The Class of 1974 50th Reunion
Save the Dates: May 24-27, 2024
"Oberlin is a spa for the soul."
Cindy Brown ‘74
Dear College and Conservatory classmates from 1974, December 1, 2023
This month we write to update you on our 50th reunion plans for May 24-27, 2024, and to give you a few reasons why you should come.
We will have a new classmate joining us: Bob Fuller, Oberlin’s president during our years there, whose service brackets our tenure (despite him not giving us our diplomas), will be joining us as an ex officio member of the Class of 1974. Unlike when we invited him for our 25th reunion, this time he will not be a featured speaker but a class member just you all of us. He’ll join us for programs, discussion sections, meals, performances, evening gatherings and hanging about our meeting space/lounge. He’s asked us for 15 minutes to address our whole class and we’ll find time to do that. We asked Bob to register on our class website and create a profile, just as we’ve asked each of you to do so. We’ve suggested he do so as Casey Cook said, not in a manner of “Midwestern appropriateness” but as Sandy Mattingly says, “effusive narcissism.” We’re looking – as we are with each of you – not just for a career profile but for his stories, recollections, memories of his tenure at Oberlin and his interactions with us. We’ve suggested he wander your profiles too and told him he’s welcome, as all of you are, to post comments on profiles, send private messages, and even blast emails to everyone. So look for Bob next time you go to our reunion website www.oberlin74reunion.com. And add your profile. In effusive narcissism. With lots of photos. Then and Now.
Now for a comment from Barbara Martin, a clustermate from the Class of 1973, who attended their 2023 50th reunion on her perspective. She provides some of the best reasons to come back for our reunion – even if you haven’t set foot on Oberlin soil in fifty years.
“It seemed as though we were simultaneously the people we are now and the people we were in 1969-73 – and able to be the best of both. The openness of Freshman Orientation Week combined with adult social skills. I can claim to have persuaded two dubious [wary?] friends to attend – one for one day, the other for two. From the first half hour to the last, both were hugely glad they had come.”
We are excited about the union and hope you will be, too. The reunion website is up (www.Oberlin74Reunion.com), and so far 92 classmates have created profiles. Once you register on the site, you can see those profiles, with photos, memories and life updates we have shared.
For further information on reunion logistics, check Oberlin’s commencement weekend website.
Until next month,
