MANKATO — It wasn't one of those tear-filled, Oprah-reunion moments for Fred Dietrich and Edwin Sorebo. But it had been 50 years. And having the opportunity to say hello again was nice.
The two, members of Minnesota State University's class of 1956, last saw each other on graduation day. They came to their 50-year reunion hoping to see each other, and perhaps a few others.
"I thought I'd see (Dietrich) and another one," Sorebo says, having just finished a bag lunch in the courtyard of what used to be the girls dormitory. "But he just told me that other guy is dead."
Ah, the perils of a 50-year reunion. Still, most who attended Friday's gathering were thrilled that Minnesota State University has resurrected the class reunion idea.
For at least a decade, other priorities and different alumnioutreach efforts have resulted in there just not being many all-class reunions. Sure, groups have gathered. But not with the official red-carpet treatment the university's alumni affairs folks can give it.
So they're back, and who better to start with than the group 50th year? They also threw in the class of 1951, they say, because that class never had a 50-year reunion.
Nearly 400 invitations were sent out, and about 45 people responded.
The alumni who returned toured the current campus (which didn't exist when they attended Mankato State Teachers College), walked through the Colonial Square apartments (the old women's dorms), visited Old Main (their former campus) and took a bus ride to Minneopa Falls.
"For a group like this, they want to see a little slice of their past," says Cynthia Bemis Abrams, MSU's director of alumni relations and special events. "And Mankato has preserved so much."
While many showed up, some alums thought there should have been more.
"I was disappointed there weren't more of us here," said Luverne Bjerke, class of '51.
He sat at a table of alums who spent their Colonial Square courtyard lunches talking about old times.
Eventually, the conversation drifted to living quarters. They joked about the militant dormitory guard who scowled at any male that walked up to the door. And they remembered fondly how, at each place they found to live, there was a mother figure who made sure they didn't leave without having a good breakfast, or come home without a warm smile.
"I lived over on West Fifth Street," Bjerke said. "We had this beautiful little old lady and, boy, she really took care of us."
Abrams said they hope to bring more groups back to campus for reunions. But more often the gatherings will be of people who belonged to, say, the German Club, or all had the same major. In the next few months reunions are planned for track and field athletes, construction management majors and the Catholic Newman Center.
This new approach, in fact, is replacing some other modes of alumni outreach. The annual Taste of Mankato, for example, is no more. Abrams said that, while it always attracts a crowd, they're just not sure how effective it is in reaching alumni.
"We want to stay fresh with the ways in which we reach out to people," she said.
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