A nor'easter dumped 4.76 inches and brought raw cold. Members of the twenty-fifth reunion class were grateful for the souvenir fleece vests provided them. The Reverend Peter J. Gomes, Plummer professor of Christian morals and Pusey minister in the Memorial Church, conferred with the marshals of the senior class, who huddled with classmates under a tent in the Old Yard before the baccalaureate service. Considering the downpour, said Gomes, perhaps it would be convenient for the class to take a shortcut to the church, instead of the traditional, long route that passes by the statue of John Harvard. The choice was theirs, he said, but it did seem a shame to let a little rain dampen spirits in the year 2000.
Seniors take shelter before their baccalaureate procession.
James R. Schlesinger '50, Ph.D. '56, former secretary of defense and director of the CIA, after a service at Memorial Church that symbolically re-collected the living and dead of the class. In days within living memory, students shunned baccalaureate. Only 63 seniors listened. By 1980 the church was full of students and their families and friends. Now, not even the Deluge will keep seniors away.