Update on the 55th Reunion
Mark your calendar and plan to be there
Our 55th reunion is now just four months away. Your classmates want to see you, and of course, you want to see them. Please mark your calendar for May 30 – June 2, 2024, and plan to be there. Our reunion will be an opportunity to renew and kindle valued friendships, and to learn from each other and Yale professors.
Next Milestone – January 31: Get your hotel reservations!
For those of you who wish to book hotels in New Haven, please pay attention. You should have received a postcard and an email from the Yale Alumni Association (YAA), announcing that blocks of rooms at local hotels will be ready for you to reserve at noon on Wednesday, January 31. We suggest that you act promptly on that day as hotel room blocks discounted for reunions usually sell out very quickly. You will find the most up-to-date information regarding 2024 Yale reunion hotel room blocks on the YAA Housing & Hotels web page.
New Class Survey – Coming to you in late February
By popular demand, Tom Guterbock and Michael Baum are collaborating to produce a new class survey. This survey will follow up on the very successful survey we conducted for our 50th reunion. Be on the lookout for the survey in late February.
Reunion registration will begin in March
The YAA will announce the opening of reunion registration in March. If you wish to reserve on-campus housing in Timothy Dwight College (the most nostalgic and economical option short of sleeping in the Linonia and Brothers Reading Room at Sterling Library), you will be able to do so when you register.
Be a College Captain!
One of the reasons so many people came to our 50th reunion was the power of personal touch. “College Captains” personally contacted other classmates in their college to encourage them to attend. If you are interested in helping out, please contact David Howorth (david.howorth@gmail.com) and tell him which college you were in. He has spreadsheets with names, telephone numbers and email addresses for classmates in each college. He can also put you in touch with the other College Captains in your college so that you can split up the list. Many of the College Captains for our 50th reported that this was quite a fun task!
YAA Website For Our Reunion Is Live
The YAA has created a website for our 55th reunion. They will update it with official information as it becomes available. You can find it at https://alumni.yale.edu/reunions/class-1969. The YAA website with general information about all reunions is at: https://alumni.yale.edu/reunions/yale-college-reunions.
Thursday!
Registration is set to open on campus after lunch on Thursday, May 30, and our much-anticipated class-only seminars will begin on Thursday afternoon. But that shouldn’t constrain us.
Some classmates have noted that at this reunion they would like to have more informal time to enjoy each other’s company. Many of us can now arrive in New Haven on Thursday more easily than at earlier reunions because our personal schedules are more flexible today than they used to be. With this in mind, we want to find out how many people would like to play golf or tennis on Thursday morning and whether there are other activities that people want to request. Does your team or organization want to meet? Who would be interested in a Thursday picnic lunch out by the Yale Bowl? What other ideas do you have and what can you help organize? We need a golf CEO and a tennis CEO. Please write to us at reunion@Yale1969.org with your thoughts.
Class-only and reunion-wide programing
We know that a major highlight of Yale reunions for many people is the series of discussions organized by and for our class, and outstanding lectures by professors that the YAA makes available for all returning alumni. While it is too early to announce many details, we can say that our class will discuss topics that are diverse, forward-looking and exciting, such as the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on our lives, new Yale research on wellness in our 70’s and beyond, and the future of liberal education. We expect to hold our traditional Memorial Service on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday Evening: Class Dinner and a Little Night Music
We plan to have our sit-down class dinner on Saturday evening. When we finish our Chocolate Blackout Layered Cake and beverage service continues, we expect to have some musical entertainment by some of our classmates. See the accompanying article, “Calling Classmate Musicians: We Want to Hear You Perform!” In response to multiple requests by classmates who want to be able to hear each other, we will not hire an outside band!
Reunion Giving!
Our class has a proud tradition of supporting Yale’s priorities and excellence, a tradition that will continue for our 55th reunion. Our 55th Reunion Gift Co-Chairs – Woody Collins, Howard Newman, Steve Schwarzman and Ken Wolfe – have already written to us about this initiative. They have a committee that plans to contact fellow classmates. Thank you for contributing!
Questions and Suggestions
Please write to us at reunion@Yale1969.org.