It's time to register for Reunion!!!
Reunion Chairs Dave and Mary Call began looking at options and events last September and the ideas that were discussed then have now become a reality. A really interesting weekend for us has been created. We've got our own activities and speakers, plus the always familiar and enjoyable Cornell events. The daily schedule was sent to everyone recently along with registration information. If you have questions or concerns, contact Dave and Mary -- their email is dlc3@cornell.edu.
If you did not receive this information and need either another email, or information via other than email, contact Brenda (brenda.conniff@cornell.edu | 607-255-1916) at the Alumni Office. If you haven't received the reunion package yet, click HERE to register now and get the available information. See you soon!!!
For the current and official list of those who are returning, click on the address below.
https://cornell.events.alumniq.com/who/reunion24
The classmates who have registered, as of May 10, are:
Ruth Carpenter Bailey ’54 + Janice Jakes Kunz ’54
Warren Breckenridge ‘54
David Call ’54 + Mary Call ‘54
Louise Schaefer Dailey ’54 + Thomas M. Dailey
Albert Eckhardt ‘54
William Gratz ’53 + Jay Bruno
Peggy Hill Grief ’54 + Arnon Grief
Gerald Julius Grossman ‘54 + Connie Mitchko
Merrill Hessel ’54 + Elizabeth Hessel
Jerome Hochberg ’54 + Elinor Sager Grayzel ’57
Jean Lanigan Lenehan ‘54 + Anne Woodcock
Lucinda “Cindy” Noble ’54
Georege Mueller '54
David Palmer ‘54
Jean Rowley ‘54
Ronald Schotland ’54 + Karen Schotland
Barbara Dewey Sommers ’54 + Annadele Jackson ‘54
Jane Barber Smith '54 + Barbara Wood
John Stainton ’54 + Charleen Regan
William Thurber ‘54 + Susan Walden Thurber
Fred Warner '54
There are others who have reserved rooms at the Statler, but have not yet registered. So more names should be added soon.
...is our ongoing source of university news, events, resources, schools, history, as well as student happenings - in short, everything you might want to know, or keep up with, about the university.
In also is a major resource for our alumni community – and has easy access to Class Notes, Updates from and about Alumni, and an In Memoriam section.
Use this direct link to check the current edition: Cornellians Home - Cornellians . Better yet, copy the official address and bookmark it on your computer so you can begin to spend fascinating afternoons (or more?) on the site: https://alumni.cornell.edu/cornellians.
What about Class Notes?
Our Class Correspondents, Ruth Carpenter Bailey (rcbhtb@gmail.com) and Bill Waters (billwaters@optonline.net), are always looking for classmates to share their what's going on in their lives. To see our Class Notes, once you are in Alumni Community, select Class Notes, then choose “the 1950s”. Next, either scroll down to our class or press Ctrl F at the same time to see the Find field and enter 1954 to take you directly to our class.
The Class Notes on our website will remain here. They cover 10 years from May 2010 to August 2021 you can use the same keys (Ctrl/F) to search through them. To enjoy looking through them, click HERE.
Long Overdue Hooray!!
Racers win intercollegiate sailing trophy in 1954!
When our class arrived on campus in 1950, a group that became the Cornell sailing team operated out of a one-room shack on the east bank of Cayuga Lake, raced eight Baby Narrasketuck Cat boats, had a faculty advisor as coach, was not funded by the university, and had to pay its own way to intercollegiate regattas.
Four years later, in the spring of 1954, this group of Cornell sailors still operated out of a shack but had won enough races at regattas to qualify Cornell as one of ten schools invited to compete for the McMillan Cup at the Large Yacht Championship Regatta. They would be sailing one of the 44’ Luders yawls berthed at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. They ended up winning the regatta and the McMillan Cup for Cornell, the first time Cornell had won it in the cup’s 24-year history. Racing the winning Luders were Al Eckhardt as Skipper, and Bob Morrison, Pete Downey. Norm Freeman, Bob Kahle, Stacy Smith, and Pete Eising as crew. Pete was also the Commodore of the Cornell Corinthian Yacht Club – the formal name for this do-it-yourself club of very capable and hardy racing sailors.
The shack, or something similar, continued as the base of Cornell’s sailing program until very recently. A gift from the family of a member of the class of ’55, Phil Merrill, also a sailor, has helped build the home of today’s Cornell racers - the magnificently equipped Merrill Family Sailing Center. Now the women’s racing team is recognized as a varsity sport funded by the university, they’re doing very well, and there’s a fleet of 18 brand-new FJ22 boats. One of the FJ22s has been christened “Class of 1954”, and on one of the center’s walls is a large plaque recognizing the Class of ‘54’s achievement. Click HERE to see it and the trophy.
Hooray!!
Class "Histories" are available online!
We have a rare and interesting opportunity to share classmate stories gathered and organized by the late Robert Martin, our former Class Historian. His work was informally printed and is online for you, as a PDF document, to read and enjoy.
