35-Year
Class of 1973
Reunion dates ― October 3 & 4, 2008
May 2008
Dear Classmates,
Spouses & Friends,
What’s the worst
month on your calendar? The December
holiday season? April tax filing? The month with three birthday’s and your
anniversary? October harvest? At our house, I think May peaks the stress
and anxiety meter. This May really
stacked up. At the end of the semester,
grading final exams and papers seemed endless.
The yard and garden needed hours of attention to get off to a good
start. The effects of winter,
particularly woodpecker damage around the house, demands repairs. And our graduating college student needs time
and attention. Where do you put all the
furniture that comes home? You sent a
kid away to school, now you have to move an adult back into the house. Apologies for the delay in this spring class
letter.
Here’s a poem from
the first book I bought at the Bookmark freshman year in ’69. Can’t imagine what possessed me to buy
it―but I’ve saved it over the years (along with a couple of dusty college
textbooks and our college annuals):
May 24
~Rod McKuen
Spring will chase us
through the summer into fall
and find us beached upon some snowy shore
waiting for spring to come again.
Then gingerly we’ll go through jonquils
to seek out other summers
Birthday to birthday,
season to season,
every hour will be the anniversary
of the hour just past.
I called Phil Byrant, our class representative
on the Gustavus faculty (wonder if he read Rod McKuen in 1969?) to get a
faculty report. Phil reports the
following faculty were feted at a retirement party last week: Larry Potts (introduced by Tom Gover), Greg
Mason (extolled by Phil), Claude Brew (roasted by Eric Eliason), and Bill
Heidcamp (bio’ed by Colleen Jacks ’79).
Retiring president, Jim Peterson ’64 was also honored at the event. We will invite all of the active and emeritus
faculty to our reunion breakfast event in October (Mr. Heidcamp will be off to
chair the biology department at the
Do you have our
upcoming Class of ’73 reunion events on your calendar? Hold Friday night and
With hardly any
prodding, Tim volunteered to host a Class of ’73 Reunion Closeout Party at his
‘ranch’ in Kasota. Tim stated that he
has particularly fond memories of the Class of ’73, as do other faculty from
our era. Tim has offered to invite all
interested faculty and our reunion group out to Kasota for the evening. Tim said it would be a crushing blow to his
memory of our class if we allowed the party to be decorous and restrained.
’73 Class
Friday, October 3,
Classmate, Kelvin Miller has
offered his Primarius Gallery as a gathering spot for a Friday night reunion
event before our on-campus activities on Saturday. Primarius Gallery is in the
Saturday, October 4,
9 -
Retired and active
faculty invited. (*The Dive reserved all
day for Class of ’73)
Homecoming Seminar: 2008 Presidential Election
Guided Campus Tours for
Class of ’73 – Start from The Dive*
Program of Class
Speakers at
Sunday, October 5
10:000 a.m. Worship Service – Christ Chapel
Featuring
Christ Chapel Choir and the Gustavus Philharmonic Orchestra
The Gustavus Alumni Office
reports that it is close to launching a new website. Ron Timmerman ’75 in the office said it would
be up this summer. The Class of ’73 has
a
Do you have any
pictures from our student days that deserve some visibility? We would love to see more photos posted for
the Class of ’73 slideshow. Send them
to: alumni@gustavus.edu
Online registration
for our reunion should be available sometime in July.
I am still hoping Steve Ogren can come up with a way that
he can work with the Alumni Office and our classmates to post videos to our
reunion website. Would be fun to get a
collection of video reports from classmates around the globe.
Our Reunion Committee will be convening over the summer to plan the
program details of our reunion events.
We can always use more people and your ideas. Call or email anyone below.
Class of '73
Phil & Renee
(Reeck) Bryant prez@gustavus.edu
Debbie Ellis debellismn@aol.com
Steve Ogren ogren@csp.edu
John Otteson john@twincities-realestate.com
Matt Peterson matthewcpeterson@msn.com
Gail Johnson Speckmann gaile_speckmann@hotmail.com
Sue Engelsma Wilcox sue0071008@aol.com
Class News
At our house, like yours, things are jumping. Our dance/theatre major, Britta ’08, will
depart the day after graduation with her Gustavus dance ensemble to perform in
Online news report at: http://gustavus.edu/epep/learnMore/index.cfm?story=161
Our son, Anders ’06, is headed for the Graduate Theological Union in
Kelvin Miller has a new marketing campaign to celebrate
the 30th anniversary of his Primarius Promotion. The mailings I have seen are very clever. Do you remember how we scoffed at Kelvin’s
idea to perfume the Le Sueur sewage stabilization ponds so as not to offend the
King of Sweden’s motorcade as they headed to Gustavus? Kelvin’s unique thinking has built a very
enviable promotions/events business. His
picture at: http://primarius.com/pages/profile.html
looks more like 40 than closing in on 60.
Gustavus student
callers note that Mary Moore Schwab
and Byron ’70 have both retired. Were
they both with the
Jane Peterson Holmquist has the greatest job title you’ll likely
encounter: Astrophysics, Mathematics and
Physics Librarian at the Fine Hall Library at
Visited Deb Ellis’ law offices for a reunion
planning meeting. She is running out of
wall space to hang her latest “Minnesota Super Lawyer” honors. Never know if our reunion events might
require a top flight criminal defense attorney.
Judy Youngren – Are you now working for Planned Parenthood?
The note from your conversation with a
Gustie student caller from last fall is hard to track. Thanks for the alumni fund contribution.
Jean Marvin continues to teach English in
It appears that
Michael ’72 and Marie Westerman Hero moved
to Grand Marais, MN. Would like to hear
what it’s like to be resident there.
Gateway to
If we can recruit
class speakers for our reunion programs, we need to hear from Mike Menning, retired United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees. Mike, if
you can’t commute to St. Peter for the reunion, send us a video account of your
career.
My aunt spent her
final days at the North Memorial Hospice.
My cousins were effusive in their praise and thanks to the staff and
their services. Kathy Wornson directs the home health care and hospice programs for
Nancy Ellingson Palmer looks to have shifted from kindergarten
teacher to reading teacher with the Rosemount/Eagan/Apple Valley District.
State of
Michael Carlson hit 85 points (or do you need 90) and has
retired from
Linda Thomas Harper reports that she is on the library board in
Debra Hartley is assistant director at the Center for
Writing at the
If you have any
stories with interesting links to Gustavus, send them along―this is our
year to reminisce and draw on our college connections. Better yet, contact me to arrange to write a
class letter. I am completely inadequate
on these class letters and could use your help.
Please connect if
you are interested in:
-writing a class letter
-being a co-class agent (new
committee approach needs 10 or more class reps)
-working on reunion planning
-hosting or co-hosting a
neighborhood Gusties Gather Party on September 29th
-helping on Reunion Weekend
-helping with reunion fund raising
-stopping by for a drink (
In our 35th
reunion year, we hope to endow a student scholarship from our class. We need a minimum of $25 K to start the Class
of ’73 Scholarship. We would like to hit
$80 K in reunion donations. Our recent
class participation rate to the Alumni Fund hovers at 30%―we would like
to approach 50%―donations of any amount would help us reach that
goal. It’s doable!
If you have the
means, go to https://secure2.gac.edu/giving/
to make an online donation. All
contributions through
♪ Fight on for
dear old GAC,
1973 Class Agent
Home phone: 952-933-3725
matthewcpeterson@msn.com