Announcing the Class of 1969 Virtual 51st Reunion
As many of you hopefully are already aware, Princeton has decided to host virtual reunions this week in lieu of our all “going back to Nassau Hall!” The highlights will include a variety of Alumni-Faculty Fora, a meeting of the Alumni Association on Friday at 12:00 PM (EDT), a speech by President Eisgruber on Saturday at 1:00 PM (EDT), and, of course, a virtual P-Rade on Saturday at 2:00 PM (EDT)! The full schedule of events (which is a work in progress as we speak, so check back later) is fairly extensive and can be found here: https://reunions.princeton.edu/.
While such a virtual format will make it impossible for us to communicate and share each other’s lives in the way we would were we all sitting under a tent or on a lawn somewhere enjoying a libation of some sort, we have decided to offer a few events of our own making for your consideration.
Class Meeting and Speech by Dr. Sam Fager
First up is a short Class Meeting (with brief presentations from me, Paul Sittenfeld and Andy Steele), followed by a presentation by our Classmate, Sam Fager, entitled “Topics of Interest on COVID”. Sam holds an M.D. in medicine, a J.D. in law and an M.B.A in Health Care Management. His career includes service on the faculties of UPenn Medical School, Cornell Medical School and Yale Medical School, and he currently is a member of the Emeritus Medical Staff at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Sam is currently consulting both domestically and internationally with health care organizations. As a result of these experiences, Sam has knowledge and experience in the scientific, physical and mental health issues associated with crises similar to COVID, and indeed has significant knowledge and experience in regard to the epidemiological, physical and mental health aspects of the COVID pandemic more specifically.
While Sam will discuss some topics that he believes will be of interest, he very much wants to tailor his presentation to topics that Classmates put forward, and would welcome suggestions for topics by email to him at drsfager@aol.com or a phone call to him at (610) 420-2499. It would be most appreciated if your questions could be sent along by close of business on Thursday, May 28th, so that Sam can do a little research on any topic that requires same. We will be hosting this in a Zoom format, which may not allow for much interaction with Sam, and so he also invites questions of a more personal nature, which he plans to address offline rather than during his online presentation due to concerns about HIPAA. If our format ultimately does allow for one to chat or otherwise put forward questions directly to Sam during his presentation Sam requests that Classmates not incorporate any personal information into the chat or question, again due to concerns about HIPAA.
This event itself is scheduled for Friday, May 29th at 6:30 PM (EDT) utilizing Zoom via the internet, but with phone access for those who prefer to attend that way. The access information for the meeting will be sent around to Classmates approximately 30 minutes before the meeting is scheduled to start, but for those of you who want to look over the access information now, I have inserted it as a post-script below. Attendees’ microphones will be muted (please keep your microphone mute, so everyone can hear well) and their video cameras will be off, except for those of us speaking. Attendees should keep the screen on Speaker View and not go to Gallery. Many, many thanks in advance to Martha Ferguson for hosting the event, to Dick Bott for getting us access to the Zoom account of the Bendheim Center for Finance at Princeton, and to Jeff Kaplan, our maestro of a webmaster, for managing the communications with all of you.
Our Favorite Reunions Music in Concert
When Princeton cancelled Reunions some weeks ago, Dan Harman quickly said it was “The day the music died.”
We are happy to report that the music, at least, has been resurrected, again through the efforts of Dick Bott. Gary Adamson, our keyboard accompanist at the wine tastings at our 45th and 50th Reunions, is doing an online concert for us! Gary, founder and head of the band “Back to the Garden 1969,” has spent his life dedicated to the music of the late 1960s.
On Friday, May 29th at about 7:30 PM EDT, right after we finish our Class meeting and presentation by Dr. Sam Fager (see above), you can follow this dedicated Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/Cabin-Fever-Concerts-100310544979142/?modal=admin_todo_tour to hear the music of our time. Facebook’s chat capability will permit you to put in requests to Gary and share special memories with roommates and friends; those also can be submitted in advance to: gary@adamsongs.com. You will be able to access this event whether you have Facebook or not by clicking here and following the Facebook Instructions posted on our website. We thank Gary for making himself available for this special Class of ’69 concert, and look forward to his artistry!
More Music by “69 Spare Parts”
For those of you who want more music with which to comfort your souls, our Classmate Dave Fisher has been kind enough to put together a short film from the Battle of the Bands that took place at our 50th – it features the splendid musical efforts of “69 Spare Parts”, a band comprised of ‘69er Dave, ‘69er Bob Jones and their spare parts (Keith Lesnick and Scot Hornick): https://youtu.be/DaGyMPM9whU. This video, which runs about 30 minutes, is up and running now, and one can tune in at any time!
’69 Reunions Photo Montage
Finally our Classmates, Geoff Peterson, video editor extraordinaire, and Bill Charrier, video editor rookieish, are hard at work on a photo montage of past Class of ’69 reunions, to be accompanied by some more music from our time. This will be a late-arriving gem, and in all likelihood will be posted on the website sometime on Friday, May 29th.
In closing this invitation we urge all of you to reflect once again on the great 50th reunion that we just experienced last year, and to look forward to what we trust will be an “in person” 52nd Reunion in 2021, while at the same time enjoying these offerings in these most unusual times. We apologize for the fact that this invitation is just getting to you when it is, but the timing of Princeton’s decision was such that it did not leave much time for the necessary preparations.
Hip, Hip, Hip, Rah, Rah, Rah, Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, Sis, Sis, Sis, Boom, Boom, Boom, Aaaaaaaaaaaah! ’69, ’69, ‘69!!!
P.S. What follows is the instructions for access to the Class Meeting and Fager Speech on Friday at 6:30 PM EDT:
Join Zoom Meeting by Internet:
https://princeton.zoom.us/j/99101843106
Join Zoom Meeting by Phone:
(877) 853-5247 US Toll-free
(888) 788-0099 US Toll-free
Meeting ID: 991 0184 3106”
