Behind the Scenes: Reunion Weekend

Between the revelry under the tents, the Torchlight Procession, fireworks, music, and general conviviality, reunion weekend can be a blur of activities. Here are some of the quieter moments, as well as a glimpse at how it all comes together, from setup to wind-down.

“Reunion weekend was a blast! Having the opportunity to meet the alumni was such an amazing experience.”

Zja’Kyla Brumfield ’26

Staff members prepare for the estimated 2,100 alumni and guests returning to campus.

Dendrophiles Unite

This homestead elm (one of President Brian W. Casey’s favorite type of trees) in front of McGregory Hall, with Olin Hall in the background, is a stop along Ron Hoham’s campus landscape walk. This is the 25th time Hoham, professor of biology emeritus, has given a tour of Colgate’s signature trees and perennials. The reunion tradition began with a request from his former student Beth Meer ’80, who asked him to share his knowledge for her class’ 20th. To Hoham’s surprise, 45 alumni showed up for that first tour, which was particularly memorable for the professor: “We got to the crest of the hills, formed this big circle, and we sang the Colgate alma mater. It was unbelievable.”

Ever since, Hoham’s tour has consistently drawn a large crowd of curious tree lovers. This year’s group included Hoham’s former students Zach Kaminsky ’99 and Men’s Hockey Coach Mike Harder ’97, as well as Gordon Stanley ’59, the son of Oran Stanley, who was Hoham’s predecessor in the plant sciences at Colgate. “I never know who’s going to show up,” Hoham says. “That’s the incredible part of this.”

35th Anniversary of the Alana Cultural Center

9 Hours of Radio Play

Class of 1974

For its 50th, the Class of 1974 chose the theme “change.” This reunion — just like the class members’ time as students — was distinguished by a number of firsts. For the first time, women led their class at the front of the Torchlight Procession. Also, for the Saturday class photo, there is usually a dress code of blazers and khakis, but alumni could wear what they liked. The class photo was first taken with alumnae only and then all of ’74.

Former Colgate president Tom Bartlett H’77, GP’15, who helped usher in coeducation at the University, attended. “It was moving and deeply memorable to be with the Class of 1974 as we remembered together its pioneering role as the first class of modern Colgate, creating a coeducational college on a wonderful campus,” says the 93-year-old.

Class co-chair Diane Ciconne ’74, P’10 says: “Our 50th Reunion was spectacular, from the work our classmates did in preparation, to reunion college sessions prepared by our classmates, to dinner with President Casey, to the tree dedication by Professor Emerita Ellen Kraly, to the service of remembrance with Professor Emerita Jane Pinchin, to the attendance and remarks from President Bartlett, to seeing classmates — some of whom had not been back in 50 years.”

An Anniversary for A Cappella Alumnae

“Stairwell…” 

“Stairwell…”

“See you in the stairwell…”

The Swinging ’Gates whisper to each other in passing when it’s time to meet on the stairs behind Donovan’s Pub for their annual stairwell sing.   

“The acoustics are great, number one. Number two, it’s a circular staircase, so you can really fill it up and see one another,” explains Ellen Rosen ’84 Keller, president of the Swinging ’Gates Alumnae Association. “You look down, you look up, and you can see the whole group in this beautiful column.”

The gathering takes place every reunion after the Friday night fireworks. This year was significant for the group, marking its 50th anniversary. Keller describes the Swinging ’Gates as “a microcosm of the strides women have taken over the last 50 years” at Colgate. “There is a deep meaningfulness to this weekend for all the women who attended,” she says, “starting with the original founders, who asked only for an opportunity because nothing existed for them.”

For the group to continue and grow throughout the years, it proves that “it clearly provides something in each of us that we need,” Keller adds. “Women fulfill a lot of roles in life … but this is something we do for ourselves. Truly, when I’m with these women, I am completely and authentically myself.”

During reunion weekends, the group gathers several times, including a formal concert in Memorial Chapel on Saturday night. This year, because of the 50th anniversary of the first fully coeducational class, the Women’s Leadership Council invited some of the ’Gates to make a special appearance at its Saturday brunch. Council member Madeline Bayliss ’76 had added lyrics to the “1819” song, acknowledging the 13 women who gave $13 million to the University in 2022, and the Swinging ’Gates sang this amended version. “We were really honored [to be asked to do this] in front of this amazing group of women,” Keller says.

And to the 13 women who chose to be bold. 
’Tis the spirit that is Colgate, a place to behold. 

