VOLUME 21 #1

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DEPARTMENTS

Volunteers plan memorable 50-year reunions

Ann Terres shares some class reunion ideas with Bayard Marin.
Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson
Ann Terres shares some class reunion ideas with Bayard Marin.

ALUMNI | Each year at Alumni Weekend, members of the 50th reunion class return to campus for activities, speakers and entertainment planned specifically for that group.

The success of their milestone occasion comes from the hard work and dedication of a volunteer planning committee of alumni led by a programming chair. Coincidentally, the programming chairs of the 1962 and 1963 reunions—Ann Terres and Bayard Marin—enjoy a friendship going back to their days playing clarinet together in the UD Band.

Wilmington native Ruth Ann Follett Terres, AS62, was the programming chair for the Class of 1962’s 50th reunion, held during Alumni Weekend 2012. She took on the job when the original chair, J. Richard Tucker, AS62, died.

Help plan next year's class reunions

The classes of 1964, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004 and 2009 will celebrate their milestone reunions during Alumni Weekend 2014. Planning for these reunions will begin soon, so volunteer to be on your class committee by emailing ud-reunions@udel.edu.

“I loved the experience,” Terres says. “I think that we should all volunteer for the University in any capacity that we are able to. We all received a good education at UD, and we owe it to them to volunteer, to keep the philosophy going and to give back as much as we can.”

When the Office of Alumni Relations began to search for a programming chair to lead the 1963 reunion committee, Terres recruited her friend and former UD Marching Band buddy, Bayard Marin, AS63.

Thanks to experience he gained as a Newark (Del.) High School 50th reunion committee member, Marin turned out to be the perfect candidate.

“Ann was sitting in front of me at the 2012 Homecoming football game, and we got to talking about our reunions,” Marin says. “I thought it was fun planning my high school reunion, so I thought it would be really fun to plan the UD reunion. I see a lot of enthusiasm from the committee members, with lots of suggestions and people anxious to participate. I think it’s going to be an excellent reunion.”

Terres attributes her lasting friendship with Marin and other band members to the tight-knit community that grew out of playing music together. “We rehearsed together several times a week and rehearsed concert band in the wintertime,” she says. “We were together all day Saturday. We all knew each other, and we all had a good time.”

As alumni, Terres and Marin each remained active in the music program, returning through the mid-1980s to perform in the alumni marching and concert bands.

While the 50th reunion is a time for classmates to come together and reminisce, it is also a time for alumni to give back to the University in recognition of its positive impact on their lives. At the Class of 1962 reunion, members donated a class gift totaling more than $1.5 million. Alumni were able to direct their individual donations to any part of UD they wished. Terres decided to allocate her gift to support music scholarships.

Class of 1963 reunion events will take place May 31-June 2 during Alumni Weekend. A meet-and-greet reception, dinner in the Roselle Center for the Arts and a farewell brunch are planned for the weekend-long celebration, in addition to many other activities such as tours of campus, wine and beer tastings, President Harker’s State of the University speech, Gold Guard program and more. To register to attend the Class of 1963 reunion and other events, visit www.udel.edu/AlumniWeekend.

Article by Melissa Cox, AS05

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