1972 – Spring ’21 Class Letter
1972 – Spring 2021 Class Letter
Greetings, Class of 1972!
I hope that you and your families are doing well as spring heats up. After the challenges of the past year, I am sure that you are all ready to get outdoors and have some fun. New York is much livelier each day and the signs of spring are everywhere. I am especially happy that tennis will resume in Central Park in mid-April.
The Spring Semester at Ripon College has been active and robust.
- Classes officially started on January 25 with a mix of in-person, online, and hybrid (part online and part in-person) formats. The weekend before classes started, the entire campus community (all students, faculty, and staff) were required to take a COVID-19 test, which was administered on campus in Great Hall resulting in a less than one percent positivity rate.
- Beginning on February 1, the College began random weekly surveillance testing where approximately a quarter of the College community will be tested.
As you know Alumni Weekend was suspended last year due to COVID-19 and plans for Alumni Weekend 2021 will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen. There will be two distinct summer weekends of Ripon alumni programming for us. No matter how you’d like to connect, virtually or in person, the Office of Constituent Engagement is developing a variety of activities to continue to follow CDC, Fond du Lac County and College guidelines in both June and August. Full schedules, lodging, and programming details will be posted soon to www.ripon.edu/alumni-weekend.
JUNE 2021
- In honor of our June Alumni Weekend traditions, virtual alumni programming will be held Tuesday, June 22 through Saturday, June 26, and will include: an alumni town hall, R Connections webinars, affinity socials, a summer book club, and special recognition of the 2020 and 2021 Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees.
- The only in-person event, the Doc Weiske ’50 Memorial Golf Scramble, will be held off-campus on Friday, June 25.
AUGUST 2021
A combination of virtual and in-person Alumni Weekend programming will be held the first week of August. We will continue to evaluate the state of COVID-19. If circumstances change at the local and national level and we need to cancel in-person programming, that decision will be made and communicated by July 1, 2021.
- Virtual programming will be held Tuesday, August 3 through Saturday, August 7 and will include: a reunion-focused alumni town hall that also previews the new academic year, additional R Connections webinars, the summer book club capstone, and the traditional “That Was Then” storytelling session.
- In-person, on-campus programming will be held Friday, August 6 through Sunday, August 8, and will focus on alumni awards recognition, 2020 and 2021 reunion celebrations, and other outdoor events such as Rally Run and prairie walk.
- Additionally, the Class of 2020 will officially be welcomed to our alumni community with a special commencement ceremony.
Congratulations to GARY LEDERER ’72 and JEAN KIRKPATRICK LEDERER ’73 on the birth of their grandson Daniel Robert. While they have not been able to spend time with family for the holidays, they have continued to play golf and like many of us Zoom with friends and family. Recently, Gary and Jean met up with NITA JACKSON PARKER ’72 in Healdsburg, CA for lunch and a bit of wine tasting!
Next year will be 50 years since we graduated from Ripon College. Over the years we have enjoyed great support from our classmates. I thank you for supporting Ripon College in the past and I encourage your continued support. I hope that we will be able to reunite in Ripon for our Golden R Celebration in 2022. If you would like to help with our Reunion planning, I welcome you to contact me.
Class Notes:
LYNN SPICER-TUCKER ’72 of Watertown, Wisconsin, writes, “My husband and I had an incredible trip to Australia in January of 2020 and we (finally) met my pen pal Lynne and her family. We became pen pals in 1963!”
NITA JACKSON PARKER ’72 of Healdsburg, California, writes, “I’m managing ‘COVID culture’ by Zooming on Sunday afternoons with SUE MIJANOVICH KEY ’72 of Lake Zurich, Illinois, and KAREN TESCHNER DORN ’72 of Arlington Heights, Illinois, LINDA BRASSINGTON DANIELS ’72 of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, and JEAN KIRKPATRICK LEDERER ’73 of Estero, Florida.”
SAMUEL WHYTE ’72 of Honolulu, Hawaii, died Sept. 19, 2019. At Ripon, he majored in history and participated in the Parallax student publication. Survivors include his wife, Cathy.
Sincerely,
STEPHANIE GREENE ’72
[email protected]
Your 1972 Class Agent