Cornell Reunion 2007

Wendy Raymond

2007-09-26T23:15:00.001-04:00

Wendy Raymond with her husband Dave

I found Wendy on Schoellkopf Field and we recounted the time she set her lab bench on fire. We were in chem lab 301 or 302, I can't recall precisely. I do know it was Professor Rasmussen's class and our TA was a fellow named Jay.

Anyway, the experiment involved distillation. Wendy needed to cool down her equipment and reached for what she thought was a water bottle. Unfortunately, the water bottle looked just the the acetone bottle, and acetone was what she wound up spraying on her flask. Jay came by and covered much of the fire, but I could have sworn he took a deep breath and blew out the remaining flames. Maybe he had a cape on too...

Wendy is currently an assistant professor of biology at Williams. She's also a Red Sox fan. Although I'm from New York, no worries as I am NOT a Yankee Fan. I'm a Mets fan. Let's go Mets!

Frank Loh

2007-07-31T21:53:00.001-04:00

Left to right: me, Judge Ito, a young Frank ;-)

Okay, it's really me, Frank, and his son Garrett having lunch under a tent in the Arts Quad. Frank and I were roommates during our senior year. He is now a neurologist and a father of two. I learned that this Saturday morning, he and Garrett went on a long distance run to the Plantations. I remember needing my bicycle to get out there.

Frank introduced me to Gerry Cocco, also class of '82. I never knew him during my undergraduate years, but it turns out he does Palm software for the medical community. I used to do that too, but found it a really tough niche; I wish Gerry much success.

Phil Chao

2007-07-29T21:17:00.000-04:00

Friday evening I ran into Phil Chao. Here's a photo of us in the lobby of Mary Donlon. As freshman we took Mandarin 101 and 102 together. Class met 8am Monday through Friday, a schedule I vowed never to repeat.

Today, Phil is a lawyer for the FDA and he hears it from both sides: "The FDA is approving too slowly. People are dying!", and "The FDA is approving too quickly. People are dying!"

I know Phil is one of the good guys.

Here are some photos he took during the reunion.

Friday Afternoon Check-in

2007-06-13T21:10:00.000-04:00

At the registration table, I was asked if I was in the engineering school. Those who knew me at Cornell will appreciate the irony. After years of making fun of engineers, I am mistaken for one. (I knew I should have left my pocket protector at home.) For the record, I attended Cornell's School of Arts & Sciences and appreciate a balanced curriculum of reading, writing, and arithmetic -- not just arithmetic. :-)

My wife, son, and I were placed in Low Rise 7. It was a bit of an adjustment to live in a dorm again -- small room, beds with springs that go boing, shared bathrooms, and sometimes noisy neighbors.

Low Rise 7.

Mae and Matthew in front of McGraw Tower.

Taking a break at the coffee shop in Olin Library.

For the coffee aficionados, they served "Seattle's Best." And you guessed it, the photo was taken by Matthew.

More to come...

I'll be arriving Friday Evening

2007-06-05T20:40:00.000-04:00

I found these links helpful...

To see events by class schedule, click here.

To see events by day, click here.

See you soon!

Some nice shots from Peter Chui

2007-02-10T22:01:00.000-05:00

Class of '82 @ Mary Donlon Hall

2007-01-30T21:11:00.000-05:00

I recently received an email with a bit more info regarding the
class reunion. It appears we can stay at the new Mary Donlon Hall on North Campus. Glad they had enough sense not to put us middle aged folk in West Campus where we would have to climb Libe Slope.

The link is here: Class of '82

Chimes at McGraw Tower

2007-01-23T21:43:00.000-05:00

I came across this news item while browsing Cornell's website:

The chimes were refurbished and enlarged to 21 bells during a renovation of McGraw Tower in 1998-99, making them the largest set of chimes in North America. The work included replacing the 46-year-old electronic clock with a new mechanism that links all four faces to a Global Positioning System (GPS), which communicates the exact Eastern Standard Time data via satellite, ensuring up-to-the-minute time.

GPS in a clock tower! I recall an overly complex sundial in the engineering quad. The renovated McGraw Tower is the Arts & Sciences answer to it.

The full story is at: McGraw Clocked

To listen to the chimes from our days at Cornell (lower volume if you're at the office), click this link: alma.wav

Eddy St. Photo

2007-01-13T15:59:00.000-05:00

The photo of Eddy St is recent, taken in 2006 by my brother. He was at Cornell for his 20th reunion anniversary.

Since graduation, I've been back to Cornell twice, but neither visit was during the reunion weekend. This will be a first for me, and my brother tells me it's highly organized. Even if no one I know shows up (but I know Frank is coming), my time will be occupied. There are lectures... apparently so we can relive sleeping through them. There are dining events. And there are kid events -- train rides and day care. Hmmm, lecture or train ride? You'll know where to find me.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-02T22:16:00.000-05:00

There's no better time to blog about the Cornell Reunion than at the start of the year. The event takes place mid-year (June 7-10) and I plan to end this blog at year end.

2007 is significant for me because it marks 25 years since graduating in 1982. But I hope to see many of you regardless of when you tossed that graduation cap.

The official reunion site is at: http://www.alumni.cornell.edu/reunion/

And to jog our aging memories, can anyone identifiy the photo below?