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Note we are now. www.lu61-2.com
Class Update
The 61 Symposium at Reunion brought 3 Faculty members to present-
Prof. Strandwitz, a Class of 61 Professor spoke on solar panel efficiency, Professor Gunter addressed Academic freedom of speech and Dr. Gusmano addressed the Ethics Endowment. Also commenting were Kari Arienti ’86 and Andi Lucas Schmerin ’11 about their involvement for our class as advisors going forward.
At Founders Day 2022 Roy Cravzow joined the elite alumni who have supported Lehigh with 7 figure contributions.
Under Professor Victor Valenzuela’s mentoring, Roy received a BA in Spanish from Lehigh. While then studying Portuguese and doing graduate work at Columbia U. (which led to a Fulbright Fellowship to Brazil) Valenzuela introduced Roy to Professor Gregory Rabassa who became his second mentor and another lifelong friend.
Knowledge of Brazil’s language and culture led Roy to a 40 year export business with Brazil. To honor his two mentors Roy wishes to create the Rabassa Valenzuela Chair in Latin American Literature and Culture at Lehigh
Pictured on their bench along Alumni Walk are Roy and soulmate Wanda.
Recently the Alumni Bulletin Class column was written in advance by Bob Paternoster. Ken Weaver has volunteering to continue Bob’s work. Any of you on his mailing list will know to expect good things in the future.
The Ethics Endowment has moved forward under Dr. Mike Gusmano’s leadership. The Class of 61 Advisory Board is actively involved with the progress. On April 26 three Advisory Board Members Paul Smith, Ed Watters and Andi Lucas Schmerin ’11, met with Mike, his staff and a student advisor. We reviewed budgets and future plans with a special emphasis on the Hagerman Lecture in 2023-24. Our own research is offering a facilitator knowledgeable about the sustainability of batteries for Electric Vehicles. We will continue zoom and on campus support of this endowment.
On April 26 Ed Watters and I returned to Lehigh for the annual Scholarship Dinner. Prior to that, we met with campus directors of the Ethics Endowment to monitor progress of the endowment. Dr. Mike Gusmano is managing this program started by our class inspired by Pete Hagerman and Mike Hoben. Ed and I were joined by Andi Lucas at the meeting at which we reviewed budget, the current active Ethics-centered courses across the entire university as well as plans going forward. The pinnacle event of the program is the Hagerman Lecture wherein a major ethical topic is addressed. Our own research has suggested a facilitator knowledgeable about the sustainability of batteries for Electric Vehicles. We will continue to update progress of this endowment.
The Scholarship Dinner merits mention. We met with our current 1961 Scholar, Sally Wong, a senior moving on to KPMG as a financial analyst with no small thanks to us for the aid we provided. President Joe Helble ’82 conducted a panel with 5 members if a team working in Sierra Leone to aid poverty level folks in fields of health, water and education. The maturity level of students in reporting their results was far in excess of their 18-21 year ages.
The following day Ed and Paul remained for the Spring Senior Education Day with current issues as seen from selected faculty presenters featuring Taiwan history to present. Lunch featured a football update from the new head coach.
The closing presentation was a personal update of Lehigh’s strategic plan by President Helble going forward. He emphasized Lehigh’s philosophy to be the best in our area of core competency- interdisciplinary curriculums and alumni success. If you get the time, get back to a vibrant Lehigh that is doing a lot of great things in a very challenging environment in education.
