Read All About the 30th Reunion in Our Epic Recap : The Glamour, the Glitz, the Swingin' Parties, the Forums, the Survey, and of Course the P-rade Down the Fabled Orange Carpet
 

The 30^th Reunion of the Class of 1980 was a major success! The final attendance was 273, drawing classmates from Princeton itself to points around the world. The reunion marked the first time that new Butler College had been used as the HQ of a reunion, so we broke new ground in that respect.

 

The theme of the 30^th reunion was 80@30 Together Again.  The theme evoked the emergence of technology as a social vehicle while honoring the irreplaceability of actual human-to-human contact. The class used imagery, including fonts and symbols, and the formations of imagery throughout the P-rade route put into action this disbanding and re-assembling. This echoed data crossing an Internet node as well as the ebb and flow of reunions contact among classmates.

 

In attendance this weekend were classmates coming from Canada, New Zealand, England, France, Singapore, Italy, Israel and Japan, as near as Princeton Junction and as far as Hawaii.  At least 27 states, plus the District of Columbia, were represented with 10% of the attendees coming from California.  Classmates currently live in at least 18 countries other than the U.S.  Several are attending Reunions for the first time and a hard core of 25 or so have never missed a Reunion.

 

Classmates took part in panel discussions throughout the weekend, including these alumni-faculty forums and other events listed in the Reunions guidebook:

 

• Alan P.G. Safran, Executive Director of MATCH Charter Public Schools, "Innovation in K-12 Education”
• Robert Klitzman, Director of the Masters of Bioethics Program at Columbia University, "Perspectives on the Next Pandemic”
• Florence DiStefano Hudson, Energy & Environment Executive, IBM Corporate Strategy, "Greening Technologies for the Future”
• Jill Pilgrim, Principal and Business Counsel, Precise Advisory Group, "Has the Sports Industry Lost Its Way – and Its Fan Base? A Decade of Controversy and Scandal”
• Tina Treadwell, CEO, Treadwell Entertainment (former Vice-President of Talent Development and Alternative Programming, Disney Channel), "The Impact of Popular Culture on Young Children”
• Steve Sashihara, Co-Founder and CEO of Princeton Consultants, "Asian American Alumni Association (A4P) Welcomes Asian Trailblazers”
• John W. Rogers Jr., Chairman and CEO of Ariel Investments, "Trends in Investing Today”
• Timothy Reif, General Counsel of the U.S. Trade Representative, "’Smart Power’ and International Trade Policy”

 

Thursday night a DJ was spinning tunes at our tent, and as the evening wore on, karaoke was popular with classmates and their offspring as well as members of the senior class and first few reunions! The Butler College courtyard (we were the first reunion held there!) afforded not only a large tent area for singing, dancing and meals but also a smaller tent area and lots of open space for conversation.

 

Also on Thursday, John Rogers received the Citizen-Athlete Award at the Grad College from the Princeton Varsity Club banquet. Classmates attending were Kevin Cuskley, Chris Daniel, Sharon Keld, Bruce McBarnette, Kim Ritrievi, Rod Shepherd, Hank Towns (H ’80), Natalie Wargo, John Williams and Meg Winfield.

 

Friday morning began with breakfast at the tent – a quiet chance to catch up with other early-risers or early-arrivers.  Classmates then scattered, maybe to go to the U-Store or the Art Museum or to attend one of the many academic programs.

 

At 11:00 on Friday morning, classmates gathered at the Princeton Chapel for a moving memorial service, led by Rabbi Rex Perlmeter and also featuring Sumi Kobayashi, Joe Quinn, Arlene Pedovitch, and Puspha Lall Gross.  We will post the full text of Rabbi Rex’s talk soon. For a list of memorialized classmates, click here (note that there are some classmates for whom memorials have yet to be written – if you would like to write one, contact new class secretary Erica Lehrer).

 

Lunch back at our tent was small and informal; the bulk of our 250 returning classmates arrived later on Friday or on Saturday morning.  About half a dozen classmates went to Prospect for the retirement lunch for Professor David Billington, an influence on engineering majors and non-majors alike.

 

The afternoon was left for more academic programs or for exploration, or for resting up prior to a busy evening!  Triangle presented its "Ding” show before dinner at the tent; this compilation of classic numbers and routines delighted and dazzled the crowd.  And now it was a crowd!  A margarita party at Butler College’s Studio 34 was quite crowded, the tent was full for dinner at the headquarters.

