50th Reunion Schedule

REUNION HEADQUARTERS

Location: Quincy House

Coordinator: Serghino René, Harvard Alumni Association

Hours:

Sunday, 4:00 –10:00 PM
Monday–Thursday, 8:00 AM –11:00 PM

Security personnel will be on duty from midnight until 7:00 a.m. for any late arrivals and in case of emergencies.

 

SUNDAY, MAY 21

For those whose travel plans require them to arrive a day early. Reunion officially starts on Monday, May 22

4:00 –11:00 PM Reunion Registration & Headquarters
  Quincy House
6:00 –10:00 PM Beer/wine/soda — classmate mingling
  Quincy House, Dining Hall

MONDAY, MAY 22

7:30 – 8:45 AM Continental Breakfast
8:00 AM–11:00 PM Reunion Registration & Headquarters
  Quincy House, Dining Hall
   
1:00 –3:00 PM Radcliffe Meeting
 

How do we feel about where we are today compared to where we thought we’d be on graduation? How do we feel about the state of the world today and what can we do to improve it? After an hour of small group discussions, we will reassemble and share our ideas (and do a small amount of class business.)

Moderators, Fay Hannon, ‘67 & Jacquie Olds, ‘67

   
3:00 –4:00 PM Affinity  Group Meetings
     
 

More than anything, our reunion is about getting together. We have set aside several time slots for affinity groups to get together. We will provide several ways to organize your gatherings, and will have rooms available. Affinity groups can be college organizations (The Crimson, Lampoon, Track and Field team, WHRB, for example), current interests (the environment, privacy, social service)., whatever you’d like. Let us know and we will make space available.

a. LGBTQ Affinity group meeting, 3-4pm

Moderator, Leslie Horst, ‘67

b. Other affinity group meetings to be scheduled

   
4:30 – 5:30 PM A Conversation with Drew Gilpin Faust, President
and Lincoln Professor of History, Harvard University
 

Memorial Hall, Sanders Theatre

   
5:30 – 6:30 PM Cocktails
  Science Center Plaza Tent
   
6:30 – 8:00 PM Welcome Dinner
  Science Center Plaza Tent
   
7:307:45PM

Harvard University Band Performance

 

Science Center Plaza Tent

  Following their performance, the Band will march their way towards Sanders Theatre, leading the class to their next scheduled event.  
   
8:15 –10:00 PM A Time for Poetry and Song
  Memorial Hall, Sanders Theatre
   
   

Three poets from the class will read their works: Jean McClung Goodwin, Jerry Costanzo, Honor Moore.

A Time for Song

Come join some of your Harvard classmates for 45 minutes of songs from our years at school and some of the social movements of the time. Help make the resonant wooden walls of Sanders Theater resound with a combination of popular and topical songs coming not just from the stage but also from your seats. We will have whole days of talking during our reunion, but this is a chance for music, song, memories and community. Join ’67 grads Tony Seeger, Steve Blodgett, David Hiatt, Leslie Horst, Chuck Smiler and Judy (Austin) Seeger ’66 – the group as of mid- March – for a Harvard Hootenanny. It should be fun. It will be short. The instruments are so far all acoustic. And you are all welcome, even if you just want to enjoy the acoustics of Sanders in silence. No pre-requisites, no requirements, no final exam, but a unique 50 th reunion experience.

-Tony Seeger

10:00 –11:30 PM Nightcaps
  Memorial Hall, Annenberg

TUESDAY, MAY 23

7:30 – 8:45 AM Breakfast
  Quincy House Dining Hall
   
9:00 AM – NOON Vietnam: The Choices We Made
 

Science Center, Hall B

 

 

Over a period of two years, 175 classmates have contributed 585 pages of thoughtful and moving accounts of the effects, then and now, of choices made during the Vietnam War. The resulting e-book has been sent to all classmates, and is available on the class website, hr67.org. We hope you all will have read it. This will be a three-hour open microphone session at which other classmates may tell their own stories and comment on the book.

