Memorial Service

One of the most meaningful events of the 50th reunion is traditionally a memorial service in honor of classmates who have passed away.

Many class members contributed to the lovely service in Houghton Memorial Chapel on the Saturday afternoon of reunion. In particular, Helen Buhr worked closely with the Reverend Tiffany Steinwert, Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at the College, to develop our service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving.

Helen and Alumnae Association staff provided us with a printed Order of Service, which is now on the website. Consult it for more details, including the words and music of the hymns we sang, the prayers and readings, the names of participants in the service. Most important, it gives the names of the classmates we were remembering, and it shows their yearbook pictures.

Bunny Morse Reardon and two collegues from Musica Dolce provided a string trio for the prelude and postlude. 

Diana Chapman Walsh gave a lovely Reflection.

Prayers, poems and other texts, and all the names of the class members being remembered, were read by the reunion chairs, by present and past class presidents and by class members in the clergy, the Reverend Karen Lebacz, Rabbi Avis Dimond Miller, and Interfaith Minister Sara Stoker. The Reverend Gail Carlsen was unable to attend.

As part of our memorial, the class contributed to the college 52 purple iris, one for each class member named, planted outside the chapel. The young flowers were blooming for this service. You can see some of them at the bottom of the stairs in the photograph of classmates leaving the chapel, and in the closeup.

There was also a bowl of 52 iris blooms in the chapel, shown here with Helen Buhr.
 

A permanent page on this website, under the News tab, is the In Memoriam page, which lists deceased classmates. There are also two places with tributes and memories from those who knew them: the Record Book and the In Memoriam discussion group, where you can continue to add your memories.