Members of the Class of '27, from left, Becky Martin Starr, Ruth Bohnet Jenkins, Sid Hanson Reeve and Grace Eglinton Vigurs, with President Hunter Rawlings at a Reunion reception in the Statler Hotel on Saturday. Frank DiMeo/University Photography
Alumni may have been wearing red-ribboned hats at Cornell on Reunion Weekend, but they were not wearing rose-colored glasses.
"There was a lot of apprehension," recalled Jim Oppenheimer '32 of his senior year. "We were overqualified for the jobs available; engineers were pumping gasoline! We wondered, 'What on earth am I going to do when I get out?'"
Oppenheimer was one of about 20 alumni sharing memories for posterity Friday afternoon in the Statler Hotel as part of "Preserving the Past, Creating the Future," an ongoing archival project in which alumni's memories are being taped, transcribed and maintained in the Cornell Library.
Oppenheimer, his class correspondent for three decades, also recalled "combining comparative literature and beer drinking" in the Book and Bowl Society and having to wear frosh caps. "If we made a current crop of freshmen wear frosh caps, they'd probably say it was a violation of their civil rights!" he joked.
In all, nearly 6,000 alumni, relatives and friends returned to campus last weekend for Reunion '97. The Class of '92 boasted the highest attendance, at 682; the Class of '37 had 97 returning alums, giving that class the highest percentage attendance (21 percent). And the Class of '87 broke attendance for any 10-year Reunion, with 574 returning members. These and other achievement were noted at the annual Cornelliana Night, Saturday in Barton Hall.
But Cornell Reunion has always been about more than reminiscing and recognizing achievement. It's a time for alumni to continue their education, by learning more about the university and taking advantage of its rich resources.
Below are a few of the special events that made Reunion Weekend stimulating as well as sentimental.
Six millionth volume
More than 150 alumni and friends gathered in the Carl A. Kroch Library Thursday afternoon to celebrate the acquisition of a rare ornithological work designated the six millionth volume in the Cornell collection. One of the finest and rarest ornithological works ever produced in this country, Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio was donated by Kenneth and Dorothy Hill, the founders of the library's Hill Ornithology Collection. The work includes two volumes published between 1879 and 1886, with text by Howard Jones and illustrations, including 68 hand-colored lithographed plates, by three women, Genevieve Jones, Eliza J. Shulze and N.E. Jones.
Kinzelberg Hall
On a sunsplashed Friday afternoon, more than 100 alumni and friends gathered at the Division of Nutritional Sciences' Savage Hall to attend the renaming of the hall's north wing as Kinzelberg Hall, in honor of generous Cornell trustee Harvey Kinzelberg '67. At the dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony, Kinzelberg, founder of Meridian Leasing Corp. and president and CEO of Sequel Capital Corp., said that the event was for him "a realization of the American dream. I'd always dreamed of being able to someday repay my debt to the great American institution that I loved."
Law School lecture
Steven V. Roberts, a frequent guest on the public television program "Washington Week in Review" and coauthor of a syndicated column with wife Cokie Roberts, made some predictions for the upcoming race for the White House in a Saturday afternoon press session and evening lecture to Cornell Law School alumni.
Vice President Al Gore will be challenged by Texas Gov. George W. Bush. In seeking the GOP nomination, Bush has history on his side, Roberts said.
"The U.S. Senate is the single worst place to run for president from," he said. "Only two presidents in history were sitting members of the Senate on the day they were elected -- John F. Kennedy and Warren Harding. Republicans realize it would be disastrous to pick another senior senator like Bob Dole."
Roberts also predicted that the split in the Republican Party will keep moderate potential candidates like Christine Todd Whitman and Colin Powell on the sidelines. "They are at the center of American politics, but not in the center of Republican politics," he said.
Panel on the Vietnam War
America's enduring angst over its involvement in the Vietnam War was palpable Saturday afternoon at a panel on the topic in Goldwin Smith Hall that was cosponsored by the classes of '62, '67 and '72. The passionate, standing-room-only crowd listened and responded to four panelists, including former antiwar activist David Burak B.A. '67, M.F.A. '80, who recently taught English in Vietnam and currently teaches creative writing at Santa Monica College; Ithaca College associate Professor Fred Wilcox, author of several books, including a recent one about Agent Orange; Anne Foster, a teacher of Asian history at SUNY Cortland; and Vietnam veteran Wade Geer.
Burak was a well-known campus protester during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He views his current efforts to improve the plight of the Vietnamese -- especially those suffering as a result of the chemical residues of war -- as "no longer a radical crusade so much as a humanist position . . . .there's still a significant ethical responsibility remaining on the part of Americans toward Vietnam."
Wilcox described the continuing ravages of Agent Orange, the defoliant whose main compound is dioxin, and said, "Imagine a monument two to three times bigger than the Vietnam memorial in Washington, and you'd have a memorial to the victims of Agent Orange."
Geer, who would have graduated with the class of 1976, thanked students who had supported him and other antiwar vets. Geer, who served three tours in Vietnam and now works for an environmental management firm in Binghamton, said after the panel, "People had a weird perception of Vietnam vets. If you put it on your résumé, they wouldn't hire you."
In a heated question and answer session, several alumni said they believed Cornell antiwar activists had held a biased view of the Vietnamese and Cambodian regimes. "We thought we knew who the good guys and the bad guys were," said Iris Portny '67, "but later, I began to question myself: Why was I so surprised [by the postwar government's actions] if I had had such an unbiased, analytical approach to studying Vietnam?"
Cal Landau '48, a former Vietnam commander, said, "As a professional soldier I can tell you that the Vietnam War was wrong . . . [but] I caution that we don't continually tear down our systems because we think we did something wrong."
After the panel, Burak said, "I was really impressed by the intensity of the crowd. I wish there was some kind of motion we could have passed."