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"Simply Unprecedented"
This year's reunioners "have blown the lid off" class giving, said Robert G. Stone Jr. '45, Senior Fellow of the Harvard Corporation, in his report on University resources during the annual meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association. Nine classes made record gifts to the Harvard College Fund. Five donated more than $10 million each. (Only two classes reached that goal last year.) By the close of Commencement week, the total contribution from all 14 reunion classes of 1996 stood at $97,621,292.

The record-breaking classes included the newest alumni, the class of 1996, who raised $44,000; the fifth reunion class of 1991, with a gift of $283,558; the fifteenth reunion class, 1981, who gave $2,490,956; and the twentieth reunion class of 1976, who raised $4,865,666. The class of 1941, meanwhile, doubled the previous record for a fifty-fifth reunion gift with a contribution of $8,175,903.

The "10-million-dollar club" included the class of 1961, who gave $11,619,000; the class of 1936, who more than tripled the sixtieth reunion record with $14,002,618; the class of 1966, whose $16,660,307 more than doubled their twenty-fifth reunion gift; the current twenty-fifth reunioners, who gave a record $10,336,000; and the class of 1946, who gave $15,175,000.

The five-year University Campaign, Stone reported, has already raised $1.2 billion, more than half its $2.1 billion goal. But even that extraordinary response, he said, leaves University fundraisers with a very long way to go. And so, 70 years after the Harvard College Fund first began systematically to involve alumni in the financing of higher education, Stone urged his audience to take their part in "a very special opportunity�to help prepare Harvard for educational leadership into the next century and beyond."

The Medalists
The HAA commended the "extraordinary service to the University" of three alumni this year by awarding them the Harvard Medal. Amey Amory DeFriez '49 chaired the Radcliffe Board of Trustees from 1980 to 1990 and is a vigorous fundraiser for the University. Former Overseer Robert Barker '36 was vice chairman of the Campaign Volunteers Major Gifts Committee. Former Overseer and HAA elected director Charles F. Adams '32, at the age of 86, continues to sit on Boston's major gifts steering committee. In their honor, the following citations were read by President Rudenstine at the HAA's annual meeting.

For Amey Amory DeFriez '49-Daughter of New England and leader of Radcliffe's Board of Trustees, you have been a discerning advocate and unwavering champion of the advancement of women at Harvard and Radcliffe.

For Robert Barker '36-Former president of the Board of overseers and the Harvard Club of New York City, you have served Harvard with an extraordinary spirit of generosity and the deepest understanding of human creativity.

And for Charles F. Adams '32-Scion of American presidents, Harvard overseer, and corporate citizen of the world, you have ever fixed your sights upon this university's highest goals and given fully of yourself to Harvard for more than half a century.

Alumni Elections
The deputy general counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Ren�e M. Landers '77, is president of the Board of Overseers for 1996-97. A list of her newly elected colleagues and of the newly elected directors of the HAA follows. Results were announced June 6.

Elected to six-year terms as Overseers:

Richard E. Oldenburg '54, of New York City, chairman of Sotheby's North America.

J. Michael Bishop, M.D. '62 (A.B. '57 Gettysburg College), of San Francisco, professor and research scientist at the University of California at San Francisco.

Robert D. Reischauer '63 (Ph.D. '71 Columbia), of Washington, D.C., senior fellow in the economic studies program, The Brookings Institution.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D. '68 (B.A. '64 Colby College), of Concord, Mass., historian and political commentator.

Woodrow A. Myers Jr., M.D. '77 (B.S. '73, M.B.A. '82 Stanford), of Dearborn, Mich., physician and director, Health Care Management, Ford Motor Company.

Elected to three-year terms as HAA directors:

J. Barry Vaughn '78 (M.Div. '82 Yale, Ph.D. '90 University of St. Andrews, Scotland), of Eutaw, Ala., rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church and adjunct professor of history, University of Alabama.

Roger W. Ferguson Jr. '73, J.D. '79, Ph.D. '81, of New York City, partner and director of research and information, McKinsey & Co. Inc.

Roxane Harvey Gudeman '62 (Ed.M. '64, Ph.D. '81 University of Minnesota), of St. Paul, lecturer in the department of psychology, Macalester College.

Alan D. Bersin '68 (J.D. '74 Yale), of San Diego, U.S. attorney for the southern district of California.

Selma M. Gomez '85, S.M. '85, S.M. '89, M.B.A.-Ph.D. '91 of Miami, director of international trade and customs services, KPMG Peat Marwick.

David K.Y. Tang '75 (J.D. '79 Columbia), of Seattle. Attorney and managing partner, Preston, Gates & Ellis.

Voter participation was 18.9 percent, with 34,674 ballots cast of the roughly 180,000 mailed. To suggest possible nominees for next year's slates, send the names and supporting information to Charles L. Brock, J.D. '67, AMP '79, chairman, Overseers-Directors Nominating Committee, Harvard Alumni Association, Wadsworth House, Cambridge 02138.

At the Head of Their Classes
Harvard's ninth oldest alumnus, Joseph Goldstein '18, now 101, and Evelyn Baird Hoffman '20, at 96, led this year's alumni procession.

Besides Goldstein, the oldest living alumni are Ann Van Ness Merriam '14, 104 (Augusta, Me.); Hamilton Vaughan Bail '13, 104 (Medford, N.J.); Lina W. Berle '13, 102 (Washington, D.C.); A. Latrobe Carroll '18, 102 (Stamford, Conn.); Hester Newhall Brown '16, 101 (Charleston, W. Va.); Frances Mary Connolly '18, 101 (Chelsea, Mass.); Stephen Charles Mahan '19, 101 (Middlebury, Vt.); Elizabeth Maxwell Sabin '17, 101 (Hingham, Mass.); Wilmon Brewer '17, 101 (Hingham, Mass.); Thomas R. Morse '18, 101 (Andover, Mass.); and Dorothy Summers Green '17, 100 (Hingham, Mass.).

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