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Fellow
Bulldog Alumni,
World
around, the holiday season is here again. It’s time
for the hustle and bustle as we make preparations to reunite
with family and friends in celebration.
In
this spirit of reunion, I pause to reflect upon how often
this past
summer
and fall our alumni groups returned to Big Rapids both to rekindle memories
and to experience the Ferris campus as it is today. (The place has changed
just a
little from the days when it was the Ferris Institute, then Ferris State
College!)
And
Alumni found plenty to do when they returned:
- Former
Racquetball Club team members enjoyed a summer weekend
together, playing
on the courts of the Racquet and Fitness Center (which
they agreed
beat the old
courts in the basement of the Alumni Building). They also hit the
links at Katke Golf Course and had a dinner reunion near
campus. Alumna Linda Willets,
along
with former club advisor and current faculty and staff members Marilyn
Keigley and Jan Nash, organized the festivities.
- Members
from the 1967 HVACR class led by alumni Pete Peterson
and Irv Derks enjoyed
a luncheon reunion and tour of the new Granger Center
for Construction and HVACR.
Those who attended are already making plans to celebrate their
30-year reunion on campus in 2007.
- Professional
Golf Management Alumni returned to campus in October
for the annual
Wilson PGM Student Association/Alumni golf outing at Katke. This
outstanding networking opportunity for PGM students and alumni is a tradition
that has continued
for more 20 years, with proceeds benefiting the PGMSA.
- Also
this past October, at Homecoming 2004, several groups
of alumni
held reunions, including former student employees for
University
Recreation, alumni from the
Applied Speech Communications program and Black Alumni.
We
all have friendships or affiliations, formal or informal,
which played an important role in our Ferris experience.
Perhaps
now
is the time to
get those
important people you haven’t seen for a while together
to celebrate an anniversary and to experience Ferris anew.
The campus awaits you and the Alumni
Office stands ready to help with your reunion planning.
‘Tis
the season to be thankful, and I want to close by expressing
my own heartfelt thanks to everyone who has supported Ferris
this year with their loyalty,
time and resources. As Woodbridge N. Ferris wrote in
his holiday greeting of 1920, “The gifts that make
life worth living (are) a letter, a word of good cheer,
a smile to father, mother, brother, sister, wife, husband,
neighbor,
the stranger, and the afflicted. Those gifts make glad
the giver.”
We
look forward to celebrating with you a new year of educational
opportunity and growth of the
Ferris family
in 2005. Best wishes for an outstanding New Year,
Jeremy J.
Mishler, E’96 |
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