61 Yes, we’re committed to Reunion 2011! Susan and I are planning an extended driving trip along with the festivities in Ithaca to visit friends and relatives and pay back obligations of the past few years. I recently spoke with Pauline Sutta Degenfelder, Reunion Co-Chair, who called drumming up attendance for our event. Things are coming together well and we have hopes for a record-breaking attendance. Meanwhile, many classmates have sent in updates, some of significant length.

Ellie Browner Greco ( Forked River , NJ ) reports: “I wound up being a "collector" of things.  My most rewarding collection is antique quilts.  I have become an active member of the American Quilt Study Group and the 'study' part is fascinating.  Textiles have always been exciting to me ( I was working in textiles after graduation) and in the last few years, I have become a presenter to local organizations, speaking about quilts, especially antique quilts, and sharing my knowledge and quilts with others.  My career was in education, and this activity has combined my main interests over the years, into an activity that I enjoy thoroughly.  My challenge in this particular activity is having the energy to physically move my quilts to other places, but I'm figuring out ways to make it easier and I don't intend to stop any time soon.  We are doing more traveling as part of our family activities that include our daughter Laurie and her husband Hunter that has produced some wonderful shared moments and been great fun.  I also am traveling with two organizations, Questers and American Quilt Study Group, to various states for national conventions.  I will continue to find opportunities to travel to places to which I have never been or been so long ago, I want a re-visit.  I don't consider these opportunities a 'rather do' but an additional activity.  We live in shore community and do all the shore activities we chose; our young family live in the mountains of Colorado and we explore there as well.  Between our family activities, volunteer and part-time work, work, we are very busy doing things we chose.”

My close friend and fraternity brother, Stuart Carter, BArch '62, an architect, sent along a particularly timely note, as our Reunion is imminent. Some of us may know of the Arboretum Sculpture Garden . Stuart relates the full story. “I just received a note from Professor Jack Squier, MFA'52, sculptor professor in the College of Fine Arts, that the concrete sculpture project, now Arboretum Sculpture Garden that several of us - architecture students - constructed in 1961 in the back of a barn has received a cleaning, repair, labeling and permanent information display in time for its 50th anniversary in 2011. Perhaps this is a metaphor for a class that was freshly cast into the world from Cornell that same year, and will return to campus in June. Ted Graves '58, BArch '60, MArch '61, Bob Einaudi '60, BArch '61, Michael Newman '58, BArch '62, Fred Biebisheimer, BArch '62, and I created the first five sculptures, that were later joined by approximately 10 others, a number of which have fallen and disappeared with the ravages of time and the ravages of later Cornell revelers, who we understand, found the setting perfect for wild parties before the Arboretum was created. Scon and Jean Travis Boccuti provided great encouragement - and transportation from 312 Thurston - in their red VW - during construction...couldn't have done it without them.”

Stuart further relates, “I've retired from active architectural practice in December and am now pursuing interests in art and archaeology again.  Last year Cornell and Harvard celebrated their 50th year of excavations at Sardis , Turkey , capitol of the Lydian empire under King Croesus in the 6th century B.C....and excavations will probably continue for at least the next 50 years as the ancient city is gradually uncovered and reconstructed both on paper and in marble, brick and mortar. Many classmates will remember Professor Henry Detweiler, professor of architectural history in the College of Architecture , who was instrumental in establishing the collaboration between Cornell and Harvard in the late 1950's just as we arrived on campus. I was fortunate to have participated under his guidance in '61 and '62 and later in the 1970's. It is now among the most enduring and successful archaeological research programs in the world.  Sardis was important in archaic Greek, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine times.  The Metropolitan Museum's recently remodeled entry to its Greek and Roman galleries features portions of a near perfect Ionic capital, column and base from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis, one of the largest Greek temples with original Ionic columns that stood over 50 feet high.

"Some may recall the Canton Central master plan that our firm created in the mid 90's, and that was presented in a brief video as part of the 35th Reunion Symposium in Rockefeller Hall.  The Chinese government accepted the plan in its entirety, and that the two-square mile site on the Pearl River at the center of Guangzhou City (formerly known as Canton) is now almost completely constructed - and can be viewed on Google - with governmental, commercial, institutional, residential and recreational buildings designed both in China and by firms from around the world.”

Sorry our space constraints won’t permit more entries. However, keep the news flowing to me for future columns. See you in June. Doug Fuss, dougout@attglobal.net