After all the planning and hard work done by our Reunion Chair, Hank Brittingham and his wife, Susie LaBarre Brittingham '71, we had a great party and a memorable weekend. This extraordinary pair deserves the gratitude of the Class of 1970! Hank has been our reunion chair for our last three and he will be doing the job again for our 35th in 2005. Carole Peck Fishman (with support from our classmate and her husband Cliff Fishman) did a fantastic job as our reunion registrar and took care of all the registrations and accompanying changes and problems with ease and style. And Jeff Haber is our very own webmaster and what a great job he did too. The website was very useful and convenient, fun to have and easy to use. Keep on logging on! Thank you to one and all.
We had a spectacular committee working for many months on our Cornell Fund campaign for this reunion. We reached a fantastic total for $4.83 million in gifts given by our classmates, including 32 Tower Club members (a donation of $5000. or more). We had the phenomenal number of 739 donors for the class which is 42% participation and sets a new record for a 30th Reunion class. The Major Gifts Committee was very ably led by Beth Heydinger Treadway and Kevin McGovern and included Charles Adelman, Ezra Cornell, Bruce Earle, Ellen Celli Eichleay, Daniel Kops, Gene Resnick, Martin Tang, and Paul Vizcarrondo. The Participation Committee members were John Cecilia, Cindy Johnson O'Malley, and Margo Williams Pollock. Thanks to all of them for doing an extraordinary job. A special thank you to our active and very generous classmate, Martin Tang. Martin has given a most substantial gift to the university in the form of a scholarship fund and thus spearheaded our campaign and helped us move to the heights we achieved. We gave two special Class of 1970 gifts to the university. Proudly, we now have the Class of 1970 Scholarship, as well as a sculpture by the artist Willie Cole that will be a part of the collection of the Johnson Museum on campus. Congratulations to all of us for these additions to the Cornell community.
The reunion activities were many and varied, too much to do it all! Our class shared in the University celebrations and also did our own celebrating. Our had our Friday night reception and dinner at the Ivy Room with our class photo being taken in front of the Straight. Saturday's lunch was at Trillium (part of the building that now closes the Bailey Hall end of the Ag Quad). Our grand finale dinner was at the newly renovated and spectacular Robert Purcell Community Center (thus named for the Chairman of the Board of Trustees during our years on campus). College dining halls and student unions have changed considerably in 30 years! Our special guest that night was Harold Tanner '52, who is presently Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Mr. Tanner and our classmate Margo Williams Pollock learned that they come from the same hometown.
The university marked the millennium by establishing a time capsule to be opened at the reunion in 2100. A big and special thank you to our classmate Andrea Strongwater who wrote the letter for the Class of 1970 and did a wonderful job. You can read it on our website. Ellen Celli Eichleay and I attended a symposium that David Burak organized and he informally apologized to our class for disrupting our graduation and he reported it was his roommate that truly felt the wrath of Morris Bishop. Three classmates , Hank Brittingham, Jim Chapman, and Ward Romer participated in the Annual Reunion Row. And we had a number of members . and several winners, take part in the Reunion Run. We all enjoyed the Ice Cream Socials that were held in our headquarters each evening. They added to the intimate atmosphere of our reunion which though not big in numbers, but rich in the sharing and meeting and enjoyment of the weekend. Three classmates were sharing reunion weekend with their Cornellian mothers. Both Cindy Briggs and Grace Denton Holmes celebrated with their moms, Class of 1935 for their 65th reunions. And Alison Kent Bermant's mom is from the Class of 1945. Congrats to all. Our final event was brunch by Beebe Lake, featuring entertainment by The Sherwoods. At each performance a woman (or are we girls when we are back for reunion) is serenaded by the group. Lani Bishko Durkac, our special gal, now has the proud distinction of being the first woman in 40 years to stop the show, because she was cracking up Paul and the guys, who had to stop singing for a moment or two of laughter. You go girl!
Classmates of 1970 who attended our reunion included: first, all those mentioned above! and Craig Balaban, Roy Baldwin, Ken Baskerville, Robert Beck, Alison Kent Bermant, Reed Boland, Joe Bonventre, Lucinda Briggs, Loyd Brinkman, Hank Brittingham, Lynn Girolamo Burke, Timothy Burke, Edward Carman, John Cecilia, Mare Sposito Cerino, Jim Chapman, Jay Christensen, Jeff Clemente, Art Colas, James Collins, Sarah Bush Collins, Vincent Conley, Ezra Cornell, Kathy Landau Cornell, Ligia Corredor, Marya Dalrymple, Donald Drumright, Lani Bishko Durkac, Ellen Celli Eichleay, Frederic Eisen, David Farrar, Carole Peck Fishman, Cliff Fishman, Claire Garrett, Stephen Goodwin, Mark Greenwald, Carl Groth, Jeff Haber, Stephen Hadden, Pete Hellmold, William Highland, Jonathan Hoffman, Marty Jewett, Suzanne Johnson, Gary Kaye, Rhonda Kirschner, Randy Lehrer Kocsis, Portia Parratt Kowolowski, Susan Jackson Kravitz, Dan Ladd, Debbie Cheney Lazar, Sally Anne Levine, Paul Levy, Pam Erikson Light, Frederick Lockhart, John Lombardi, Stephen Lowe, Tom Marchitto, Suzanne Grisez Martin, Kevin McEnery, Kevin McGovern, Ken Milne, Susan Mineka, Bridget Murphy, Michael Nash, John Nees, Paula Noonan, Brian O'Connor, Cindy Johnson O'Malley, Kathy Law Orloski, Becky Kvam Paquette, Susan Cotton Perry, Sigurdur Petursson, Alfred Piscop, Margo Williams Pollak, Robert Rainwater, Bart Reppert, John Robechek, Sue Degerstrom Roberts, Ward Romer, Jim Rowan, Frank Santa-Donato, Michael Sapozink, Stan Schmidt, Sandy Schorr, Phil Schwartz, Charles Shafran, Carrie Moreno Shearer, Tom Sherman, Karen Zajicek Spinozzi, Hinda Frankel Squires, Marilyn Wilkos Sullivan, Martin Tang, Beth Heydinger Treadway, Michael Turell, Kent Werle, Steve Worona, and Charles Young! Hope this is accurate.
Connie Ferris Meyer, 16 James Thomas Rd., Malvern, PA 19355