We wish to thank all the authors for their efforts.
          Moderator, Charlie Kimball
          Editorial Committee: Beth Hadas, Ted Hammett, Tim Hatfield, Charlie Kimball, Jim Metcalf, Tony Obst, Pete Rogers

   
NOON–1:00 PM

House & Dorm Lunch

  Science Center Plaza Tent 
  Seating will be organized by former House and Dorm. Some tables will be left unmarked for those who choose not to affiliate. Refer to the seating chart in your packet for table locations
   
1:15 – 2:15 PM Lecture: Science of Cooking
 

Science Center, Hall B

   
 

From haute cuisine to soft matter science, Pia Sörenson, Preceptor in Science of Cooking undergraduate course; and David Weitz, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, will explore aspects of gastronomy combined with basic concepts in the science of soft materials. This talk showcases highlights and examples from the wildly popular undergraduate course that brings some of the world’s most famous chefs to Cambridge.  What better way to learn about science than by creating great food?

 

 1:152:15PM Lecture and Slideshow on Bob Dylan
  Science Center, Hall A
   
 

When we were in the 8th grade, Robert Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan, was in his senior year at Hibbing High School in northern Minnesota. Zimmerman was half-listening to lectures from his father Abe and gentle reminders from his mother Beatty about the value of a college education. No doubt, most of us received similar advice, but while we gave it four years, he gave it one semester and never looked back.

By the time he performed at our Jubilee Weekend with fellow folkie Joan Baez in tow, he had recorded three albums, played Carnegie Hall, traveled across the country a few times, and was in the third year of a five-year contract with Columbia, for whom he still records. This session offers an audio-visual glimpse into some of the forces at work in his life, in Cambridge, and in our lives during the four-year period from September of 1963 to June of 1967. A brief look at his heritage and his years in Minnesota will be included, and a packet of resources will be available.
        
(Bob Dylan has just decided to accept the Nobel Prize in Literature. –ed.)

Presenter: Phil Fitzpatrick

1:15 – 2:45 PM

Panel Discussion: Dancing Backward in Heels: Fifty Years of the Women’s Movement

  Science Center, Hall D
 


Moderator: Nancy Uhlar Murray ‘67

Panel Discussion, Isabella Hinds ’67, Kate Kirby ’67, Harriet McGurk ’67, Cynthia McClintock ‘67

What was it like to challenge sexist student quotas at undergraduate colleges, and graduate schools of law, medicine, business, education, the arts? To fight for legalization of contraception, not to mention abortion? To change the American family, so that income of a spouse didn’t determine power? To become strong woman role models? To insist on equal pay for equal work?

The women of the class of the class of sixty-seven were on the cutting edge of what’s called The Second Wave of Feminism. They know what it was like: to go to a rampantly sexist medical school, to be the first woman lawyer at a Wall Street firm, to stand up and demand equal pay, to raise kids as a single parent while working full time, to be belittled and to triumph.

Did the movement triumph? Has real progress for women been made in the past 50 years? Did Harvard help this struggle? Our Radcliffe/Harvard sisters in the class of sixty-seven will tell us.

3:00 – 4:00 PM Lecture: Student Life at Harvard Today
  Science Center, Hall C
 


Sean Palfrey ’67 and Judy Palfrey ’67, Masters of Adams House since 1999 (17 years) and Faculty Deans of Adams House for one year. Judy is the T. Berry Brazelton Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and of Public Health at the Chan School.  Sean is Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at Boston University.

Topics to be covered:

- Rapidly increasing diversity of students – admissions policies and goals
- Rapidly increasing diversity of courses – science, engineering, computer science, drama and the arts
- Toward a “Transformative Experience” – finding, supporting and educating students who can become worthy and productive leaders in our challenging global society.
- House life and the importance of communities – social, intellectual, spiritual
- House and Departmental Advising
- The spectrum of extracurricular activities – from sports to service learning
- Volunteering and the value of non-academic experience, for personal and intellectual growth.
- Preparation for postgraduate life – well-grounded national and international exposure, fellowships and jobs
- Mentoring after Harvard – House support, HAA and beyond

 

3:00 – 4:00 PM  Open Discussion:Retirement, Anxieties & Opportunities
  Science Center, Hall B
 
Retirement: some people embrace it as a liberation from the stress of work. Others dread it as a fundamental loss of identity. Sometimes two such people are married to each other. One person may want to stay in the big old house, surrounded by the artifacts of a lifetime and a diminishing circle of friends. Another may want to chuck it all in the dumpster and invent a new life somewhere far away. Sometimes these two people may be… married to each other. Some people may be fit and hearty, but for others, retirement may be a grim march from one medical intervention to another.  Is exotic travel in the future, or do the finances mandate a much more modest life and another job after retirement?  We look to the wisdom of our classmates who have taken this step and may have something to teach us.

