NEW! "Road to the Future" Online Series by the Classes of '70, '71, '72 

Links to Prior Programs

What’s Next?  Criminal Justice, Refugees and Reproductive Rights Thursday, December 8th, 2022

Three Oberlin graduates discuss the potential effects of the recent election results on their areas of expertise. Ted Gest, Oberlin '68, is President, Criminal Justice Journalists and Editor of the daily newsletter Crime and Justice News. Jan Ting, Oberlin '70, is professor emeritus at Temple Law School with an extensive resume including Assistant Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1990-93. Rahula Strohl, Oberlin '2002, is the Public Affairs Specialist at Planned Parenthood of Maryland since 2016.  https://youtu.be/GEika1LFCxI

Oberlin: Asia--> A Road Well-Travelled   Sunday, January 22, 2023

Speakers: Bea Camp '72, John Burgess '72, Chris LaFleur '72

Join us for an engaging conversation sharing classmates’ experience working, living, and exploring in Asia, a destination and cultural experience that Oberlin has encouraged and supported over the years.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p1Ymm8RpU8&authuser=0

‘Con’ Makers & Players: Obies Who Make and Play Their Own Instruments Thursday, March 9, 2023

Speakers: Richard Hester (’67), Fred Holmgren (’70), Michael Brinegar (’71), Garry Kvistad (’71)

Join us to hear and ask questions of four most talented Oberlin Conservatory artist Alumni who have made considerable contributions to the world of building and repairing the precious instruments they also play.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT8C0mq5fOQ

Oberlin Women Athletes 1966 - 1976: Pre & Post Title IX Experiences. Thursday May 4, 2023

Speakers: Susan Schaffer ('70), Kate Wall ('70), Heather Partridge Oppenheimer ('71), Jane Littmann ('72), Lisa M. Matovcik ('76), Margaret Cheney ('76)

Join us for a delightful discussion with six of our classmates as they describe their experiences - hurdles and victories - pursuing their sports before and after Title IX. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9peuEL-o-OM

Also, view this Honors Paper by classmate Leland Brandt ('92): Evolution of Women's Sports at Oberlin College on the same topic. 

2022 Pre-Reunion Programs, Events and Reunion Weekend!!

Monthly Pre-reunion Online Programs

The combined Classes of ’70, ’71, and ’72 organized a series of monthly Zoom events preceding the June reunion from January through June featuring our own classmates with expertise in these topics. These were well received by our 3 Classes with 60 to 100 classmates attending. Below are recordings of the events in case you missed any (or all) and would like to catch up or review.

The Road to Social Justice Activism: Oberlin and Beyond

 https://youtu.be/4-KFWb-5Ve8

bell hooks: unlikely lotus flower

 https://youtu.be/cWPVyayaL2A

Mental Health in the Time of Covid

 https://youtu.be/MvZZ3Cu4CcM

The State of Democracy in US Politics

https://youtu.be/orVrMusQYWs

What To Do About Climate!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkJVCgU0Jdg

Writers' Roundtable

https://youtu.be/C_kt04nN4HM

   Chat box with links to our additional Obie authors/writers and attendees' questions HERE

The Underground Railroad...Then and Now

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-lFq8SlCiw

Follow David Tempest '72 and Kathy TeKolste Tempest ‘72 on their daily Blog as they cycled north along the path of the Underground Railroad from New Orleans to Oberlin HERE

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=3d2&doc_id=24171&v=14 

This is the link to the additional Underground Railroad program website providing additional history on the UGRR route and links to donate to related worthwhile causes: https://advance.oberlin.edu/campaigns/the-road-to-reunion

50th +2 Reunion Weekend Programs

Videos of the 50th Cluster Reunion Programs - Organized by the Class of '72 with contributions from the Classes of '70 and '71

June 4, 2022: Political Polarization & the Future of Democracy

June 4, 2022: How Can I Make a Difference!? Climate Change & Sustainability

June 5, 2022: Oberlin’s Quest for Social Justice & Racial Equality: The legacy and its lessons. What’s next?

