OUR 35TH REUNION IN REVIEW
Submitted by STEVE FRANK
It all began with a conference call in April, 2005 arranged by class agent, NAT STERLING, with the other five people who agreed to join him on the Reunion Committee: CLARISSA BRONSON, MIKE DUCKOR, STEVE FRANK, SEAN MCCARTHY, and NICK VAN MALE.
One of the committee members had previously opined that if we wanted a bigger turnout then at the 30th Reunion (only 2 members of our class attended,) we needed to have it in a location, which by itself, added interest, rather than to have it in Davis again. Suggestions of meeting in Las Vegas, in Long Beach with a catamaran ride to Catalina, and in San Francisco were made.
The committee decided that San Francisco had the greatest appeal. Thereafter, the serious planning began. Each of the 6 committee members were to call 9 other class members and encourage, cajole, or threaten to motivate attendance. Once that ball started rolling, other class members, such as PHIL BOURDETTE, began calling classmates.
SEAN MCCARTHY suggested that reunion attendees join him on Friday, August 19 in San Francisco for an evening reception at his law firm. The plans for the following day were to meet at Pier 41 in the late morning, ride the Blue and Gold Ferry to Tiburon, have lunch at the Guaymas Restaurant and then return to the city mid-afternoon.
Invitations were mailed to the surviving members of our class and the first to return his acceptance was PAUL FALZONE. During the spring and summer, bushes continued to be beaten by committee members and by other classmates, and the acceptances trickled in.
At least 6 of the class who returned acceptances had not attended a reunion before. Many others had come to at least one and classmates who came to the 35th from the Central Valley were LOUIE BISSIG, PHIL BOURDETTE, MIKE LA SALLE, MIKE MOSER and RICH OWEN. Others came from Southern California including WYATT CASH, ART CHINSKI, MIKE DUCKOR, STEVE FRANK, MARC LAUPER, and BOB MALLORY (who took two separate commuter flights to make it to the ferry on time that morning.) Sacramento area attendees were STEVE BELZER, BOB COATS, DAN DOYLE, PETER JANIAK, DERRY KNIGHT, RICH PARK, GEORGE (BILL) ROEHR, TED TERLECKY, BRIAN TOM, MIKE TRUSKOL and CHARLES VAN COURT. Other Northern California classmates showing up were TED LAKEY, MIKE LAWSON, TOM NOLAN, JOHN RUZZO, MADELINE (DEAN) SAGER and GREG SAGER, DON STEPHENSON, and HUGH THOMPSON. Being out of state did not deter BOB DE JONG (Michigan) from attending nor DELAINE WATSON (New Mexico) nor JOHN VANEK (Olympia, Washington). Clarissa Bronson (Massachusetts) and JIM CHANDLER (Washington, DC) traveled the furthest distance and thereby became eligible for the new, fully equipped Mercedes, which they should have received by now. If not, a claim needed to be filed by August 20, 2006 when the special 1 year Statute of Limitations expired.
Three men who started with our class but did not graduate in 1970 also attended. They were KEN BRANS, HUGO ROSSITTER and TONY ANDRADE. The committee was very pleased that THELMA KIDO, Law School Registrar, attended along with Professors ED RABIN and MORT SCHWARTZ; individuals very important to our class and the early years of our school.
The weekend started off in a splendid way with the reception at SEAN MCCARTHY'S law firm. It was fun, surprising, and rather amazing to see everyone gathered together again. It hardly seemed like 13,000 days had passed since we graduated but that was the fact and a good time really was had by all. Twenty-seven classmates plus many spouses appeared, all of whom also attended the next day's events except for BOB SCHAUER who said he had to return to Los Angeles to prepare for trial. (Possibly in pro per, but that fact has not been verified.)
Saturday, August 20 dawned cloudy in San Francisco as we all gathered at Pier 41 to board the ferry. There were more reunions as people who had not attended the night before made their way down the gangway and onto the boat. As the ferry went out into the bay, passing Alcatraz and rounding Angel Island towards Tiburon, the sun came out and shone brightly for the rest of the afternoon.
After a festive and delicious lunch at Guaymas Restaurant with a yellow and blue (U.C. Davis) color scheme complete with dessert cookies of the number "35", I gave a talk about people and events from 1967 to 1970, including graduation day and, a tribute to the members of the class who had died. I followed this with recollections of popular professors, and concluded with reflections on our class in 2005.
We started in 1967, the same year the Beatles released the album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, including "When I'm 64," a song becoming more relevant with each passing year. In 1968 and 1969 many events took place as disparate as the deaths of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon, and the Woodstock Music Festival.
1970 was the first year of Monday Night Football, but at the time there were no cell phones, pagers, CDs, personal computers, Blackberries, e-mail, Google, or the Internet. How were we ever able to manage! We graduated on June 13th and the speakers at commencement exercises were DOUG CUNNINGHAM, DAN DYKSTRA, and ROBERT HUTCHINS, (Clarissa's father). A total of 69 men and women received diplomas on that warm June day. We only mailed 61 invitations to the 35th Reunion because eight of our number had died; 11% of the class. They are GORDON ROBERTS, NOEL SIMON, DOUG MACARTHUR, BILL FISHER, TONY EAMES, STEVE TAUZER, MIKE REMY and DOUG CUNNINGHAM. Many were in the prime of their careers when their lives were cut short. The causes of their deaths are a reflection of the general population: a heart attack, various types of cancer, a homicide and AIDS.
One of our classmates really wanted to attend and had made all of the arrangements but could not do so at the last because he was undergoing chemotherapy for a brain tumor. That was BILL MCCAMPBELL. I am sorry to report that he died shortly thereafter. Another class member who wanted to attend but was also ill with cancer was JOHN PETRINI. I am pleased to report that when I phoned him recently (661-322-3051) he said he was feeling "almost normal" and was back to working full time.
Helping to organize the reunion and making contact with many members of our class was a revelation to me. I learned about people's acceptance of the misfortunes and illnesses they had suffered, and I also heard of the successes, the enthusiasm and the enjoyment most still had in their lives, both related and unrelated to the law. It made me realize who my classmates really were, their obvious intelligence and talent, the diversity of what they had done with their lives and what interesting people they were.
The impulse to find and reconnect with old friends seems to intensify with age. There is something in us that is curious about how lost friends' stories played out. In many ways we learned that by attending the reunion and through all of the e-mails that went back and forth before it took place. I was so delighted on that day in August, 2005 when a majority of the members of our class traveled from near and far and found their way back together again. They shared food and drink and reminiscences. They heard about people and events they had not thought of for years. They became reacquainted with old friends and made new ones. The reunion reinforced the feeling that we were fortunate to have spent our law school years where we did, when we did, and with whom we did. To this day, we continue to benefit from that experience and the journey continues.