Class of 1959 Remembers Undergraduate Days

As the class of ’09 prepares to say farewell to the Harvard campus, seniors of another sort are greeting it once again. On June 1-4, Harvard and Radcliffe alums return to Harvard for their 50th reunion.

Members of the class of 1959 are not the only ones returning to campus this week to recollect their undergraduate days. Between May 28 and June 7, Harvard will welcome thousands of alums from classes 1999 through 1939.

According to Courtney D. Shurtleff, Director of the College Alumni Programs Office, 6,500 alumni and guests are expected on campus this week.

Still, the 50th reunion marks a special place in the minds of many alums.

“It’s the last chance. If you don’t come to this one, there won’t be another,” said Richard L. Williams ’59, who had previously never attended a college reunion.

The 50th reunion is among the three largest reunions, along with the 25th and 35th reunions.

Coordinating among former roommates, teammates and friends, members of the class of ’59 are using the opportunity to re-connect.

“Our little roommate group got together at Legal Sea Foods last night,” said Martin W. Sachs ’59. “It was nice.”

But those hoping for happenstance run-ins with old acquaintances may be disappointed.

“People have changed. The fact that you can’t recognized them makes it really, really difficult,” Williams said.

The campus, too, has morphed.

“The construction is amazing. At the same time there is a wonderful feeling that it has been here forever,” John F. Dobbyn ’59 said.

Alums found themselves perplexed at an invitation for lunch at Annenberg Hall.

“I had no idea what Annenberg Hall was,” said Sachs.

In 1959, Annenberg Hall was not yet a part of Memorial Hall, and the building was not used for dining.

The changes did not preclude alums from the opportunity to relive old memories.

“Memorial Hall was where we had the Freshman Smoker [an annual cabaret-style event],” Terence R. Murphy ’59 said. “It was so outrageous that the Freshman Smoker was canceled after that. Somebody poured beer on the heads of one of the deans.”

“[The reunion] brings back memories of being here as students,” said Radcliffe graduate Mary C. Swope, ’59.

And as they dip into the past, some alums forge connections for the future.

David Brooks Arnold ’59 remembered his 25th reunion as a “burning experience,” where neither he nor his gay partner were treated well by his former classmates.

After he wrote about his professional and personal life in the class report this year, classmates Arnold said that he had never met urged him to come to the 50th reunion to connect.

“When I was here, I felt like an outcast. Now it turns out that there are a lot of people like me. I am delighted,” Arnold said.

—Staff writer Madeleine M. Schwartz can be reached at mschwart@fas.harvard.edu.

CORRECTION: The June 1 news article "Class of 1959 Remembers Undergraduate Days" incorrectly stated that somebody had poured beer on the heads of "all the deans" at an annual cabaret-style event, based on a statement from Terence R. Murphy '59. In fact, Murphy later clarified that only one of the deans was doused, and the text online has since been updated to reflect the error.