2001-02 HEAA Year in Review

by Dean Christopher Queen, Director of Alumni(ae) Relations

The HEAA event in December 2001 featured the award-winning a cappella group, The Callbacks.

Harvard alumni(ae) are enviable people. In addition to their memories of inspiring encounters with great instructors and extraordinary classmates, and the special access they enjoyed to courses, libraries, museums, and gatherings that only Harvard can provide, they share a lifelong feeling of pride in mastering the ideas and skills of their chosen field and in clearing the hurdles that led to a degree or certificate bearing both their name and the seals and insignia of Harvard University.

Like their fellow alumni(ae) from the College and the Graduate Schools, Harvard Extension School graduates avail themselves of many of the perquisites of membership in the Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) and their own Harvard Extension Alumni Association (HEAA). These include the use of the post.harvard e-mail forwarding service that identifies the sender as a Harvard alumnus or alumna; access to online Career and Networking Services/Professional Connection (www.haa.harvard.edu); library and athletic privileges (see contact numbers on page 55); and participation in the many social and cultural activities sponsored by Harvard alumni(ae) associations through-out the world. Membership in this "club" is nothing to be shy about, for Harvard Extension alumni(ae), like their counterparts, have earned all the rights and privileges with which it comes.

Many Extension alumni(ae) stay in touch with their alma mater through participation in regularly scheduled HEAA events and by sending an annual donation to the Shinagel Scholarship Fund or other funds that support the Extension School's mission. Others contribute their leadership and talents by becoming officers in the Alumni Association itself.

Since its founding in 1967 by Edgar Grossman, ABE '66, the HEAA has been blessed by a succession of dedicated and gifted leaders, some of whom are still active. Among them are Ella Smith, ABE '66, one of the first presidents and our current Banquet Committee chair, Ruth Gove, ABE '67, Ruth B. Robinson, ABE '67, Marion Cameron, ABE '71, Catherine Minahan, ABE '71, Vince Dixon, ABE '75, EdM '77, Conrad Morrissey, ABE '76, and Charles Lawder, ABE '80, ALM '95. Bill Shawcross, ALM '82, '86, a retired publisher, serves as the editorial advisor to the Alumni Bulletin, marking up the finished product each year with suggestions for better issues in the future. Theresa DiLando, CSS '83, serves today as chair of the Program Committee.

Three of our current officers have gone well beyond the call of duty to educate and inspire the membership. President Joe Aurelio, ALB '83, ALM '85, and a docent in the Harvard Art Museums, served as after-dinner speaker for two years at the annual Valentine's Day Dinner in the Harvard Faculty Club, lecturing on masterpieces of Western and Asian art. (See a profile of Dr. Aurelio on page 21.)

Vice President Anthony Lorizio, AA '99, ALB '01, returned on April 21 from his graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University to be the keynote speaker at a Sunday afternoon meeting of the Harvard Extension Student Association (HESA). As part of a program titled "Courage," Lorizio spoke on the unique courage of the Extension School student, often returning to continue his or her education, as Lorizio did, during the middle years of life. (The HESA was founded last year by the Extension School's youngest graduate, Amit Chatterjee, ALB '02, who will continue as president of the HESA as he works toward the ALM degree in the coming years.)

The third HEAA officer to make a special contribution this year was treasurer David I. Finnegan, ALM '99, senior partner of Finnegan, Underwood, Ryan & Tierney, a one-time candidate for mayor of Boston, and a familiar political commentator in the broadcast media. Finnegan addressed an October 10 crowd in the Grossman Common Room on "The Changing Landscape of Boston Politics," highlighting his public sparring matches with the likes of Kevin White. Finnegan also confessed his secret admiration for James Michael Curley (1874-1958), who dominated Boston politics for the first half of the twentieth century, serving as local councilor, mayor, governor, and congressman--while also serving two prison terms. Finnegan's tenure as HEAA treasurer has been more dignified, to be sure, but his service to the Extension School is as deeply appreciated by Harvard as was "Rascal King" Curley's service to Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Social and cultural gatherings of the HEAA in 2001-02 continued on the high note sounded by David Finnegan in October. On December 13, the celebrated Harvard College a cappella group, The Callbacks, entertained members with popular songs of the day and season. On February 14, Valentine's Day dinner guests at the Harvard Faculty Club thrilled to enactments of Shakespeare's love sonnets and romantic scenes from Cyrano de Bergerac, Much Ado About Nothing, and The Importance of Being Earnest, performed by members of the American Repertory Theatre. On May 17, a motley crew of recent graduates (and a few old salts) embarked on the sixth annual Sunset Cruise along the Charles River and out into the inner Boston Harbor. This year the monumental Leonard Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, still under construction but considerably more finished than it was for last year's cruise, was magnificent in the blue and white lights that illuminate it from all sides. This year's Alumni Banquet was held at the Sheraton Commander on June 4 and featured addresses by Dean Michael Shinagel and our 25-year honorand, Prof. C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky.

In March 2003 we will hold our biennial election for new officers of the Harvard Extension Alumni Association. It is my hope, and that of our current officers, that new faces and new ideas will surface through service to the HEAA. Self-nomination is welcomed, as well as open or anonymous nomination of members you believe would serve well. Recent and former graduates, young and old, prudent and daring, have long served side-by-side.

When pondering the kinds of programs and initiatives you would like your alumni(ae) officers to sponsor in the future, consider the spirit of the HEAA's youngest member, Amit Chatterjee. Last year, while still a student, he made an appointment with the Dean of Students (I wore my other hat that day) to volunteer his services to the student association. I informed him that there was no student association. Without hesitation, Chatterjee asked what it would take to start one. I showed him the application papers for registering new student organizations, and within a month he had assembled a slate of officers, written a mission statement, and drafted a constitution. Edgar Grossman would have been proud.

So now the challenge is yours: can you write to Ann Wright, our alumni coordinator, to express your interest in becoming an HEAA officer . . . before Amit Chatterjee does?