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ALUMNI CORNER

Be Part of a Special Celebration

BY CHARLES J. O'BYRNE '81
PRESIDENT, COLUMBIA COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

I was a student working part-time in the Alumni Office when our late dean, Arnold Collery, working with Bill Oliver ’64, Bruno Santonocito ’66 and the legendary late Rose Brooks, teamed with the first chair of the Board of Visitors, Ivan Veit ’28, to inaugurate the John Jay Awards program as the College’s first significant fund-raising awards dinner. In those days, the Alumni Office was in the basement of Hamilton Hall. It was a dusty place, with records of John Jay giving noted manually on carefully kept index cards.

Collery was an extraordinary dean in many ways, able to see beyond the horizon and to envision a College that was not only coeducational but at the forefront of American undergraduate education. Many of the programs and development tools that he initiated presaged the College’s current renaissance. The first John Jay Dinner, in 1979, was an instant success, celebrating the lives of some of the College’s most distinguished graduates: Roone Arledge ‘52, James Fletcher ‘40, Max Frankel ‘52, Mark Kaplan ‘51, Arthur Levitt ‘21 and Franklin Thomas ‘56.

This year’s dinner continues that tradition. More than 600 alumni, students, faculty and friends of the College are expected to assemble at the Plaza Hotel on March 5 to honor five distinguished graduates: David W. Altchek ’78, John Corigliano ’59, Joseph A. Greenaway Jr. ’78, Mark E. Lehman ’73 and Gerald Sherwin ’55. Coverage of the affair will appear in the May issue.

I’d like to take a moment to remind you of the dinner’s importance. The funds raised this year serve Collery’s vision, so ably shared by our current dean, Austin Quigley. The funds raised at the dinner provide essential support to underwriting the John Jay Scholars program and make it possible for the College to continue its commitment to need-blind admissions. There is nothing “discretionary” about such support. The needs are greater than ever, and as Dean Quigley reminds us, the College’s place in the world is more essential than ever as well.

Next year’s John Jay Awards dinner and all the events on the College’s social calendar will take on new meaning as we celebrate Columbia’s 250th birthday. The celebration will be a University-wide event involving all the members of Columbia’s community from our neighbors on Morningside Heights to our alumni, from our students to our distinguished friends and colleagues in New York and abroad, from our world-class faculty to the men and women who serve in positions of administrative leadership that make the University run.

The College’s place in this celebration is by definition a special one. Although George II and the first president of the College, Samuel Johnson (who served from 1754–63), could not have foreseen the splendor of our Morningside Heights campus nor the sophistication of our medical facilities uptown, their boldness in establishing King’s College is the starting point we share as Columbians.

Roger Lehecka ’67 leads the University’s efforts to make the year-long celebration of the 250th a memorable time. Dean Quigley and Associate Dean for Administration Susan Mescher are heading up the College’s end of the celebration, ably assisted by Derek Wittner ’65, Ken Catandella and the talented staff of professionals in the Alumni Office. Each event next year, from Homecoming to the John Jay Dinner and beyond to Homecoming in 2005, will reflect the special nature of our semiquincentennial (or quartermillenial, if you prefer) year, reminding us of our past and pushing us to look beyond the horizon as we celebrate the present that is Columbia. There will be some extraordinary events as well, including concerts, a campus-wide birthday party for Alma Mater and seminars and programs with leading scholars from around the world. Look for more information about the 250th birthday celebration in upcoming issues of CCT.

The agenda I share with my colleagues on the Alumni Board of Directors is to do everything we can to encourage increased levels of alumni participation in the life of the College. Next year’s celebration is a unique opportunity to be involved, a chance to be a part of Columbia in a way that truly fits the cliché “once in a lifetime.”

Make it a point to be with us.

 

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