Reunion photos

The college has created a photo album from the reunion weekend that can be viewed here. In addition, we have started to gather other photos from the reunion, which you can view in the Photo Gallery. Feel free to add other photos from the reunion, or other events, there.

Panel: Race at Oberlin Through the Years

Sound recording of the panel from Sunday, May 21, 2023: Moderated by Dennis Krumholz ’73 and featuring
panelists:

• Gary Kornblith, Oberlin College emeriti history professor
• Carol Lasser, Oberlin College emeriti history professor
• Eboni A. Johnson ’97, Oberlin College Outreach and Program Librarian
• Jeanine Donaldson ’75, Executive Director, Lorain YWCA

[Link to Lasser & Kornblith book: Elusive Utopia]

In Memory

At the Reunion session dedicated to the memory of classmates who are no longer with us, the class announced that it was dedicating trees at Asia house with the following plaques:

For classmates: "To our classmates who have passed: Your spirit lives on in our hearts. Class of '73"

For faculty/staff: "In honor of the faculty, staff and their families who supported us on our journey. Class of '73"

In addition, the following poems written by members of our class were read:

Boyer Rickel:

Cynthia Hogue:

At Conques
— for Jim, and in his memory
I visit the Abbey on the mountain top because of a beautiful
book about St. Faith, attend the nightly Spectacle of Organ
and Light because the hotel clerk said it was magic, and in
this way am reminded – wandering along the upper gallery
(for an extra fee) listening to “A Whiter Shade of Pale” (the
somber opening) and “House of the Rising Sun” (the grand
finale) in a medley played by a monk or perhaps the Prior
from the monastery – that magic’s relative. The last chords
swell through the nave with such serious intent, the organist
swaying and the cluster of listeners squeezed on pews, that
I’d be stifling guffaws if I hadn’t just heard that you’re
dying. Instead I’m lighting a week’s worth of candles at
Faith’s altar, snapping a shot from the gallery as proof to
show you (somehow both psychic and cynic), and walking
twice by the little angel in the corner before seeing him,
this fragment of an 11c. frieze found during the recent
renovation in a church crawl space and restored. His hands
– the size of his solemn face – lift in astonished arrest: as if
he stilled his wings by laying hands flat against them,
palms facing forward. His blank gaze, half-opened mouth:
when magic caught his death.

Virtual Events

The class of '73 has joined with the combined classes of ’70, ’71, and ’72 to continue a series of Zoom events that preceded their June 2022 reunion and are continuing beyond it. Below are recordings of the events that have already occurred. New events will be advertised to the class. If anyone from the class of '73 wishes to propose any topics, or to work with the committee organizing the Zooms, let us know.

Mar '23—‘Con’ Makers & Players: Obies Who Make and Play Their Own Instruments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT8C0mq5fOQ&authuser=0

Jan ’23—Oberlin: Asia—A Road Well-Travelled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p1Ymm8RpU8&authuser=0

Dec ’22—What’s Next?  Criminal Justice, Refugees and Reproductive Rights 

https://youtu.be/GEika1LFCxI

Oct '22—Arc of Power: Inside Nancy Pelosi's Speakership 2005–2010

https://t.e2ma.net/click//5cjje8/p0qwys

May '22—Writers’ Roundtable

https://youtu.be/C_kt04nN4HM

May '22—The Underground Railroad New Orleans to Oberlin

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

Apr '22—The State of Democracy in U.S. Politics

https://youtu.be/orVrMusQYWs

Apr '22—What to Do About Climate Change

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

Mar '22—Mental Health in the Time of COVID

https://youtu.be/MvZZ3Cu4CcM

Feb '22—bell hooks: unlikely lotus flower

 https://youtu.be/cWPVyayaL2A

Jan '22—The Road to Social Justice Activism: Oberlin and Beyond

 https://youtu.be/4-KFWb-5Ve8

Welcome from the 50^th Reunion Committee

The Class of 1973 50^th Reunion Committee welcomes you to this private, password-protected Class of 1973 website. While the in-person reunion took place in Oberlin over the weekend of May 19-21, 2023, here is where you can continue to read news about and see photos of classmates, share your memories and photos, send private messages to classmates, follow discussion threads, and spend time to remember classmates who have passed on. In your profile you can post what you have done during the past years since we all left Oberlin, as well as information about your family if you wish.