Excerpt from amended “1819” by Madeline Bayliss ’76

Overheard at Torchlight

• “It’s so beautiful.”
• “Is that a hot dog?”
• “I feel like my hair is going to go up.” 
• “Your kids are going to do this.”
• “Chuck it in the water.”
• “Curb Alert!”
• “I made it!”
• “There’s the bagpipes.”
• “Don’t burn me.”
• “We’re Moving.”

Meet some of the reunion attendees

John Frazier ’93

John Frazier ’93 has logged 25,000 hours of volunteer service, he estimates, ranging from documenting human rights abuses in Africa to working in refugee camps to mobilizing his students at Miami Dade College to make global change. He’s twice received the President’s Volunteer Service Award — from Obama in 2016 and from Biden in 2023 — and this year he’s Colgate’s Alumni Corporation Humanitarian Award winner.

Frazier’s trajectory started with a Colgate study-abroad trip to Nigeria, which he says, “was nothing short of life changing.” He grew up in rural Ohio and it was his first time out of the country, “in this pretty challenging area,” Frazier remembers. The group arrived in Lagos to find unsafe conditions due to the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida cracking down on students and others protesting his rule. As the police were shutting down universities across the country, the Colgate students spent that first night driving 10 hours to their home university in Nsukka — which would also soon shut down.

Despite that bumpy beginning, Frazier fell in love with African culture and art, and one night he had an experience that would put him on his life’s path. With his Igbo friends, he attended his first African masquerade, which he describes as an interactive parade during which the community members danced, joked, received praise, aired and resolved their grievances publicly, and engaged with ancestors. “They used this idea of heating the world up — using a dance to activate people,” he says. “In Africa there are different words for it, but it’s an energy of action, and that could be used for positive change, to get people to do something, or to cool them down so they don’t act hastily.”

Back on Campus

Frazier was so heated up by his experience abroad that when he returned to Colgate, he added an African studies major to his chemistry major. Also on campus, he helped expand Colgate’s Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter and co-developed (with Keith Cunningham ’93 and Jennifer Lewis ’93) an organization for scientists to have conversations about the ethical implications of their research. In his senior year, he was one of 13 who won a Konosioni award, for those most actively involved on campus.

He found support academically and personally from chemistry professor John Cochran (now deceased) and Carol Ann Lorenz, associate professor of Native American studies (now emerita) and former curator of the Longyear Museum of Anthropology. 

Colgate is also where Frazier fell in love with his wife, Stacy (Taylor) ’93, when he, Cunningham, and Stacy were summer research students who house-sat for psychology professor Nick Longo. In the lab that summer, Frazier and Cochran “created a compound that had never been created before in the history of humankind,” looking at the way palladium can be used as a catalyst for cancer research.

When Disney Called

Wanting to further explore art’s power to heal, Frazier went on to graduate school to study African, Oceanic, and pre-Columbian art. During this time, he also started working with the United Nations and other human rights organizations. “It was happenstance because I was in Kenya learning Swahili when the genocide in Rwanda — right next door — ended in 1994,” he remembers. “I was asked if I wanted to help out with some of the human rights documentation that was taking place.” This began his work with the UN that continues to this day.

Frazier has a way of attracting the attention of important figures. In the late ’90s, he published a paper critiquing Disney’s representation of Polynesian culture — and subsequently got a call from the entertainment conglomerate. At the time, he was working at Chicago’s Field Museum as director of education for teacher and school programs, applying his knowledge of African and Oceanic art. “[Disney] flew me down and asked what I would change in the reimagining of their Polynesian Village Resort.” The company hired him as a cultural consultant, and he’s since helped to ensure accurate and sensitive depictions of non-Western cultures for Disney resorts, including Animal Kingdom Lodge, Caribbean Beach Resort, and Coronado Springs, as well as consulting on movies, including Moana and Black Panther and for other organizations, including the Louvre. Frazier never acts as the sole expert, rather he helps organizations sensitively collaborate with Indigenous experts and people on the ground. “The challenge, of course, is should a private corporation be the one that presents other people’s cultures? That’s something we’re going to have to grapple with in the future,” he says. “And in my career, that’s something I have to consider on every project.”

