1966 – Fall ’21 Class Letter
1966 – Fall 2021 Class Letter
Class Agent:
BARRY SIMON ’66
(505) 967-5225 / [email protected]
Dear Classmates of 1966,
For the past several Ripon bulletins with updates about members of various classes, we have been missing. And so, I bit the bullet and volunteered to be the Class Agent for 1966. Not very democratic, but…here we are.
- A long time ago. 55 years ago. We have all been on our personal journeys. Until our class disappeared from the update bulletins, I had been able to follow the initial steps we took to further our education with advanced degrees or to start our careers. I was always amazed at how many went on to careers in major businesses, moving up the corporate ladder to successful positions. I guess I didn’t realize the role business education played in our undergraduate years as I was planning for a career as a high school English teacher with some involvement in theater and chorus. The road I took eventually lead to a 25-year career in the television/film industry.
Then there were the marriages and growing families. Children were born and then grandchildren. Only recently did I become a grandfather when my husband’s daughter and her wife adopted a three-week-old baby. I now understand the joy of watching a child grow and develop from just a bundle to an alert and learning one one-year old child. Meanwhile, I have spent the ten years volunteering for Albuquerque Reads (the teacher is still in me), helping kindergarten kids with their developing reading skills. With some students it is a delight; with others it is a struggle; and with some it is a real challenge overcoming their developmental and emotional needs. But watching my granddaughter grow through a series of pictures sent daily from Brooklyn by her parents has been its own, ecstatic journey. Plus, I love sending her books and seeing pictures of her “reading.” The latest was her holding the New York Times…upside down. You have to start somewhere.
Now, at nearly 78, it’s about retirement. And while I have plans for the future—well, at least for tomorrow—I know that the years ahead are much shorter than the future when I left Ripon, diploma under my arm and hopes and dreams filling my imagination. I don’t know about you, but when I look back at my journey I am really taken aback at where I have been, the names I can’t remember, the challenges I faced, the successes I had, the regrets I harbor, the relationships I have been in and, in general, my life from the Midwest to the West Coast to the Southwest.
I suspect that you, too, have had an interesting journey since 1966. And so, before the next Class Letter deadline approaches, I ask you to share where you are now: what are you doing, what you are proudest of, and what you look forward to in the days/years ahead. I welcome you to email me at [email protected] or call me at (505) 967-5225.
Thanks for taking the time to write, and I look forward to reading your observations. Finally, the Class of 1966 is back!
Your Unelected Class Agent,
BARRY SIMON ’66