Has It Really Been a Decade?
A first-person look at the class of 1991’s 10th reunion
by Nan Carroll MPA 1991
Yes, it has
been 10 years, and we’re still full of passion, still working on
public policy, still willing to go the extra mile for a classmate, and,
of course, still playing as hard as we work. So, there we were in May,
packed into Henrietta’s Table at the Charles Hotel for our 10th reunion
kickoff reception, hugging each new arrival, taking photos, and yakking
so much that it took us forever to realize that Acting Dean Fred Schauer
and Alumni Office Director Betsy Myers MPA 2000 were there to welcome
us back to the Kennedy School. And, those of us on the reunion committee
couldn’t grin any bigger as we ticked off the arrivals and rejoiced
at how many of us had made it from all parts of the globe.
Five years
ago, a few of us from the Mid-Career class of 1991 decided to organize
a reunion in Cambridge to see what everyone was up to. We planned our
weekend in 1996 around the refresher weekend, as many of us wanted to
take advantage of both activities. The fifth was great fun (about 60 classmates
came), and we started an informal e-mail list to “glue” us together
between reunions. Last summer, we were off and running again. We put together
a committee led by the indomitable Mac Prichard, teamed up with the folks
in the alumni office, and started planning for May 2001. Initially we
were only Mid-Career graduates, but we quickly picked up reps from both
the MPA2 and the MPP programs and turned the event into a reunion for
everybody in the class. Our staunch committee included Andrea Fowler,
housing and finding lost classmates; Dean Kaplan, treasurer; Mike Scott,
co-chair of the program group and editor of a reunion newsletter called
Decade of Discovery; Tom Moss and Liz Fedor, editors of a class book of
essays and photos; Will Shafroth, co-chair of the program group; Julie
Ames, memorial fund; Andy McLeod, memorial fund and MPA2 rep; and Sarah
Smith, MPP rep.
What does
it take to pull off a successful reunion? First, you have to find everyone
to tell them when to come; e-mail turned out to be our biggest asset as
it is easy, cheap, and not bounded by time- zone means of communicating.
We took our existing list of roughly 50 classmates and the alumni list
provided by KSG, and went looking for everyone else. Soon, we had expanded
the list to 170 and had prompted both the MPA2 and the MPPs to hunt for
their missing classmates as well. The committee split up tasks to take
care of logistics, content, and socializing; I would bet that only the
committee saw any of the glitches that happened during the reunion. Even
the weather cooperated for Saturday’s barbecue.
Second, you
need a balance between play and work, and we included both. The Kennedy
School has a longstanding tradition of bringing movers and shakers from
all arenas to speak at the Forum. We arranged for Michael Dukakis to come.
He gave us his perspective on rail service in the United States (he is
the current vice-chair of Amtrak), as well as taking a number of questions
on the politics of the day. What was different about this conversation
from one we would have had 10 years ago was that this time we had some
real involvement in some of the topics and we were equal partners in the
discussion. We followed that with panels on health care, leadership and
politics, natural resources and the environment, and international relations
and the global economy run by and for us. Besides some meaty and sometimes
tense discussion, we learned more about what each of us is doing now.
Our class
has a tradition of taking time, following our Saturday night dinner, to
allow people to speak or sing. First, however, we remembered three of
our deceased classmates — Mollie Beattie, Kyle McHugh, and Raphaelle
Semmes — and introduced the first recipient of an internship paid
by a fund we created to memorialize our classmates (see "A Public
Service Push").
Afterwards,
a number of classmates spoke about what the Kennedy School had meant to
them — a truly pivotal moment in their lives — and all of us
thanked Sue Williamson, who heads the Mid-Career
program, for all her encouragement before, during, and after our year.
We also presented her with a copy of the class book, with its contributions
from 85 people. Roger Keithline serenaded us with a splendid rendition
of “In a Harvard One-Year Wonderland,” parody lyrics by Andy
Store. The finale was KSG singers Michael Brown, Leena Kirjavainen, Dave
Willis, Debbie Pringle, and Sue Williamson, with a rousing rendition of
“MTA” and “Those Were the Days, My Friend.”
Sunday brunch
brought more photos and lots of hugs and goodbyes.
About 120
of us showed up for some part of the reunion. Some of us had trouble with
planes and bosses and visas, but we persisted. We came from Portland and
Hong Kong and Washington, DC, and Darjeeling and Halifax and Manhattan,
and Kuala Lumpur and Cambridge and Helsinki. We brought friends and spouses
and children. We brought Harvard ties and little black dresses. We may
be grayer and creakier, but we’re still full of fire about what we
do, and we still believe we can make a difference. Most of all, we got
to remember how much we love and treasure one other. You can bet that
we will do this again in 2006 and 2011 and 2016 and…
Nan Carroll MPA 1991 is a member of the reunion committee and deputy director of the Center for Legislative Development at the University of Albany SUNY. For more information about the class of 1991, visit www.ksg.harvard.edu/alum/mpa1991.html.
For information about upcoming KSG reunions, go to the reunion page on the alumni Web site.