 

A new Triangle tradition meant free tickets for 30th Reunion classmates and several dozen classmates took advantage of that, seeing "Store Trek,” one of Triangle’s best shows in recent memory.  Others went to Chancellor Green (a.k.a. The Pub) for a Singles Mingle, the second year of this popular event, organized by our class.  Retro rock at our headquarters followed, with many classmates dancing and perhaps even more enjoying the various spaces of Butler Courtyard, talking and catching up.

 

Those who were up late on Friday night or early on Saturday morning experienced some rain, but if one slept late enough or arrived late enough (and we’re talking about 7:30 am here) one may have noticed a wet ground, but any further rain held off for the weekend!  Another quiet breakfast at the headquarters, and then it was off to more programs – Alumni-Faculty Forums or perhaps President Tilghman’s talk – or Eliot Spitzer’s.

 

The class picture was taken at 11:30 on the Clio Hall steps, and if you take a look at it, we look good!  Those of us who may have thought it was all downhill after the 25th maybe have spoken too soon. You can order one here.

 

Throughout the course of the weekend, classmates participated in an Oral History project. Pairs or trios of classmates went to the WPRB studio to talk for a few minutes.  These recordings will be compiled into a history of the class.  Over the next few years we will be working on this project; stay tuned for more updates!

 

Back at the headquarters, a boxed lunch provided needed fuel for the P-rade, and we were introduced to our new honorary classmates, Emmet Gowin and Michael Graves.  Both of these professors were important to us in our class years and beyond – and neither had yet been named an honorary member of any class.  Perhaps more remarkably, these two long-serving professors had never met each other until our lunch!  Our new classmates marched with us in the P-rade as well, and we hope that they will return for more class events and Reunions.

 

And then the P-rade!  Our class was staged across from Whig and Clio, taking up most of the length of Cannon Green.  With 250 classmates and 300 spouses and family members, we were a substantial contingent!  We may be getting closer and closer to the front, but it still took a good two hours for us to get to the end of the P-rade route (and then it was at least another hour before the seniors marched).  Again, we looked good!

 

In the P-rade, we were preceded by the The Oakcrest Marching Ambassadors (Oakcrest High School, Mays Landing, NJ, and led by Henri Ford and Sharon Keld: Henri to honor his service to the U.S. and Haiti following the earthquake there (he performed trauma surgery during three trips); and Sharon for her years of Peace Corps and Habitat for Humanity service to Morocco and the Philippines. These two classmates exemplify Princeton in the nation’s service and in service to all nations. 

 

After the P-rade, classmates went off to various club and department reunions – or rested (maybe we are getting older after all).  Our class dinner featured a performance by the Tigertones and a visit from President Tilghman, as well as the announcement of the new class officers and a reminder about Annual Giving from our class agents (for more on that, click here).  Some classmates ran over to watch the one-of-a-kind fireworks and others stayed at the tent; following that, there was more dancing and talking as our tent proved one of the most popular places to be!

 

Sunday’s brunch at Wu Hall was a last chance to check in with classmates before they left for home – whether they return next year or five years from now, we hope everyone had a wonderful time!

 

Now, what about some statistics and memories? We’ve got plenty of them (thanks to the math and history prowess of the Class). The 30^th marked the next stage in the evolution of the Class Costume:

• When the class of 1980 graduated, the theme was "Around the World in EIGHTY Days,” and the costume was a T-shirt and a boater.
• By the fifth Reunion, it was clear that the Great Class of 1980 was "Sailing through the ‘80s.”  1980 was the first class to have Jams!
• In 1990, the 10^th Reunion class of 1980 theme was "Up at Bat,” with a baseball costume.
• The theme of the 15^th was "Making our Mark,” and the class finally got beer jackets, which it had not gotten senior year.
• 2000 was the height of the Internet bubble, and the class of 1980 theme was "’80 at 20 DOT com.”
• 2005 saw the arrival of the highly envied Class Blazer: black with orange and white Nassau Halls gracing the outer aspect, with classmates’ names as lining.
• This year the class blazer is back, worn with new polo shirts, baseball caps and a belt from the same fabric as the blazer.