2022  Presentation of the Mozart's Requiem by the Cluster 50th Reunion with Greg Ristow conducting and also featuring current members of Oberlin College- Commemorating the performance  by the ' 70, '71, '72 Cluster Classes in May 1970 at the National Cathedral

June 5, 2022: Mozart's Requiem Performance at First Church

Looking Back – Our second 50^th reunion

50^th (+1) Reunion Weekend, Online May 22-23, 2021

COVID19 precautions continued to introduce changes on the Oberlin College class schedule, which was switched to a trimester pattern. Nonetheless, the Classes of ’70 and ’71 joined forces and persevered with an On-Line 50th Reunion with multiple entertaining, educating, and rememberance programs

See PDF of links to view videos of these programs here.

Pandemic Stories

A year ago, it was thought that coping with COVID-19 would require withdrawing $31 million from the college’s endowment, but now that estimate has been reduced by 45%. In June, ObieSafe policies began to be lifted as recommended by the Ohio Department of Health, and campus life began to return to normal. There have been 839 students on campus for “summer semester” classes, and more than 900 new students are enrolling in the fall, making the incoming class the largest in Oberlin’s history! Classes begin October 4. Details are in this article from the Oberlin Review.

The New York Times has posted a Sway podcast with Oberlin President Carmen Twillie Ambar.  Host Kara Swisher says, “Colleges across the country are figuring out how Covid has changed the college experience, while parents are struggling to understand why schools haven’t changed their price tag.”

President Ambar's Chief of Staff told the story of Oberlin's leadership planning from March through November of 2020. It is dramatic and detailed. Read it at https://inside.oberlin.edu/oberlin-2020/   Then, looking forward, in August 2021 Ben Jones interviewed President Ambar. Watch it at https://vimeo.com/588389938/45c693f5f7

Looking Back – Our first 50^th reunion

50^th Reunion Weekend, May 22-25, 2020

The Reunion Weekend that didn’t happen. COVID19 swept into the US in January 2020 and wreaked havoc on a year of planning for our 50^th Reunion as well as drastically altering all other activities on campus.

Gail and Reid Wood sent a warm video greeting from their backyard in Oberlin to our class on Commencement Weekend, quiet without Reunion Festivities.

Tom Gold, ’70, Chair of the Reunion Committee, posted a note on 5/25/2020 to our class summing up what we all felt at the time:

Well, we're supposed to be in Oberlin today celebrating commencement and wrapping up our 50th Reunion Weekend. Oh well. As Kurt Vonnegut memorably wrote in "Slaughterhouse Five": "so it goes." Should be our class motto.

I strongly recommend watching the commencement videos.

To view President Carmen Twillie Ambar’s state-of-the-college address, entitled “The Certainty of Oberlin”, please click here.

To view the 2020 Commencement Celebration please click here.  After 5½ minutes of video congratulations by well over 100 people, you’ll hear from the Deans and from Naeisha McClain ’20.  Then, before President Ambar confers degrees, there's an address from Board of Trustees Chair T. Chris Canavan ’84, who gives a moving shout out to our class beginning at 14:32.

To view the Class of 2020 Virtual Yearbook please click here.  Also, many graduates have posted video messages in a Time Capsule; please click here.

I found the whole experience very moving. Next year in Oberlin; in person. Put it on your calendars. Meanwhile, keep posting updates, reminiscences, thoughts, etc. on this site.

Tom

AMAM Virtual Tour now online for Class of 1970 members to view!

Take the Allen Memorial Art Museum Virtual Tour filmed exclusively for our class here.

A Playlist of Our Times

Listen to popular music from our college years collected by Marc Krass ‘70 (for our planned dance party) and posted by Mike Rogan ’70 and Jane Katz Field ’70. Click HERE to download PDF or go to Memories/Scrapbook  in the side menu to see online.

Michael Dirda '70 Published Op-Ed Piece on Commencent 2020 in The Washington Post

Read Michael Dirda’s ’70 Op-Ed in The Washington Post “What 2020 graduates can take away from the unhappy timing of this pandemic” tying together his experience at Oberlin and Commencement in 1970 with college graduates’ experiences in 2020 HERE, while commenting on the news of the day (Link provided courtesy of the author). See his Op-Ed also in Memories/Scrapbook.