LETTERS

Brad Whitehouse

There’s something good about tradition.

This really came home to me at Convocation in August. As people filled the chapel pews to welcome a new academic year, there was a sense of potential and newness in the air. The faculty and staff wore regalia, there were speeches, and we sang the alma mater to organ music. What I liked most, though, were the welcomes. Please welcome our new faculty members! [Applause.] And welcome back returning students! [Applause.] And a special welcome to our new students! [More applause.]

This last group probably deserved the most recognition of all, but I wondered what they were thinking about all this. Probably something like, “On top of the shock of college, here are all these weirdoes in strange clothes clapping for me just for being here.” Did they think it was stuffy, or that all the speeches were pushing back lunch too far? And they probably wondered what college was going to be all about.

In time, though, Convocation might become a meaningful part of their AC experience. It might just start to seem familiar to them, as a time when everyone gathers together and takes stock of the new year, when it’s easy to feel pretty good about being part of the Adrian College community.

Homecoming is another time like that. It’s a time for catching up, when you can retrace all your own connections to the Adrian College community. This issue of Contact highlights some of the events that might help you do that. See the complete schedule on page 13, and on page 15 get some helpful Homecoming tips from Mike Jacobitz ’73, AC registrar and all-around good sport.

Speaking of traditions, there’s one we’re trying to keep alive around here. This magazine has served for many years as a link between alumni and their alma mater, and this was never accomplished better than under the creative and able leadership of Editor Darcy Gifford ’91. Darcy, who recently resigned from Adrian College, is largely responsible for making this publication what it is today. We will do our best in the days ahead to keep up the tradition she started, by keeping Contact interesting and relevant to you.

Brad Whitehouse
Editor

Letters to the editor

The spring 2003 issue, featuring the Ridge Gym project, is very pleasing to my wife and me. It was there on Sept. 16, 1960, that we first met. There was a dance there near the beginning of the semester, to provide an opportunity to meet the freshman and those returning to Adrian College. Shortly after I arrived, I spotted Carole Taylor ’64. I asked her for a dance, which she accepted. I liked her immediately. I asked if we could go out for a walk, which she accepted. Before the evening was over, we had established a time for our first date the following evening. In December 1963, we were married.

The new format of Contact is a leap to a first-class publication. Congratulations on an enjoyable publication.
Rick Wilcox ’63
Houston, Texas

My nephew, Kevin Stone ’91, was recently featured in an article in the alumni magazine [“Second Chance,” Spring 2003]…. Thanks very much for such nice coverage. We are pretty proud of him. Adrian College certainly contributed a great deal to his development at a challenging time in his life...There is more to come!
Sandra E. O’Connell, Ph.D.
Reston, Va.

Splendid write-up on Professor Jerry Stewardson’s retirement. I, too, was deeply influenced by him…He was demanding, but his expectations were always measured with compassion and justice. His John Wesley class was a repeat of seminary courses on Wesley.
David Paul Putnam ’77, B.A., M.DV.