classnews - Bowdoin College

school the first 15 or 20 years out. It’s go-go-go.” But that
changes when your kids leave home and you head towards
retirement. “You have more time to reflect, and you become
more reflective with time.”
“To be a student at Bowdoin is such a gift,” said David
Smith, “but you need some distance to appreciate that.”
That moving away and pulling back marks the transformation
from “classmate” to “alumnus,” a palpable distinction that is
difficult to define and deeply personal. Being an alumnus provides
a network, a readymade connection in an unfamiliar city
or a new company. More personally, it’s a point of pride to keep
up with the news of the College and its progress, like cheering
for a favorite sports team. While some admire their alma mater
from afar, others become active in College affairs, participating
in fundraising and event planning, attending athletic games and
classes, even DJ-ing a show on WBOR.
Every class has its personality, something that sets it apart and
makes it feel different from the classes that came before and the
ones that will follow. The Class of ’61 might simply have been
at the right place at the right time. Between the late 1950s and
early ’60s was a prosperous and peaceful time in the United
States.
“We weren’t angry at anything,” Prinn said. “The protests
against ROTC were just beginning, and we looked at it with
bemusement. Most of us were enjoying ourselves; we were
learning things. Bowdoin was a nice place to be.”
“We grew up in the best of times,” said Bill Friedman. “We
didn’t know the Depression, we came out of World War II, and
change was always for the better.”
“We were kind of in a sweet spot between Korea and Vietnam,”
Belka added.
Bowdoin was smaller then—just 200 students in a class, and
they were all male. By the end of their first week, most had
pledged a fraternity friendships. For the first few weeks, every
freshman wore a placard around his neck declaring his name
and fraternity house, so everyone knew who he was. All students
and faculty were bound by tradition to greet each other
with a friendly “hello” whenever they met, both on campus
and off.
“The ‘Bowdoin hello’ was a pain in the ass, but you acknowledged
each other, and you were acknowledged,” Friedman
said. “The most important thing was the community.”
“I have a belief that every person in that class shaped the
“I have gratitude for those four years, and
I don’t just mean academically. It’s the
people who are indelible in my memory.”
32 BOWDOIN SUMMER 2011
experience I had,” Smith said. “Everyone who was there had
a consequential affect on me. I have gratitude for those four
years, and I don’t just mean academically. It’s the people who
are indelible in my memory.”
“Gratitude” is a word repeated often among alumni, for
the friendships and fond memories, to be sure, but also for the
education that many say their families couldn’t afford. There
are stories of the athletic director finding a bed in the infirmary
for students whose parents could no longer pay for room
and board, and of the dean taking those students into his own
home when he found out about the clandestine arrangement;
administrators who turned a blind eye to youthful indiscretion
when the lessons had been learned without punishment,
and generous offers of a second chance when punishment was
unavoidable; faculty fighting to get and keep scholarships for
students so they could stay in school, and countless other life
lessons and small acts of kindness, the significance of which
isn’t evident until years later. With that gratitude comes a
strong desire to pay it forward.
“It comes from having had a wonderful experience at Bowdoin
that you know other people had, too. You want to share
Top: Lyman Cousens shooting a Williams
College golf ball into Loch Ness, Scotland,
2000; below: l-r, David Carlisle; Lyman
Cousens; Edward Fuller; Rod Collette;
Richard Leeman; David Belka; and Malcolm
Brawn, in Ireland, 2004.