Alumni, Organizers Call Reunion Success

By Kim Ramsey
College Topics Staff Writer

"You could just look at people’s faces and tell it was a success."

CD Reunion committee member Scott Ramsey’s comment on the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 24, rings true with all the event’s organizers and those alumni who attended.

The three-day event, held over Homecoming Weekend, Sept. 22-24, in Charlottesville, drew more than 80 alumni plus their families—more than 150 people all together.

At least one alumni from every class between 1977 to 1997 attended at least one of the weekend’s activities.

"We really could not be more pleased with the reunion’s success," said Diane DeBerry Krehmeyer, Cavalier Daily Alumni Association president. "We tried to offer something for everyone, and with well over 100 people attending each of the events Saturday and Sunday, I think we did a great job."

The weekend kicked off on Friday with a golf outing at Birdwood Country Club. Nine golfers of various abilities spent the afternoon on the links pursuing the perfect chip shot while rekindling old friendships and developing new ones.

Former CD operations manager Whitney Stengel (’93) said the golf outing was her favorite part of the weekend because "I got to spend several hours with a few alumni and get caught up on their lives.

"Plus," she added, "playing golf isn’t so bad."

That evening, the golfers joined a handful of other alumni for dinner and drinks at Northern Exposure on the Corner.

Saturday began with a family picnic before the Homecoming Game. Despite early threats of rain, alumni of all ages gathered in the Dell, behind the Old Dorms, for an afternoon full of laughter and memories.

"Working on the CD for me was more of a social thing than anything else, and the friendships I made from my CD days have been my most enduring," said Jeff Kerper, advertising manager in 1981-’82, who attended the picnic with his wife, Barrie.

"Having the opportunity to get together with 8 or 10 really close friends in such a wonderful atmosphere, where all of the things we had shared together were right in front of us, well, it was a really special time for my wife and me. I can’t imagine having a better time."

Kerper, along with Bill Rittenberg (‘81), helped organize group seating for the football game. Nearly 50 CDAA alumni and friends sat together, cheering on the Cavaliers as they battled Clemson in the newly renovated stadium.

Despite the Cavalier’s loss, Kerper says he enjoyed the football game the most. Being in the "new stadium, surrounded by close friends—it was a real thrill."

The highlight of the weekend for most alumni, though, was the dinner held at the Boar’s Head Inn on Saturday evening, which featured a talk by master of ceremonies Taylor Buckley (’61), a former senior writer for USA Today, and culminated with short reminiscences from a number of CD alumni.

"We are particularly appreciative to Taylor Buckley for being our guest speaker and providing such entertaining commentary on the future of print journalism in the new millennium," Krehmeyer said.

Other speakers included Bob Cullen (’70), who talked of the then "long-haired radicals" who ran the paper; Rick Fox (’80), who told of the days when the CD was kicked out of its offices in the late ’70s over the Media Board incident; and former Newcomb Hall director John Herring, sponsor and namesake of the CDAA’s Herring Scholarship, who discussed the importance of having a student newspaper on a university campus.

"The banquet was far and away my favorite event because of Taylor Buckley’s speech and the contributions made by other alumni," said Mike Fagan (’79). "I wished the evening could have lasted longer."

In addition to the speeches, memories were sparked by display boards depicting snapshots of The Cavalier Daily’s history, as well as photo boards from several years’ worth of staff members and selected years of the bound volumes.

"The boards, photographs and memorabilia were great, and the atmosphere was very nice," former CD cartoonist and editorial writer Geoff Johnson (’93) said of the dinner. "I think it was a good opportunity for people to mingle and meet some CD alums they might not otherwise know from other years. And beyond reconnecting with old friends, it’s always nice to get to know new people who share the same passion you do for something like the CD."

David Hallock, who served as Reunion Committee chairman, echoed these sentiments. "It was wonderful to see so many former Cavalier Daily staff members and to hear stories from throughout the CD’s history. I enjoyed the opportunity to see old friends and spend an evening reminiscing," he said.

"I was also thrilled to see such a wide range of alumni classes represented at the dinner," he added. "We had the editor-in-chiefs from 1934 and from 2001 in the same room, along with many other managing board and staff members from the years in between. It really emphasized the long history The Cavalier Daily has."

Remembering and preserving the history of The Cavalier Daily was the underlying theme of the weekend, as the CDAA Board of Directors also used Saturday night’s dinner to kick off a major fund-raising drive dedicated to preserving The Cavalier Daily’s collection of bound volumes.