Many classmates contributed to this work which is now in the class archives located in Kroch Library. It is possible to download a copy. It's in PDF format and has both a Table of Contents and an Index supplied, along with some editing, by Janice Jakes Kunz. It is over 100 pages in length. Other classes have attempted something similar but Robert's perseverance made ours a reality.
To read or download a copy, click HERE.
Lost track of old friends?
If you
have a classmate, roommate, or just plain buddy whom you have not seen
in a while, why not catch up with their news, see how they are, and find
out if they'll be at reunion? Email Chick Trayford for their contact
information. He maintains our class list and will be happy to share
whatever information he has with you. His email is ctrayford@comcast.net.
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
1933 - 2020
Classmate Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Associate Supreme Court Justice since 1993 and an internationally recognized and respected jurist died Friday, September 18, of cancer.
A champion of women's rights, in both appearances before the court, and while she was on the court, she actively promoted the concept that women should have full membership in the class 'persons'. She will lie in repose at the Supreme Court before being buried at Arlington National Cemetery. She is the first woman to receive this honor and only the second justice, the first being William Howard Taft, an ex-Chief Justice and former president.
At Cornell, her friends remember her as Kiki. She was fun-loving as well as hardworking and studious. She would often get things done and then look around for someone to go to the movies with her. Sometimes, instead of a movie, she would play classical music on the piano in the evenings. She loved working for Cushman in constitutional law and loved the literacy of Vladimir Nabokov’s courses.
There were seven friends who always did things together, two of whom, Irma Rubenberg Hilton and Joan Bruder Danoff, remained life-long friends with Kiki. Their friendship started early in freshman year when the four agreed to switch some dorm furniture between their Dickson 6 rooms. Many of the group have passed but Irma and Joan kindly volunteered the memories that you are reading now.
Calling themselves KIabhij, for the first letters of their first names: Kiki, Lynn, Anita, Bobbie, Helene, Irma, Joan, they even had bracelets and T-shirts made. In those days, dinner was served in the dorm and they always ate together. Kiki was a very deliberate and slow eater so there was lots of time for conversation but many phone calls were missed. No cell phones then.
Dating was an important part of college life. A high school friend of Irma’s, part of the class of 1953, called to see if Klabhij would be interested in dating his fraternity brothers. Luckily, the friend’s roommate was Marty Ginsburg and that was the start of Marty’s and Kiki’s long-lasting romance.
One favorite incident for those who championed women’s rights was an outing in downtown Ithaca at the end of freshman year. Together, they visited Zinck’s as well as other watering holes, making quite an impression. Marty and his roommate followed them around for fear that they could not take care of themselves. Fortunately, times have changed.
The nation continues to mourn Ruth Bader Ginsburg. At Cornell, Martha E. Pollack, president of the university, announced on October 9 that Cornell is honoring Ruth by naming one of the new residence. Another dorm is to be named for Toni Morrison, MA ’55. The dorms are part of the massive North Campus Residential Expansion Project, scheduled to be completed by fall 2022.
Her work on the court not only earned her enormous national respect but the unusual position of national icon ("The Notorious RBG"). She will be greatly missed.
What's Posted!
This Page:
Class Notes are now on the CORNELLIANS site and the link to see them is on this page. Continue to send your thoughts and adventures to Ruth Carpenter Bailey (rcbhtb@gmail.com) or Bill Waters
(billwaters@optonline.net). They look forward to hearing from you.
Long Overdue Hooray! Cornell wins intercollegiate sailing race in 1954!
Class Officers 2019 - 2024 - List of newly elected class officers - this page
Personal "Histories" supplied by classmates and assembled by the late Robert Martin, are now posted - this page
Help Finding Classmates - Contact Chick Trayford
Class Memorabilia Needed - University Archives welcomes your memories and mementos
Community Page:
Reunion 2019 - A look at the activities and experiences and links to performances.
Travel with the Symons - a look at the world using the hundreds of photos taken by Jim as he and his wife Joan traveled the world - Community page
People in the News - information on classmates' activities, awards, donations, and more.
Get Involved Page:
Cornell Services available for you to use - links to cybertower, email forwarding service, paying dues online, sports news, and a link to Cornell's main web page.
Class Memorabilia
The University Archives actively pursues items that document the Cornell experience. If you have scrapbooks, photographs, student notebooks, correspondence or other ephemera from your time at Cornell, these items can be preserved in the University Archives for future Cornellians to learn from.
Already archived are the letters and the final book created of our Class Histories (see item on this page), the record and an MP3 version of the interviews done at our 25th reunion by Janice Jakes Kunz and Rosemary Seelbinder Jung, a variety of football programs offered by Chick Trayford, and scrapbooks done by Peg Bundy Bramhall and Lou Schaefer Dailey.
The Archives also collects biographies, oral histories, and digital items that help tell the interesting stories of Cornellians or their class. Items that document Class activities as alumni, such as reunions or class event planning and budget documents are also welcome.
If you have items you would like to donate or know people who do, please contact the Cornell University Archivist: Evan Fay Earle, efe4@cornell.edu, 607-255-3530. Call first and describe what you have available. Or send items to University Archives, 28 Kroch Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, NM 14853.