Over the Memorial Day long weekend the College welcomed more than 1200 former Fords, friends, and family to campus for Alumni Weekend 2017, celebrating classes ending in 2s and 7s. People traveled from near and far—some from as far away as Calgary, Glasgow, Madrid, Trinidad, and even Madagascar—for the weekend’s dinners, talks, panels, awards, and parties.
There were many events planned to keep all the reunion-goers busy—from film screenings to panel discussions to dinners—and the cool spring weather made it easy to enjoy them all. There were dinners, dessert receptions, and parties, both on-campus and off. A Bi-Co bash was held at Bryn Mawr after Step Sing. Art lovers could explore the works of alumni photographers (including Maxfield Parrish) in the Atrium Gallery’s latest exhibit or take a tour of the “greatest private collection of post-Impressionist and early modern art in America” (so says The Economist) at the Barnes Foundation in downtown Philly. And awards were given to 17 deserving Fords (including Kannerstein Award winners Catherine Koshland ’72 and Steven Jaharis ’82) on Saturday morning following a mimosa toast from President Kim Benston.
In addition to the main thrust of the weekend—catching up with old friends and checking out former stomping grounds—attendees could choose from a number of events that engaged with modern history (such as Emeritus Professor of History Roger Lane’s talk on “Just When Were The Good Ol’ Days?″ that lured more than 150 people to Stokes Auditorium on Saturday afternoon), politics, aging, or the changes here on campus (including a talk about LGBTQI life at Haverford “then and now”). Fords also screened movies, both old and new: Will Coleman ’07 was on hand to introduce a biopic about his grandfather, the late College President John R. Coleman, and John Helde ’87 gave a preview of his newest film, Brown’s Canyon.
The 19th Annual Family Fun Fair provided cooling water ice, balloon animals, bounce houses, and a magician to entertain Alumni Weekend’s youngest attendees. The much-loved Music and Food Truck Festival on Founders Green returned with its best line-up yet, including tacos, tater tots, hot dogs, cookies, sandwiches, empanadas, and more from eight of the area’s best mobile vendors. Guests could enjoy their grub soundtracked by the sweet sounds of guitarist Joti Rockwell ’97, Glitter (featuring Jayme Goukas ’97), the Have-We-Mettes (featuring Walker Anderson VII ’11, Jonathan Colvson ’12, Matt Gerard ’11, Rosalie Hooper ’12, Lulu Krause ’12, and Julie Singer ’12), and Red 40 (featuring Ben Diamond ’11 and Jonathan Colvson ’12). And everyone got a chance to take some souvenir photos in the open-air photo booth. Don’t forget to share yours on social media using #fordreunion!
Photos by Patrick Montero, Cole Sansom ’19, Monique Byers ’19.