Lawrence Today magazine, Fall 2003
More than 1,000 alumni and guests from 39 states and six foreign countries,
including China and Russia, returned to Lawrence for Reunion Weekend, June
20-22. From Alumni College on Friday to
a Björklunden visit on Sunday, it was a time to renew old acquaintances
and make new ones.
Taught by Lawrence faculty members, Alumni College classes included Adventures in Deep Time (geology), Joseph McCarthy (history), Don’t Let Numbers Fool You (statistics), and Nanoscience (chemistry), as well as an introduction to Main Hall’s Humanities Computing Laboratory, a look at recent renovations in the Seeley G. Mudd Library, and a participatory group discussion in the manner of Freshman Studies.
This year’s special-group reunions (last year’s was a jazz ensemble reunion) brought back alumni who had been members of Lawrence choral groups and also alumni veterans of the college’s Kurgan Exchange Term in Russia. Choir Reunion participants rehearsed Friday afternoon for an evening concert, directed by Richard Bjella, associate professor of music, and performed again the next day, augmented by other alumni vocalists, as the convocation choir. Among other activities, the Kurgan alumni were briefed on the status of the Fox Cities/Kurgan Sister Cities Program.
Saturday’s Reunion Convocation, presided over by Alumni Association President Jo Howarth Noonan, ’78, afforded reunioning alumni the opportunity to recognize classmates with achievement and service awards (see below), present their special reunion class gifts to the college, and hear a “state of the college” report from President Richard Warch. This year’s convocation also honored the memory of four recently deceased emeriti faculty members, who were eulogized in remarks by four of their former students.
Choir Reunion choristers were not the only music-providers of the weekend, however. Campus bands of other eras that reunited for the occasion included “The Daves,” featuring novelist Paul McComas, ’83; the “Dangling Participles,” led by Jeff Wisser, ‘81; the “Static Disruptors,” led by Craig Rosen, ’83; and “Big Band Reunion,” led by Robert Levy, professor of music.
Other weekend highlights included the annual 5K Fun Run/Walk; the stand-up comedy of Rob Brackenridge, ’83; an extensive program of child care and family activities; and open houses by fraternities, sororities, the Diversity Center, and International House; as well as a full schedule of opportunities for alumni in reunion classes to spend time with those they had come to Appleton to see: each other.
Alumni from reunion classes honored
Five alumni were recognized with service awards, and one received a distinguished
achievement award during the annual Reunion Convocation on Saturday, June
21.
Terry Moran, ’82, who covers the White House as a correspondent for ABC News, received the Lucia R. Briggs Distinguished Achievement Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions and accomplishments in a chosen field.
Moran’s career has been a case study of late 20th- and early 21st-century social history. He began as a writer for The New Republic magazine before joining Legal Times, where he covered the Supreme Court as a reporter and later served as the publication’s assistant managing editor. In 1992, he moved to the fledgling cable channel Court TV, where, as a correspondent and anchor, he covered some of the nation’s highest profile stories, including the murder trials of O.J. Simpson and Lyle and Erik Menendez, as well as the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill Supreme Court hearings.
Moran joined ABC News as the network’s legal correspondent in 1998, where he reported on the trial of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, and the Microsoft anti-trust case. A story on ABC’s “Nightline” about a reunion of former death-row inmates who were freed when evidence came to light proving their innocence earned him the Thurgood Marshall Journalism Award from the Death Penalty Information Center.
In September 1999, Moran was named an ABC News White House correspondent, where he currently covers all aspects of the Bush administration for “World News Tonight,” “Good Morning America,” and other broadcasts.
Austin Boncher, ’63, and David L. Hoffman, ’57, received the George B. Walter Service to Society Award, established in 1997 in honor of the late George Walter, a Lawrence graduate and dean and education professor from 1946-75.
As an educator, mentor, administrator, and passionate advocate for the arts, Boncher has devoted his life to developing arts programs in the Fox Valley. From 1963-70, he served as choral director at Xavier High School and Einstein Junior High School and as band director at Menasha High School, before becoming the Appleton Area School District’s director of music and later supervisor of music and fine arts, a position he held until his retirement in 1998.
His influence extended well beyond the classroom, helping to change the character of the local arts community. Boncher founded the Fox Valley Symphony Chorale and the Fox Valley Youth Symphony and was one of the founders of the White Heron Chorale, the Appleton Boychoir, and the Fox Valley Symphony, all of which are still thriving today.
The Fox Valley Arts Alliance honored Boncher in 1993 with its Renaissance Award for his contributions to the arts, and earlier this year, he received Thrivent Financial for Lutheran’s Hanns Kretschmar Award for Excellence in the Arts for his role in “Sing for the Cure,” a musical production at the new Fox Cities Performing Arts Center staged to benefit breast-cancer research.
Hoffman was associated for 38 years — including 28 as president — with Family Service of Milwaukee, the oldest and largest nonprofit, nonsectarian family-support organization in Wisconsin, serving more than 10,000 children and adults each year. He retired from Family Service in December 2000.
Under his leadership, the agency grew from a staff of 30 to more than 200 and expanded its mission to include a vast array of family support programs, including a training institute for marriage and family therapists, an employee assistance program, and a credit counseling service. In 1995, Hoffman negotiated an affiliation with Aurora Health Care that doubled Family Service’s capacity for serving low-income families and the elderly.
Hoffman convened the Wisconsin Association of Marriage and Family Counselors and served as the organization’s first president. He was twice appointed to the Wisconsin State Council on Mental Health.
Jonathan Bauer, ’83, Michael Cisler, ’78, and Priscilla Wright Hausmann, ’53, were presented with the Gertrude B. Jupp Outstanding Service Award for exemplary dedication, leadership, and commitment in volunteer service to Lawrence.
Bauer is a former president of the Lawrence University
Alumni Association Board of Directors. During his two-year term the association
initiated
the Career
Contact Program, which connects Lawrence alumni to current students
seeking answers to career-oriented questions,
and founded a student activity grant to support campus activities
that enhance student life. A partner in Deloitte Consulting’s
telecommunication/information technology business, Bauer has maintained
an active relationship with Lawrence’s
Career Center, participating in numerous mentoring and networking
activities.
Cisler, president and chief executive officer of JanSport, Inc., has served his alma mater in a variety of volunteer capacities since earning a Bachelor of Music degree in 1978. After serving for seven years as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, he spent two years as a member of the Task Force on Residential Life commissioned by the Board of Trustees to conduct an in-depth review of all aspects of undergraduate residential life at Lawrence. Currently, he is a member of the Presidential Search Committee.
Energy, infectious good will, and attention to detail have been the trademarks of Hausmann’s long and varied volunteer service to Lawrence. A 1953 graduate of the Conservatory of Music, now a private piano teacher and church organist, Hausmann spent six years as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and served as class secretary for 17 years. In addition, she has been a long-time volunteer for the Lawrence admissions office.