years on the Hill.

Class of '68 Reunion planners. Left to right: Henry, Joel, Pete, Kathy, Nancy

On the important fundraising front, class campaign chairs Jay Waks and Peter Orthwein were assisted by the Class of ‘68 40th Reunion Major Gifts Committee, who helped the class raise more than $1 million for Cornell and also set a class record for Tower Club members. (Tower Club recognizes those who give $5,000 or more in a year.)

Many thanks to our outgoing class officers for all their work since our 35th reunion: Nancy Kulerman Hodes, president; Jane Frommer Gertler, vice president – membership; Steven Siegel, webmaster/secretary/historian; Beth Deabler Corwin, treasurer; Gordon Silver, class correspondent (1983-2008); Henry Siegel, reunion chair; Jak Waks and Walter Schenker, Cornell Fund representatives. A gift to the Class of 1968 Cornell Tradition Fellowship was made by the class treasury in honor of the outstanding and dedicated service of these classmates.

Outgoing Class of '68 officers. Left to right: Nancy, Henry, Jay, Gordon, Walter, Steven

At our Saturday evening dinner, the following classmates were elected to serve until our 45th reunion: Steven Siegel, president; Jane Gertler, vice president – membership; Corinne Dopslaff Smith, webmaster; Beth Corwin, treasurer; Mary Hartman Schmidt, class correspondent; Henry Siegel, reunion chair; Jay Waks, Cornell Fund representative; Nancy Hodes, Chuck Levitan and Gordon Silver, class council.

Two reunion highlights: At our Class Forum, Ross Brann, the Milton R. Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies (and Dean of Alice Cook House, where our class stayed), provided a fascinating update on Mideast affairs. At the class barbecue at the beautiful Cornell Plantations, president emeritus Hunter Rawlings welcomed the class, and Dean Koyanagi ‘90, coordinator of Cornell's sustainability efforts, described the university’s efforts to preserve the environment.

One hundred seventy classmates and 93 guests – a total of 263 – attended our 40th reunion. The full list of attendees is posted here.

Photos from reunion will be available soon. To those who attended, thank you for sharing the weekend’s adventure. To everyone in our class, plan to come to our 45th in 2013.

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Below is a reflection on the weekend by a classmate for whom this was his first campus visit in forty years. Confessions of a Reunion Virgin by Jim Kelly

I had not been back to Cornell since graduation in 1968, when I departed from the Hill to begin what amounts to my adult life. In the intervening years I had retained but one friend from that class, David De Porte. Back then David and I shared a crucial period in both of our lives, for during our senior year we participated in an informal salon hosted by a visiting professor of fine art and our mutual mentor, the late John Button. At graduation John, an openly gay artist of some note, had insisted that we come out of the closet with all future friends and relations, vowing that anyone who rejected us on the basis of our sexuality did not deserve friendship, a courageous declaration coming before the Stonewall Riots which initiated what soon thereafter evolved into the gay rights movement. Braving ostracism in order to lead a more authentic life colored our futures and marked a turning point in personal liberation, holding as much significance to both of us as the diplomas we were about to receive. Neither one of us had ever been back to Cornell, but in recent years we decided to return to the haunts of our youth for our 40th Reunion.

Upon arrival on the vastly changed campus, we found ourselves deposited on the curb at the Statler. A phone call to class headquarters elicited a van, which whisked us to the dorms where we would spend the next few days. Cheerful and stalwart youths, Alex and Alex, bore our bags and we checked in. Over the next few days, class clerks Natalia Avalos ’08, Heather Griffis ’08, Scott McKinney ’08, Julia Rizzo ’11 and Annie Ross ’09 found myriad opportunities to serve our needs and to provide for our wellbeing.

I didn’t think I would know many classmates and this expectation proved well founded. I met but one person I had known, Louise Manning, with whom I had appeared in plays, both as a fellow actor and under her direction (the acme of my thespian career). That didn’t matter, however, as everyone we encountered proved gracious. Xia attracted kindly interest and all of us felt welcomed.

Over the course of the weekend I did several things I had never done while an undergrad: I visited the Plantations (twice); I took a bird walk in Sapsucker Woods; and I climbed McGraw Tower to experience a chimes concert in progress, a deafening but thrilling experience. I also had the privilege of a glimpse into the Human Sexuality Collection at Kroch Library, a resource I am committed to support, both financially and with archival materials.

Specific activities mattered less, however, than the people encountered, peers now in more ways than one. As Boomers, we share a cultural milieu: we were eight or nine when The Mickey Mouse Club first aired in 1955; we were seventeen or eighteen when John F. Kennedy was assassinated – a national paroxysm of grief; we were the perfect age to appreciate the Beatles’ arrival in the US and the change they wrought upon popular music; we experienced the Viet Nam War and the civil rights struggles as young adults; and we all went to Cornell.

These milestones and the years that have passed since have given us mutual perspective, a viewpoint that now fostered community. We understood one another’s context better than we had when we first came from different parts of the world to further our academic ambitions. Tyros in the midst of a detested war, we then shared anxiety about the future, but now our reunion attracted individuals satisfied with their lives and proud of professional and personal accomplishment. No longer in competition for grades, status or mates, we could encounter one another more squarely as equals; our once uncertain futures had come to pass and we could enjoy each other with greater ease. And enjoy one another we did, at meals, at events and in late night talks reminiscent of the bull sessions of the dorms, but with more substance (perhaps).

Over the long weekend I grew into a deeper appreciation for Cornell University as an institution: I could now better recognize her diversity and breadth; I could acknowledge what a magnificent environment she created and dwelt in; and I could see what my years there had wrought, not only in me but also within all whom she had touched. It mattered little if I saw friends from days of yore for I met new friends: Claire and David; Richard; John; Russ; Steve and Rob; Laddie and Evelyn; Andrea and many more.

Many thanks to David and Xia for joining me on this journey. Thank you Cornell. And thanks again John, you were right.

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