Welcome Back!

A Message from your Headquarters Chair

Great news! The College has granted us the space of our choice. Class of 1972 will be housed in Franklin King/Laura Scales Houses in the Quad.

The Class of ‘72 Headquarters, which will be located in Franklin King House, is the place to check out once you have checked in at Alumnae House for your name badge, room assignment, and the Reunion program, etc. Registration starts at 4 p.m. and that’s when you’ll get your key card for the House. We are making arrangements for people to leave off their luggage at our Headquarters earlier in the afternoon so that they can join the Walking Tour (see article below from Program Chair Ginny Gotlieb for details).

I would love to have a few volunteers with specific passions:

1. Consummate shopper who lives relatively nearby. We have a great food/beverage shopping list for Costco in Springfield. It would be great to have a second shopper along.
2. A Keurig coffee drinker who would be willing to bring her coffee maker to the reunion. Your incentive would be the remaining K-cups at the end of the reunion.
3. Someone who loves to decorate or lives in the past to help get the Headquarters ready.

If you are interested, please contact me at ahmilne@gmail.com.Registration for Reunion has opened!

Reunion is 3 Months Away!

Greetings, Classmates!

Our 45th Reunion is quickly approaching. Mark your calendar for May 25-28. Since it is Memorial
Day weekend, we suggest that you make your travel arrangements soon and plan to come on Thursday, so you can enjoy all that we have planned as well as reconnecting with friends.

Reunion Registration

Registration has opened! You should have received an email from Smith on Jan. 31st, letting you know how you can register online. You will be receiving a reunion registration booklet in the mail.

Here is the link for registration: http://www.cvent.com/d/zvqvx4/4W

Stay tuned for news from our House Reps of prizes for those who come to their first reunion ever, and for those who have never missed a reunion!

Reconnecting with Classmates

Mary Lindley Burton, our Class Connector, has twenty-five House Connectors – who are finding the lost, gathering e-mails, and planning to contact housemates to encourage attendance. She is so grateful to have a volunteer role that keeps her in touch with classmates – and to Judy Frank, who kick-started a wonderful idea to strengthen house connections.

Class Officers:

President: Jacqueline Millan
Reunion Co-Chairs: Nancy LeaMond & Gail Shearer
Secretary: Stefanie Cargill
Treasurer: Melissa Hield
Memorial Chair: Kate Johnson
Social Media Chair: Beth Sobiloff

Reunion Program Highlights:
A Message from your Program Chair

Walking Tour: I hope you can come Thursday! We will kick off our class gathering with a walking tour of campus and Northampton led by Laurie Sanders, Smith ‘88, and Executive Director of Historic Northampton. Laurie combines an understanding of Northampton’s natural history with knowledge of the architecture, people, and ideas that make this such a vibrant town.

Did you ever wonder why downtown is downhill while the campus is flat? Why Timothy Dwight, President of Yale and grandson of Northampton’s Jonathan Edwards, wrote that the streets of Northampton are like the claws of a crab? What is President Franklin Roosevelt’s connection to
Northampton? We will have fun!

The walking tour will be 3-5 pm Thursday, May 25, so make your travel plans now to include this special outing. The cost is $10, to be collected as we gather at 2:30 pm in the living room of Franklin King, our headquarters house. Historic Northampton must cap attendance so walkers please RSVP to me as soon as you can. My email is vmgotlieb@gmail.com.

This option is only offered to the Class of 1972 so you will not find it in the College registration packet.

College Programs

The College will offer an interesting schedule of programs on Friday for all classes. A highlight will be a presentation of plans for the new Neilson Library, designed by famed Vietnam Veterans Memorial architect Maya Lin. President McCartney will speak to all alums Saturday from 3-4 pm and will visit one of our dinners which are always a highlight. And, of course, there will be the Alumnae Parade, full of spirit and amusing signs, and the Saturday night illumination of campus.

In Memoriam

We will remember our classmates who have died since our last reunion at our own service Sunday
morning at 9:30 am. (There will be a concurrent service at Helen Hills Hills Chapel for all classes). This will give us an opportunity to eulogize briefly about a friend we have lost. Please let me know if you would like to speak.

A Quick Spin of 45 RPMs

Our class is filled with interesting, thoughtful women. Few programs would be more satisfying than hearing from each other. There will be time Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon for just that. Following our 45 RPM theme, these will be quick talks of five to eight minutes on a variety of topics. I encourage PowerPoint slides and we will provide necessary equipment for projection. Please consider being a speaker and email me your idea at vmgotlieb@gmail.com. Let me know if you will not be with us for the entire weekend.

Our walking tour will give a sense of the place that shaped us. These talks will reflect on who we are now and our place in the world. Ours is a transformative generation of women. However, the point here is not to feel pressured to be impressive but to be real about our varied experiences, our ups and downs, our choices, and our ideas for going forward. One group of talks will focus on caring for ourselves, our families, and our retirement years. To spark your thinking, consider speaking on one of these subjects, or another topic.

