The only full day of activities during our reunion was Saturday, June 2. Of course, most classmates started the day by joining other, younger reunion attendees at the “Alumni 5K Fun Run.” I don’t know the actual number of classmates who did that. I didn’t, but a shout out to at least one of our classmates who ran the run.

(This post and video cover the morning and afternoon activities of Day 2. Coming up will be the party that evening and then Sunday’s brief schedule.)

That same morning, I joined other classmates at the Hillside Cafe, where Golden Eagles were able to get free Starbucks coffee. Still others may have partaken of other early morning events, e.g., a spin hour, yoga hour, and AA meeting.

After coffee, I joined others on the lawn outside Burns Library (the northern end of Bapst) for the Veterans’ Reunion Reception and Ceremony. (With the myriad events during the day, I attended several, but couldn’t do them all. The video below is, therefore, of where I went. Pictures from BC and Rose Lincoln help fill out the coverage of the day, but some things, I’m sure, are missed here. If you have photos from other events that day, please share.)

The veterans’ ceremony, at 9:30, was for all veterans attending the reunion, but the large majority of attendees were members of our class. We graduated during the height of the Vietnam War and when draft deferments for graduate school had been removed. Quite a few of us had gone into the service.

Presiding at the veterans’ event were Dan Arkins ’81, a colonel in the Army Reserve, and George Harrington ’80, colonel in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, co-chairs of the BC Veterans Alumni Network. Speaker was Michael Lochhead ’93, executive vice president of BC, who had served in the Army prior to enrolling at BC and was among classmates celebrating their 25 anniversary of graduation that weekend. There is more coverage of the veterans event in the video below (7 mins.), as well as video of the midday barbecue on Bapst Lawn and the luncheon sponsored by our classmates from the School of Nursing.

Following the veteran’s ceremony, I joined about two dozen classmates for a “conversation” among ourselves and with a few members of the Class of 2017 and other “Graduates of the Last Decade” (GOLD) at the Fulton Honors Library. The idea was to allow conversation to move beyond nostalgia to something where different generations could share memories and insights about their “BC experience.” This was a first-timer, so it had some of the weaknesses of such activities, but it could also have been the first of what might become a tradition of Golden Eagles and young Eagles talking with each other.

(Often, when I passed by the reunion “help desk” in Stayer Hall, I noticed students staffing the desk were alone . . . and apparently bored. I would then stop in and start telling them about life at BC in the Sixties and things that were going on in the country and world in that era. I would sometimes start with something like, “If you think things are in tumult now . . . .” There were quite a few “OMG”s expressed.)

Joining us at the conversation were at least two members of the Class of 2017, Kristina Downey and Kristin Morrisseau, and several other younger alumni. (Kristina was one of a couple of young alumni who told me that a history course on Vietnam [HS 111: “Vietnam: America’s War at Home and Abroad”] has been one of the most popular courses at BC these days. Kristina, in fact, was so taken by the subject matter, she told me, that she will travel to Vietnam and Southeast Asia this fall.)

Newton classmates also held “conversations” that morning, and classmates attended a presentation on the restoration of the original BC Eagle (atop the pillar in front of Gasson). And at the same time as our class conversation, BC Athletic Director Martin Jarmond was telling classmates and others about what was “Inside BC Athletics.” You can tell from the photo below that this topic appealed to a certain “type.” (Of course, I would have been there were it not for the “conversation.”)

Here are some additional photos from the barbecue and the day.

Following the barbecue and Nursing luncheon, as well as our Newton classmates’ “Tea Party” luncheon, Nursing alumni held a “Kelleher Award Ceremony” and Education alumni held a session on “How Do We Interest More Kids in Science?” There was another iteration of the campus bus tour and, at 4, the Alumni Reunion Mass wrapped up the pre-class party day.

Here’s a gallery of photos from the Mass.

Time to get ready for the party!