Motivating the Next Generation

Today, as a professor of art history at Miami Dade College, Frazier enlists his students to help further his mission. Rather than writing papers or making art just for a grade, Frazier’s students are responsible for doing a “project for world good.” They can either participate in one of the professor’s ongoing initiatives, or they can propose their own idea based on their studies. His students’ accomplishments have included selling their artwork to buy solar lamps for a village in Kenya and providing microloans to women in places like Pakistan. Frazier’s students have also helped to end the sale of non–fair-trade chocolate at Universal Studios and eliminated the use of Styrofoam containers on campus. “I want students to do something that’s going to impact the community, even in a small way, so they’ll learn the process and can make larger societal changes in the future,” Frazier says. “I believe that’s the basis of what a real college education is in the modern-day world.” To date, his students have raised more than $4.5 million for social causes, donated more than 75,000 community service hours, and positively impacted the lives of more than 550,000 global citizens. 

This year Frazier traveled to reunion from Indonesia, where he and colleagues spent five weeks on a Fulbright-Hayes grant.

During summertime, Frazier spends at least a month in African refugee camps, working with the United Nations to set up education programs for elementary children and art vocational training. “The average length of stay in a refugee camp is 10 years,” he explains. “Many refugees, even after the war, want to stay in the area, with their friends and family members; they’re growing up and getting married in these camps.” Frazier has co-developed a training program to give refugees job skills so they can contribute to the economy without competing with the local people. He handles the arts and business side: “We sell the artwork they’re making on an international market; we work with Disney, Costco, and World Market.” And to “make the program sustainable without a lot of international investment coming back into the program,” many of the refugees will return to the camp to apprentice the next generation.

Where It All Began

This year Frazier traveled to reunion from Indonesia, where he and colleagues spent five weeks on a Fulbright-Hayes grant. The Miami Dade College faculty members collaborated with one of their global partners, Airlangga University, to see how it was incorporating AI into its curriculum. “It might be a game changer to have a number of different worldwide universities partner to figure out, how do we jointly leverage AI for student learning?” Frazier says. “Almost every university is at the same point of figuring out, how do we work with students using this new technology of generative AI?” For years, Frazier has been using a model of flipped education in which students listen to recorded lectures and do the readings outside of class so they can focus on project-based learning and discussion in class. “The faculty member becomes more of a facilitator, a guide who can collaborate with students to help them critically and ethically reflect upon how their education actually relates to the real world and our wicked problems.”

Frazier and Stacy came to reunion for their second time (they were last here for their 10-year Reunion) so he could accept the Humanitarian Award. The two spent a whirlwind day and a half on campus before leaving for a short family vacation with their two children; then he was off to consult for Disney (both in Florida and California) before heading to a refugee camp in east Africa to work for the UN. When he returns home, it will be his turn to hold down the fort while Stacy travels. She is also a change-making professor (at Florida International University), as well as a child clinical psychologist who brings children’s mental health services to underserved populations in cities including Chicago, Miami, and LA. “Her programs are helping nearly 5 million children a year,” Frazier says. “She’s a superstar.”

On campus the couple walked down Willow Path, revisiting Taylor Lake, where they married. Part of the couple’s handwritten vows was to “make the world a better place to live in.” Their family members joked that the line was “too cheesy,” Frazier says, but “we have fulfilled that mission.” Of course, there’s always more work to be done: “We still have many years to go.”

Deb (Coda) ’74 Abraham

Deb (Coda) ’74 Abraham went into her 50th Reunion with the mindset that it would be like the end-of-yoga pose Savasana. “That’s when you absorb and integrate all the things that happened in that particular practice and make them part of who you are,” she says. “And I feel like at the 50-year mark, it’s time to reflect back, to think of your life, of all the elements that made you who you are and brought you to this particular moment.”

Some of the elements of Abraham’s life include:

→ Lives in: Gulfport, Fla., and Hartland, Vt.

→ Colgate major: social relations; MEd, Nazareth College; master’s in history, Tufts University; PhD ABD, Boston University

→ Was a member of the first women’s ice hockey club team at Colgate

→ Career: history professor; retired from Berklee College of Music

→ Family: husband Bob Abraham, four children, 12 grandchildren

→ At reunion: co-chaired the service committee with her former suitemate, Carol (Brown) ’74 Michael. “We organized the memorial service that remembers classmates who are no longer with us,” Abraham says. “To some extent, we tried to change the orientation of the service so it was also an opportunity for people to remember our years together at Colgate.” 

→ Has attended two reunions before, and after the last, she and a few classmates decided to form a Boston Colgate women’s book club, which is still going strong. The last book they read was The Women by Kristin Hannah: “It was a perfect pick because it threw us right before reunion to a time period [the Vietnam War] just before we were at Colgate.”