  What are we remembering?  What are the changes we’ve seen?  How have we changed?  Glad you asked!

 

In 1958, the year most of us were born:

• gas was about 25 cents / gallon
• a typical new car cost about $3,000
• the Edsel was introduced.
• popular new cars were the Bel Air, Fairlane and Galaxie
• Elvis was big, James Brown was with the Famous Flames, the Beatles had yet to hit and Michael Jackson was born

 

By the time we graduated in 1980:

• gas had hit $1.00 per gallon!
• new cars cost about $7,000
• popular new cars were the Citation, Fairmont and Cordoba
• #1 car in America: Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme
• Elvis was gone, James Brown was rising again, the Beatles had hit and disbanded, John Lennon was shot and Michael Jackson was about to become the biggest thing in pop.  Something called "rap” was making itself known.

 

By this year 2010:

• gas is $3.00 per gallon and we’ve seen $4 gas in the recent past (on a good day)
• typical new car costs about $25,000
• Camry and Accord in a race for #1 car
• Ford F-Series still #1 truck
• Elvis, James Brown, John Lennon, George Harrison and Michael Jackson are gone
• Hip-hop and country-western music are crossing over into new territories

 

Our freshman year saw the dawn of the new age of feature film special effects with the advent of the first Star Wars trilogy. This year, 2010, marked another major step in the evolution with the arrival of Avatar.  Animation, too, has come miles (or Buzz Lightyears) with the progression from the predecessors of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit” to "Up” and "The Princess and the Frog.”

 

Here’s the evolution of some other names and issues:

• Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama
• Bill Bowen to Shirley Tilghman
• Leonid Brezhnev and Ayatollah Khomeini to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong Il
• GM/Ford/Chrysler to Toyota/Ford/Honda
• Three Mile Island to the Gulf Oil Spill starting with the explosion of the Deepwater Explorer off the Louisiana coast
• Mount Saint Helens to Eyjafjallajökull

 

These are just some of the changes, for better or worse, we’ve witnessed. But what have we learned? How have we changed? The class survey provides some insight:

 

• Many of us are surprised at how happy we are, in spite of the fact that we’ve learned that, for instance, parenting continues past their 18^th birthday!
• Age, it seems, brings peace and acceptance, even as we realize how angry some of our countrymen are.  Some of us feel older than we look, and many report looking older than we feel.
• We’ve learned it’s hard to lose weight: By our 15^th reunion our class had gained 10,002 pounds.  By today we were up another 2,941 pounds so we’ve slowed the rate of gain. In fact, nearly a quarter of us are the same weight or lighter than we were in college; 93% of us watch what we eat.
• 98% of us give to charities, supporting educational, religious and social services in our communities and beyond.  87% of us live within our incomes.
• Three-fourths of us are married or in other long-term committed relationships.
• A quarter of us say we’ve gotten more conservative in our political leanings, and about an equal number report having become more liberal.  Go figure!
• A sizeable number of us are taking steps to reduce our impact on the environment such as recycling, driving less, using smaller vehicles and more efficient appliances.
• Most of us expect to retire in the next 15 years from professions that are related to our undergraduate plans.
• 94% of us would advise a child to go to Princeton.
• By a wide margin our survey shows we value relationships with family and friends above other parts of life.

 

Noteworthy classmates include, but are not limited to: a Tony-winning playwright, a movie actor-writer-director, the former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, a former professional tennis player, several CEOs, many professors and university administrators, a smattering of professional musicians and singers, a Jeopardy five-time undefeated champion, more than one newspaper columnist, quite a few authors – two of whom are holding book signings at the U-Store during the 2010 Reunion weekend, the head of the Alumni Association, the former Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School (now Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department) and the former P-rade Grand Marshal and Director of the Center for Jewish Life.

 

Throughout the course of the weekend, classmates participated in an Oral History project. Pairs or trios of classmates went to the WPRB studio to talk for a few minutes.  These recordings will be compiled into a history of the class.  Looking ahead, we now have a class historian, Natalie Wargo, who attended a meeting for class historians on Saturday morning to hear how classes use Facebook, LinkedIn and other technologies to connect classmates and keep track of records that now sprawl over print, online and electronic formats.  Over the next few years we will be working on the oral history project and other initiatives to create a record of the way it was and the way it is for the Class of 1980; stay tuned for more updates!