The Class of 1959 planned their campus return for four years
Each year, the newest class of Golden Knights (those who graduated 50 years ago) return to campus with enthusiasm and emotion. But it’s a rare class who planned their reunion with as much energy and thought as the Class of 1959, who have been working for the last four years under the leadership of Richard Henneberry ’59.
The festivities this year began a little early when a large number from the class arrived in Burlington on Tuesday and made their first stop at one of their favorite college hang-outs, Bove’s Diner on Pearl Street in Burlington. When talking to the members of the class they said it was “just as good as they remembered and even the prices were reasonable.”
Thursday’s activities began with a mass in the chapel, celebrated by classmate Monsignor Reid Mayo. Monsignor Mayo’s homily was personal and touching, remembering lessons learned from classmate David Powell from Selma and the Hungarian refugees, some of the first international students on campus.
Following Mass, the group gathered in Alliot Hall for the evening, many seeing each other for the first time in 50 years, all recounting tales of life at Saint Michael’s 50 years ago: from the barracks to the dress code, the integrated curriculum, the Hungarian refugees and the NCAA basketball finals and evening bed checks. “I have never seen a tougher group of men than the Edmundite fathers,” David Mracek said, “They wouldn’t take any crap from anyone.”
After the dinner, the induction began. Each member from the class was recognized with a diploma certifying them as Golden Knights, a pin and a citation, and then a brief summary of their life in the last 50 years.
Al Brault and Jack Dillon are two of a core of organizers from the class who met several times for planning and socializing in Massachusetts and Vermont and at Jack’s Delaware beach house before their return to campus in June. Dick Henneberry ’59 employed his considerable computer know-how to produce an impressive newsletter called 50th Reunion News.
Working the phones to network and raise funds was a big part of Brault and Dillon’s efforts too. “I sent a letter out to every classmate and I indicate that some of our classmates have decided to give significant gifts,” Brault said, “and we’re making sure they know that even though they will pay part of it after reunion year, it will be counted.”
A highly successful chemist and businessman through a long career at Eastman Kodak, Cornell and University of Rochester, Brault was chair of the class’s 35th reunion committee.
Dillon is retired from Federal Government Solutions in Bethesda, Maryland, which helps reduce identity fraud; he has also worked all over the world in his long career for Lockheed Martin, Unisys, General Electric and IBM after serving in the Air Force. He met his wife Eileen while in college, when she was a Trinity student. With eight children, he and Eileen never had time to be too involved until the 45th reunion, but they’re making up for it now.
Dillon said that in his fund-raising calls to classmates before Reunion, he found some class members struggling to embrace the changes that have transformed Saint Michael’s over the decades. He made a concerted effort to understand those views better and be sensitive to them, hoping to bring those friends back into the circle of active alumni.
“When I heard complaints [from a few classmates], I started thinking, do I have any complaints? And I couldn’t find any,” he said. He thought about professors who had a big impact on his life, like his economics mentor Arnold Gianelli, who taught him to think critically, and about how important Air Force ROTC was in his and other classmates’ early careers. He also thought about the positive experiences of his grandson, Dillon White ’12, who “loves it” at Saint Michael’s, and a granddaughter who also attended.
He agreed to finance the class DVD idea after helping with pre-reunion research in the college archives, as a way “to get people thinking back to the good times.”