          Pete Rogers ‘67, moderator
 
3:00 – 4:30 PM Panel Discussion: Diversity & Inclusion 
  Science Center, Hall A
 


How attuned are you to the issues of diversity and inclusion?  Join classmates as we reflect on our personal experiences with these values in our tempestuous and transitional college years, and how those times and experiences shaped both our adult lives and the culture, world and nation we inhabit today. We will learn and discuss how Harvard is addressing these opportunities and challenges, and how we as alumni and citizens might assist in responding as threats to diversity and inclusiveness increase in the current climate.

Human Rights Watch, in its 2017 World Report, suggests that our roles in these times are best exercised when we recall that ultimately all our rights are “grounded on the reciprocal duty to treat others as you would want to be treated yourself.” Join us for a time of reflection, interaction, and connection as we engage with these important issues.

Panelists: Tom Choquette ’67, Spiritual Director, MAR, ACSW; Steve Crosby ’67, Chairman, Massachusetts Gaming Commission; Professor Harold McDougall ’67, School of Law, Howard University; Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor and Director, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University; Natasha DuMerville, 2016-2017 Diversity and Inclusion Fellow, Harvard Divinity School, Jane Silverman '67, Philip Lovejoy, HAA Executive Director
 
5:15 – 6:15 PM Pre-Pops Dinner
  Eliot House Dining Hall & Courtyard
   
6:45 PM Buses depart for Symphony Hall
   
8:00 –10:00 PM Boston Pops Concert
  Symphony Hall
   
10:00 PM Buses board to return to Cambridge
   
10:00 –11:30 PM Nightcaps & Vietnam Book authors’  & any other classmates meet up
  Quincy House


WEDNESDAY, MAY 24

7:30–8:45 AM Breakfast
  Quincy House
   
8:30 –9:30 AM Memorial Service
  Memorial Church
   
10:00 –10:30 AM Class Photographs
  Widener Library Steps
   
11:45 AM –1:00 PM Affinity Lunch & Authors’ Table
  Science Center Plaza Tent
  Seating will be organized by affinities. Some tables will be left unmarked for those who choose not to affiliate. Refer to the seating chart in your packet for table locations
   
1:15 – 2:45 PM

Panel Discussion: PoliticsHow Did We Get Here and What Can We Do?

  Memorial Hall, Sanders Theatre
 
According to a recent Pew study, the graduation of the Harvard Class of 1967 marked a critical turning point in American political life. From the moment we left, polarization, both in the population, and more importantly between the political parties, has progressed to the point that virtually nothing can be accomplished. How did we get here?  Where did the spirit of compromise go? What has happened to social discourse?  To comity?  Why do intelligent, thoughtful, well-meaning politicians find it so difficult to address and solve the problems we face? Having gotten here, where do we go next?
         
We have assembled a panel of our classmates who will guide our conversation and exploration of these crucial topics. Win McCormack is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The New Republic, a publication with a long and storied history. Greg Craig has moved between public service and private practice for decades. His most recent public service was as White House Counsel for Barack Obama.  Craig Stapleton served as Ambassador first to the Czech Republic and then to France. Tom Horne served as Attorney General in the state of Arizona. Rounding out the group is Sandy Maisel, the Chair of the Government Department at Colby, an expert on American politics in general, and the electoral process in particular.

Moderator, Win McCormack ‘67
 
3:00 – 4:00 PM Open Discussion: The Sixties: Save the Sycamores to McNamara Demonstration
  Science Center, Hall D
 
“The Sixties” is synonymous with massive social change. “The Sixties,” however, lasted ten years, and Harvard in 1961 was far different from Harvard in 1969. Our college years were the real epicenter of the turmoil. We came in with the innocence of “Save The Sycamores” and left with the McNamara confrontation. The world seemed mostly at peace when we went to those Freshman Mixers: The Vietnam War and the Protest Movement were raging when we graduated. We had barely settled in the Yard when the Kennedy Assassination started the madness. Freshman year was also the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Join us for a class discussion informed from the perspective of a half century.  Was the time from September 1963 to June 1967 just a “Happening”?  Was there really an “Answer” that was “Blowin’ in the Wind,” or were those just marijuana fumes?  As the question was so often put to R. Crumb’s Mr. Natural, “What’s it all mean?”  Who better with whom to resolve these questions than our ’67 classmates?