→ Abraham arrived on campus a day before reunion officially kicked off so she could have time to “walk around before everyone got there and have that moment of breathing in, breathing out, and thinking about everything that’s happened.” She says: “It’s really been an amazing life and I’m grateful for it.”

James Speight IV ’14

James Speight IV ’14 thinks the number of reunions he’s attended is more than the number of years he’s been an alumnus. Speight sang with the Thirteen at the event every year as a student and estimates he’s returned seven times since. “My favorite part is the energy of people coming together for the love of Colgate and getting to engage with alumni across class years,” he says.

→ At Colgate: political science major, writing and rhetoric minor

→ Student involvement: Thirteen, Brothers, Konosioni, Theta Chi, rugby, student government (student senator and then student policy coordinator for two years)

→ Alumni involvement: President’s Club Membership Council; Alumni Council, chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee and member of executive committee

→ At reunion: Led “Leadership and Storytelling for the Kitchen Table” with Rodney Agnant ’14. “Because many times, communication is where a lot of disagreement is formed, and when you’re able to have discourse and conversation with one another, you realize we’re a lot closer than we are apart.”

→ Profession: associate director, Harris Philanthropies, the family foundation of Marjorie and Josh Harris (owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Devils, and Washington Commanders) that partners with organizations to enable opportunities for at-risk youth, health initiatives, and community growth. “I interact and engage with a lot of different people,” Speight says. “When it comes to philanthropy, it is important to be able to understand varying viewpoints and different experiences.”

→ Something he’s most proud of in his career: When the pandemic began, Speight was working for Robin Hood (NYC’s largest poverty-fighting organization), and he played a role in the strategic development of its pandemic relief fund. “It felt very empowering to be on the side of providing millions of dollars to New Yorkers.”

→ Lives in: Stamford, Conn.

→ Last featured in Colgate Magazine: as part of the Love Story series, with his wife, Abby ’15 (and a mention of their dog Willow, named after Willow Path)

→ On winning the Ann Yao ’80 Young Alumni Award at reunion in 2019: “Colgate gave so much to me, and I wanted to be a really involved alum as soon as I graduated. To be recognized and honored for my contributions in the first five years meant a lot. It also served as a catalyst to remain involved and helped lead me to the Alumni Council. For me, it was encouragement — ‘People are recognizing the work that you’re doing and keep it up,’ which I did.”

“My favorite part [of reunion] is the energy of people coming together for the love of Colgate and getting to engage with alumni across class years.”

James Speight IV ’14

Mari Jones ’09

A veteran Reunion College presenter, Mari Jones ’09 has cracked the code for ensuring a lively, well-attended session: Just add wine. 

On Saturday of reunion weekend, Jones, president of Emeritus Vineyards in Sebastopol, Calif., walked alumni and friends through five unique Pinot Noirs in a guided tasting experience in Benton Hall — her third such presentation since 2012, when she began working at the winery founded by her father. “I love doing these sessions because [alumni] are always very knowledgeable and curious, and they ask great questions,” she says. “This is a group that appreciates wine.”

→ At Colgate: majored in philosophy and religion

→ Alumni involvement: Jones joined Colgate’s Alumni Council in 2022 and is a member of the Women’s Leadership Council and the President’s Circle. She was honored with a Maroon Citation at this year’s Alumni Council Awards.

→ Finding her passion: At age 12, Jones accompanied her father on a business trip to Burgundy, France, where she first sampled and “fell in love with” Pinot Noir. “It wasn’t just the taste that I loved, but the history. In the cellars, you can see the roots from the vines above, and during the French Revolution, soldiers would hide there,” she explains. “The way wine connects across time and tells a story — that just blew my little 12-year-old mind.”

→ Rising star: Jones is active in the wine community, serving on the board of directors for the Russian River Valley Winegrowers and Russian River Valley Pinot Forum and working with the Sonoma County Vintners International Committee to promote Sonoma County wines internationally. In 2022 she was named one of the “40 Under 40” by the North Bay Business Journal.

→ Special delivery: Jones’ father and Emeritus’ founder, Brice Cutrer-Jones, shipped “care packages” with bottles of his daughter’s favorite rosé to campus during her undergraduate years. “I was a big hit with my roommates when I’d come back from the mailroom with that 40-pound box,” she says.

This annual weekend is produced by Advancement, in close collaboration with campus partners.
For more scenes from Reunion 2024, visit https://www.flickr.com/photos/colgateuniversity/.