• New or unusual activities, second careers, volunteer passions
• Dealing with challenges, illness, children, changing rhythm of family/personal life, death
• Developing deferred talents: creative writing, music, painting, gardening, cooking, etc.
• A favorite book, song, painting, etc. and its impact
• Financial perspectives and tasks as we age
• Favorite fitness activities
• New medical information/resources and research on issues for those over 65
• Resilience, reimaging, and setting new goals
• The exhilaration of positive challenges met: learning a new language, climbing mountains, or whatever created satisfaction
• Mentoring experiences with younger colleagues, with youth
• Travel that was wonderful, illuminating, scary; to be recommended or avoided

A second session may coalesce around topics of caring for our communities, our nation and our world. Consider these ideas for a talk you might give, or tell me of a topic that matters to you.

• Smith’s Impact: Women for the World creates amazing women in the world
• Women’s social progress, the last 45 years, including funny remembrances of how things were for us
• Enriching community life through leadership in the arts (music, sculpture, painting, architecture,
  landscape architecture, etc.)
• Enriching community life through education, libraries, religious communities
• Community activism and the skills necessary for leading volunteers
• Issues in education: innovative teaching, public policy, equity, financing
• Living Abroad: personal challenges and perspectives on our society
• Journalism in a polarized nation; fostering critical thinking
• Publishing in a digital age; information management
• Public policy issues of national or international concern: security, environment, healthcare, etc.
• Caring for the most vulnerable in our society. Who? How to respond?
• National/international trends or innovations in any field of interest
• Women advancing women, NGOs, microfinancing
• Worthwhile charities I am passionate about (in addition to supporting Smith!)

Please consider doing a brief talk. What is an amusing or intriguing idea you can give others? I have found that one of the satisfying parts of reunion is chatting with classmates I did not know as a student. Reunions provide a five-year snapshot and conversations give color to the picture. These
talks may stimulate many interesting conversations so do add to the weekend.

I look forward to your participation and to seeing you on campus. Come Thursday through Sunday, or as much as is feasible. This is OUR reunion! Let’s make the most of it/

— Ginny Moorman Gotlieb

Upcoming Mini-Reunions

Here are some fun opportunities to get together with classmates in your local area prior to reunion.
Thank you to all of our hosts for organizing these events.

Feb. 10 – Sarasota, Florida – For those of you living or vacationing on the West Coast of Florida, contact co-hosts Kim Albright (albright.kim@gmail.com) or Lou Zellner (ltzellner@gmail.com) for time and location of dinner and other weekend activities.

March 19 – Boston – Contact co-hosts Cheryl Suchors (cherylsuchors@gmail.com), Harlee Strauss (hstrauss2ma@gmail.com) or Diane Francis (dianesfrancis@beld.net) for location of afternoon gathering.

March 25 – Southern California – For details, contact co-hosts Bonnie Beaver(drpampers@yahoo.com) or Daisy Kim (daisykim@earthlink.net)

Also, mini-reunions are being planned in other areas of the country.

Please get in touch with co-hosts below to receive information on date, time and location.

Philadelphia –
Luisa Rabe (luisa.rabe@verizon.net),
Phoebe Haddon (phoebe.haddon@gmail.com), or
Debbie Wolk (tomdebwolk@gmail.com)

California: Bay area –
Kristy Everson (keve9@sbcglobal.net)

Washington, D.C. area –
Thayer Baine (thayer.baine@gmail.com)

If you are interested in hosting a mini reunion, or want to know if one is planned for your area,
please contact Thayer Baine (thayer.baine@gmail.com).

Thayer Baine – Mini Reunion Chair

Class Survey

Even if you aren’t able to come to Reunion, we want to hear from you. I invite you to fill out this survey of 45 questions, grouped around our 45th reunion theme, “Rockin’, Powerful, Marvelous.”

Questions include:

• What song most connects you to your Smith experience?
• What activity or aspect of your life gives you the greatest happiness?
• What book/movie would you recommend to your Smith classmates?
• What gives you the most strength and purpose in your life?
• What would you like to accomplish between now and our 50th reunion in 2022?

Won’t it be fun to hear what your classmates say! Rest assured that your answers will be treated with anonymity. ONLY summary results (and written comments) will be presented at the reunion and be made available on our Class website.

There are three ways to take the survey:

1. Electronically at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RPMClassic
2. Mail the attached form to Nancy Jianakoplos: 1506 Rollingwood Ct., Ft. Collins, CO 80525.
3. Email your survey form to: Nancy.Jianakoplos@ColoState.edu

You can also find this survey on our class website https://www.smithcollege72.org. I hope you enjoy filling out the survey! Please return before May 1, 2017.

A Message from Reunion Co-Chairs

Thank you to all of you who have helped by responding to our reunion planning survey with your great ideas and those of you who have already volunteered to help. We have a great team of people working on the reunion planning team, some of whom you’ve heard from in this newsletter. Others on the team are pictured on this page.

If you are interested in volunteering or have other suggestions, please get in touch with us. In the meantime, we encourage you to stay informed by:

1. Joining our private Class Facebook page (contact Beth Sobiloff at beth@birchwoodenterprises.com to join)

2. Visiting our Class website, https://www.smithcollege72.org/

3. Looking for monthly emails from our fearless Class President Jackie Millan. (They are sent by the Smith College Office of Alumnae Relations).

If you haven’t been receiving these emails, we need your updated email address.

Please email or call Class Connector Mary Burton and she’ll help you reconnect (maryburton@earthlink.net or tel. 212-369-0290).

We look forward to seeing you May 25-28!

Nancy & Gail
nleamond21@gmail.com
gail.e.shearer@gmail.com (301-648-3575)