Moderator, John Casler ‘67
 
  Lecture: Dark Matter and Dinosaurs
  Science Center, Hall A
 


Sixty-six million years ago, an object the size of a city descended from space to crash into Earth, creating a devastating cataclysm that killed off the dinosaurs, along with three-quarters of the other species on the planet. What was its origin?  In Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs, Lisa Randall proposes it was a comet that was dislodged from its orbit as the Solar System passed through a disk of dark matter embedded in the Milky Way. In a sense, it might have been dark matter that killed the dinosaurs

Working through the background and consequences of this proposal, Lisa Randall shares with us the latest findings—established and speculative—regarding the nature and role of dark matter and the origin of the Universe, our galaxy, our Solar System, and life, along with the process by which scientists explore new concepts. She tells a breathtaking story that weaves together the cosmos’ history and our own, illuminating the deep relationships that are critical to our world and the astonishing beauty inherent in the most familiar things.

Lisa Randall is Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science, Harvard University
 

3:00 – 4:30 PM Panel Discussion: Journalism in the “Post Truth” Era
  Science Center Hall B
 


The free press is assaulted as the “enemy of the American people,” and yet a democracy cannot thrive without accurate, rigorous reporting. The finances of print journalism are increasingly imperiled, and the future for young journalists is uncertain. Conspiracy theories, implausible “facts” and dubious “news” emanate from thousands of questionable “sources” and feed a murky atmosphere of almost medieval superstition, suspicion, accusation, and anxiety. The press faces a climate of distrust, yet rarely has the country more urgently needed solid reporting and informed analysis. Five eminent journalists from the class of ’67 will ponder these matters.

Panel: Jay Mathews, Linda McVeigh Mathews, Tom Oliphant, Robert J. Samuelson, Serge Schmemann
 
6:15 –10:00 PM Cocktails, Dinner, and Dancing with music by the Forerunners
  Murr Center Tennis Courts
 


The Forerunners, from the class of ‘67 – they have been with us all along.  Old guys, new playlist. They will be rocking hard, and you can dance… if you can handle it. The audience will have a few hundred attending physicians. Enjoy it. We have gotten no promises about the 55th reunion. This may be the only rock band in America whose manager lives in New Zealand.
         
Jeff Jordan, Gale Merseth, Peter Rodman, Eric Valdina
Tony Marks, Manager

 
10:00 –11:30 PM Nightcaps
  Quincy House

 

THURSDAY, MAY 25—COMMENCEMENT DAY

6:45– 8:45 AM Continental Breakfast
  Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge
   
8:15– 8:30 AM Alumni Procession forms
  Harvard Yard (in front of Harvard Hall)
8:30 – 9:30 AM Commencement Procession
  Harvard Yard
    
9:45–11:30 AM 366th Commencement: The Morning Exercises
  Tercentenary Theatre
  The Morning Exercises consist of orations, anthems, and the conferring of degrees on all graduates. Diplomas are received at ceremonies at the Houses and at individual Schools. Seating for the Morning Exercises is limited.
   
10:00 AM – 6:00 PM Shuttles run between Mill Street and Soldiers Field Park Garage.
11:45 AM – 2:00 PM Luncheon
  Science Center Plaza Tent
   
1:45– 2:30 PM Afternoon Alumni Procession
  Pathway from Science Center to University Hall in the Old Yard (spouses, guests, widows, and widowers are invited to march with the Class)
   
2:30 – 4:15 PM Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association: The Afternoon Program
  Tercentenary Theatre
   
  The program will include welcoming remarks remarks by Drew Gilpin Faust, president and Lincoln Professor of History, Harvard University; and an address by the Commencement .
  There will be no 50th Reunion programming beyond the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association. Guests are encouraged to check-out Thursday evening, unless staying for Radcliffe Day or if travel plans require you to stay overnight.

FRIDAY, MAY 26

7:00 –9:00 AM Final checkout from on campus housing
  (shuttles available to Soldiers Field Park Garage and Radcliffe Yard)
   
7:00 –9:00 AM Continental Breakfast
  Quincy Dining Hall
   
9:00 AM Headquarters closes and shuttle service terminates
   
10:30 AM Radcliffe Day Activities (optional)
  More information about the day’s events and the live webcast is online at radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/radcliffe-day-2017. Please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with questions.