5,000 Alumni Move into Cambridge For Traditional Reunion Festivities

Some 5000 Harvardmen and their families began pouring into Cambridge yesterday afternoon for the traditional five-day program of alumni celebrations and ceremonies which will be climaxed by Thursday's Commencement.

The Class of 1931 led the returning classes with some 1600 alumni and their families here for '31's 25th reunion.

In addition to the Class of 1931, Classes of 1896, 1906, 1911, 1916, 1921, 1926, 1936, 1941, 1946, 1950 and 1953 also are scheduled to hold formal reunion events. University officials estimate that by Thursday there will be some 15,000 people in Cambridge to witness the awarding of academic and honorary degrees.

The reunion festivities were officially started at 5:30 yesterday afternoon when the 25th celebrants held a reception and cocktail party honoring President and Mrs. Pusey in Harkness Commons. The Class hired buses to move graduates from their headquarters at the Union.

While their parents were drinking and later eating at Harkness, the "senior" sons and daughters had a "get-together" at the Varsity Club, and a dinner in the Union.

Today the alumni will join students at the annual Phi Beta Kappa Parade and Exercises in Sanders Theatre at 10:45 a.m. Poet John Holmes and Chaing Yee, Chinese author and painter, will be the main speakers.

In the afternoon, the Class of 1931 will hold a Symposium in New Lecture Hall at 2:30 on "Harvard and Thereafter." Six members of '31, including C. Douglas Dillon, the United States Ambassador to France, and David Reisman, noted sociologist and writer, will speak.

At night the alumni will take over Symphony Hall for a special concert of the Boston Pops. In addition to the concert, they will be dined and wined. The "seniors" will have cocktails and dinner at the Hasty Pudding.