Alumni Reunions Celebrate Past, Champion UMass Boston’s Future
Slide Show of Park Square Campus Tour >>
Slide Show of Class of 1969 Dinner
Slide Show of Michael A. Ventresca Lunch
By Nanette L. Cormier
“You believed in the ideal of a great public university and translated that noble vision into the outstanding institution that we see today,” said Chancellor Motley to the members of the UMass Boston Charter Class of 1969, who held their 40th reunion following Commencement.
The Charter Class was joined by two other reunion classes: The Boston State College Class of 1969, which also marked its 40th anniversary, and the State Teachers College Class of 1959, which celebrated the golden anniversary of 50 years since graduation. All three classes represent two distinct legacies in the university’s history: the legislature’s decision to create a Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts, and the evolution of Boston State from its beginnings as part of Girls’ High School in 1852—a history which includes several moves and name changes (Boston Normal School, Teachers College of the City of Boston, State College at Boston) and the joining with UMass Boston in 1982.
Reunion Weekend included two memorable tours, one to the original Park Square campus of UMass Boston, and another to the Huntington Avenue campus of Boston State and State Teachers College. Park Square, the former Boston Consolidated Gas building, is now home to the Renaissance Charter School, while the Boston State campus now houses MassArt, a public school of art and architecture. It was the first time a UMass Boston reunion class had visited UMass Boston’s former campus.
Other events included a boat cruise, tree-planting ceremony in honor of the late charter class president Michael Ventresca, a College of Science and Mathematics symposia, and shared meals. The Campus Center rocked on Saturday night in three separate rooms, where DJs spun tunes of the 50’s and 60’s, including Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife” and the 5th Dimension’s “Aquarius.” Alumni rekindled camaraderie and expressed the multiple professional directions their undergraduate education took them.
The charter class relished in memories of the early years of their university through a video created for the occasion. In it, alumnus Jim Smith, former chair of the UMass Boston alumni board, reflected on the many changes UMass Boston has undergone.
“This place has grown significantly. The founding faculty administration and members of its charter class should take a lot of pride in what we built here,” said Smith. “But no matter how great it becomes, no matter how long it’s here, we are able to say we founded it.”
Former History professor Roger Brown, now 88, was on hand to celebrate. as was the first staff member at the university, Donald Costello, who was responsible for recruiting the first class of 1,400 students.
Assistant chancellor Theresa Mortimer, a faculty member at Boston State, presented alumni memories during that class’s reunion dinner. Exam time is remembered as quite intense. “Many of us were first or second generation offspring of immigrant families and were hard-pressed to pay tuition,” recalled one. “It was extremely important for us to do our best.”
Another graduate recalled the need to arrive to school “super early”—“I mean like 6:30 a.m.”—to find a parking space, while a third reminisced about conversations in the Kennedy Lounge, “where we talked about issues like race relations and the Vietnam War.”
Professor Jerry Burke, who began his career at State Teachers College and also taught Irish history at UMass Boston, was another esteemed alumnus. He spent four years as an undergraduate State Teachers College and then returned as professor. On a trolley tour from Columbia Point to Huntington Avenue, he said, “Our education at BTC was a very solid education. Our class was full of people who gave very solid service to the community—some of them up to 45 years of teaching. Teachers College turned out some of the best teachers in the greater Boston area.”
Joan Moon, a teaching colleague of Burke, joined the festivities. She found the experience was “rare and moving.” The alumni she met “are such impressive people who have kept their humanity and made a difference in the world. We would never have known that experience of seeing how it all turned out without the encouragement of UMass Boston.”
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