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A Marvelous Party
Where else could you throw a three-day affair
for nearly 3,300 people that includes season-perfect spring weather
and flowers, Friday evening events beneath tents for individual
classes, and a rousing procession of alumni across the quad for
a luncheon in Cameron? Or successfully serve an elegant Saturday-night
buffet to 2,200 at the Big Dance, within a tent the size of a football
field, while entertaining with three bands--from a jazz quartet
to a swing orchestra to the famous Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs--plus
a fireworks display? And then offer a Sunday champagne brunch in
Duke Gardens before Duke Chapel services?
On Duke's campus, of course, for Reunions
2002 in April.
"Duke came back to life again for us that weekend,"
wrote one alumna. All aspects of university life were celebrated
in an amazing variety of activities. Duke Directions, a two-day
roster of lecture sessions, featured outstanding faculty and alumni--from
writer Reynolds Price '55 to historian Anne Scott--and such timely
topics as the war on terrorism, integrative medicine, ethical leadership,
and global climate change led by deans and other experts in their
fields. Art Sparks, now in its third year, examined the artistic
life, with the opera Don Giovanni, a Duke Dance performance, a glimpse
at plans for the new art museum, and an interactive introduction
to writing for the theater by playwright and Theater Studies professor
Erin Cressida Wilson.
There were five scheduled tours of Duke Gardens, three bus tours
of campus, six tours of the Primate Center, two tours of the Alzheimer's
Disease Research Center, two Project W.I.L.D. High Ropes courses,
two Alumni Admissions Information sessions, and two shifts for a
community service project. There were individual receptions or luncheons
for the nursing school, the Pratt School of Engineering, the William
Preston Few Association and the Washington Duke Club, the Heritage
Society, the Wesley Fellowship, the Freeman Center for Jewish Life,
the Episcopal Center, Black Student Alliance, Navy ROTC, the Asian
Students Association, the association of Latino Students Association
(Mi Gente), and the Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
Life.
On Saturday, a "Conversation with President Nan Keohane"
followed a presentation by each class of its Annual Fund class gift
and the senior class gift in Page Auditorium. That afternoon, Chief
Justice William H. Rehnquist discussed the lives and contributions
of his predecessors, in a program sponsored by Duke Law School.
At Sunday's Half-Century Club luncheon, nearly 200 members of
the Class of 1952 in attendance were inducted.
Plans are under way for Reunions 2003 for the classes of 1953,
1958, 1963, 1968, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, and the Half-Century
Club.
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