Class of ‘70, VMI

(Posted on behalf of Ned Haley)

Hi Everyone, Just received an updated list of registrants for our 40th Reunion, coming up in less than five weeks (April 23-24).  With 78 BRs and 60 spouses, the list now has a total of 138 who have registered as of last Friday.  (Files in email only — contact Ned Haley for a copy).

I’ve heard from a few who won’t be able to join us (and my apologies since - being on the distribution list - you will continue to receive these updates).   There’s still a fair number of you who indicated during the past six months that you were interested in coming to the Reunion, but who haven’t yet registered. So, this is another ‘gentle reminder’ that you have until April 1 to register and still be guaranteed to receive your Class polo shirt - since registration includes indicating your shirt size and April 1 is the cut off to place the order for the monogrammed shirts.  As mentioned earlier, there will be a few extra shirts ordered, and if you’re a late registrant, you may be able to pick up your shirt when you register.   Once the extras are taken - and if it works as it has in the past - there will be a wait of at least several weeks after the Reunion for more shirts to be made.  And that depends on how many additional shirts are needed, since there will undoubtedly be a minimum re-order quantity.

Anyway, if you’re still on the fence, take a look at the list of registrants - and I’m sure you will see names of old friends and even roommates who would enjoy seeing you again! Registration can be done on line through the Alumni Association site, or there’s still time to use the registration form that you should have received in the mail.  If for any reason you are unable to register on line, let one of us on the Reunion Committee know and we’ll help. Looking forward to seeing you in another 4+ weeks!

Ned Haley

For your 40th Reunion Committee:

Bill O’Connor

Bill Gearhart

Bob Copty

Herb Braun

Tom Cooke

Ralph Costen

In an email from Ned Haley, he noted that registrations are well under way with a total of 119 registered which includes 65 Brother Rats.  From memory, this is about half of our 35th and well under our 25th Reunions.  Register by 1 April to ensure you get your shirt.  Online registration is at the VMI Alumni Reunion Central web site, http://www.vmialumni.org/Page.aspx?pid=548

See you in April!

From an email to the Class of ‘68:

Mr. Paulette, Chair of the External Relations Committee, reported on the meeting of the Selection Committee of the Jonathan Myrick Daniels ’61 Humanitarian Award, which he also chairs, held 3 February in Lexington. The Selection Committee reviewed eight candidates and unanimously recommended to the External Relations Committee that Dr. Paul V. Hebert ’68 be the third recipient of the Jonathan Daniels Humanitarian Award. Dr. Hebert, who holds a Ph. D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill, has spent his life in humanitarian and development efforts working for the Near East Foundation, the World Bank, and the United Nations throughout South East and South Asia, Iran, the Philippines, Nepal, war torn former Soviet Republics, Sarajevo, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Ethiopia. He was Head of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yugoslavia (2001-2003) and in Ethiopia (2003-2008). He currently resides in Nairobi, Kenya with his wife Dr. Mayling Simpson-Hebert where is assisting Catholic Relief Services as a consultant and is also advising and supporting humanitarian conferences and training in East Africa and the Gulf States. Since 2008, he has been helping in a private capacity to raise funds to support a large primary school for children living in a major slum of Nairobi.

A motion was made by Mr. Paulette, seconded by MG Hickerson, that the Board of Visitors approves the recommendation of Dr. Paul V. Hebert ’68 as the third recipient of the Jonathan Myrick Daniels ’61 Humanitarian Award, the award to be presented during Academic Year 2010-2011. The motion passed.

Previous winners were President Jimmy Carter and Ambassador Andrew Young.

Here’s a link to the page on Jonathan Daniels and the award: http://www.vmi.edu/archives.aspx?id=14481

 Posted on behalf of Ned Haley.

Hi Everyone! It’s Reunion time!!

Last week I sent you the “VMI Class of 1970 Contact List” with the latest contact information for all 350 of our classmates. The email addresses and other info for three of our Brother Rats, Cliff Brooks, Joe Girlando and Bill Murchison, are no longer valid. If you have more current contact info for any of them, please let me know since I no longer have a way to contact them. And obviously there are still other Brother Rats who are missing, or for whom we are missing key information like an email address, and our quest for missing classmates and contact information will continue until we have found them all.

The important thing is you now have a way to reach most of your BRs. Now’s the time to ‘touch base’ with your friends from our years together, especially those whom you haven’t seen or been in contact with since you last saw them at VMI. And if any of them don’t have email (or we just don’t have an email address for them), they won’t receive this note or other communications I send out, including the Class Contact List…… so call them yourself! You’ll have a great conversation if you do, and memories - mostly good, since time does diminish many of the less-fun aspects of what we went through together - will come flooding back.

And now to the Reunion: as of today there are 62 registrants, including spouses and significant others. The deadline for registering is April 1 if you want to receive your “Class of 1970″ polo shirt. Registration includes indicating your shirt size so the correct number of shirts can be made and ready for the Reunion. There’s less than four weeks ’til then, so you are encouraged to register ASAP. Should you register after April 1, there will be a limited number of additional shirts purchased for ‘late-registrants’, and hopefully there will be one for you in your size.

For those of you on the Institute’s mailing list, hopefully you have already received the mailed information about our 40th Reunion on April 23-24, now less than two months away. And if you are not on the “I’s” mailing list, or even if you are, you can see these same documents at the VMI Alumni Reunion Central web site:
http://www.vmialumni.org/Page.aspx?pid=548

You don’t have to register with the alumni web site to access this site or the related reunion documents. Just copy and paste the link to your browser and that should take you to the page with a listing of all the related documents that - after scrolling down to where the class of 70’s information is listed - can be opened individually by just clicking on them one at a time. Included are links to:

• Online Registration
• Printable Registration Form
• Class Invitation Letter
• Schedule of Events
• Hotel Information
• Class Picture Information

If you have any questions, or are unable to access the web site for any reason, let me know and we’ll find another way to get you the information. We understand that the ‘designated Class of ‘70 headquarters’ hotel has only a few smoking rooms left, so if you haven’t already reserved your room you may have to book one of the ‘overflow’ hotels.
We hope you - and your spouse or significant other - can join us for what will be a fabulous and fun weekend! All of us on your 40th Reunion Committee are looking forward to seeing you in Lexington in April.

Ned Haley, for the Committee

Bill O’Connor
Bill Gearhart
Bob Copty
Tom Cooke
Herb Braun
Ralph Costen