Reunion Synopsis (with Links to Photos)
by Helene WILLIAMS Spierman, Reunion Coordinator

What a terrific reunion; exhausting and fun! We had four events over three days, in which -- fittingly -- 61 classmates and another 20 or so guests participated.

The weekend began with a Friday evening drop-in event arranged by the Alumnae/i Association at the cocktail lounge, PS450, in Murray Hill. Twenty-four classmates and eight spouses attended.

Saturday, June 4th, was a glorious, sunny day, which was just the thing, since we had planned a luncheon on the water. Our alumnae-only luncheon cruise aboard Bateaux New York's glass-covered bateau-mouche was another wonderful event.  We embarked from Pier 61 at the Chelsea Piers. Good food, great views, camaraderie and sunshine (many of us ended up wearing sunglasses!) enhanced the mood; and conversation flowed. As our boat passed in front of the Statue of Liberty, we all posed for a group photo. And right after it was snapped, Marge Landsberg Goldsmith announced a "ceremony," which turned out to be a presentation to me of an elegant silver picture frame, engraved with my name and "With love and appreciation: 50th Reunion HCHS '61." There were also two enormous thank you cards signed by everyone on the Bateau.

After our cruise concluded, some classmates explored the High Line and the many art galleries near Chelsea Piers, while 18 of us took the Alumnae/i Association’s tour of the former high school on 68th Street. In spite of the extensive changes made there over the years, everyone found something to connect with.  (See photos taken by Sandy Pinker Herman, Gale Brinn McCall, and Rhoda Rothenberg Ferat, using the links to external sites, below.)

Saturday evening was a grand party at Marge Goldsmith's lovely apartment, with 52 classmates and 20 spouses/partners attending.  There was a "Faceboard" poster-board display of recent photos of a dozen classmates who missed the reunion (and here are two more that were sent later); messages from our Senior Advisors, Irving Kizner and Miriam Burstein '41, and classmate Pat Butler Surian; and a copy of the Herald Tribune article about our class trip to Washington, DC (available as a 4.2 MB Word document, upon request).  Marge Deissenberger Schmitt compiled a PowerPoint presentation of photos of many of us during our Hunter years, which ran continuously on a laptop.  (CDs of this were made available to the class.  Most of the attendees had pre-ordered it, as well as many who did not attend.)  Marge & I spent many hours decoding blurry faces.  We were joined at productively by Seyma Calihman, Mary Lechner Smoke, and others, and by two former teachers, Margot Polivy and Peggy Betz Perrin!

As usual at our reunions, we remembered those of our class who had passed away since our last reunion. Several people reminisced about Claire Harnan, who had died on April 18th of this year.  (Alumnotes ran a beautiful obituary on page 18 of the Fall 2011 edition.) We decided to present our Class Gift to the high school ($19,000) in memory of all of our classmates who had passed away.

We gathered in Marge's living room and sang through all of the songs from our very witty Senior Sing, with our Senior Class pianists, Janet Fensterer and Betty Berneck Belina, alternating at the piano (my musician husband, Leonard Lehrman, also helped out with accompaniments). An amazing thing happened: many of the husbands/partners joined in the singing!  When we came to the song extolling Miriam Burstein, we rehearsed, and then digitally recorded, her song, which was later burned onto a CD and mailed to her with some photos from the reunion. Someone's husband commented that the energy in the room was palpable.

The next morning, 23 of us made it to the Reunion at the "new" high school. Our presentation at the Alumnae/i Association General Assembly included reunion Treasurer Evelyn Eckstein Lieb's announcement of the $19,000 class contribution, and Leonore Tiefer spoke of the results of the class survey she generated using Surveymonkey. At the conclusion of the GA, Betty Belina accompanied the Alma Mater, while I led the singing before hopping onto the piano bench and accompanying "Sarah Maria Jones."  (Several of us stayed for the business meeting and voted in the election for AA Board members.)

Our first 50th Reunion planning meeting had been back in November 2009!  Heartfelt thanks to my committee, both in and ex-officio (sorry, Latin mavens), in alphabetical order: Carol Arndt Wolfe, for helping me keep my feet on the ground; Betty Berneck Belina, for de-rusting her fingers for the Sing at Marge's Saturday night and for the Alma Mater on Sunday; Margie Deissenberger Schmitt, for a gorgeous CD slide show of our lives during our Hunter years (and thanks to her husband, Al, who patiently took at least a dozen group shots on Sunday as he was handed camera after camera);  Evi Eckstein Lieb, who as Treasurer, knew what to do and did it independently; Janet Fensterer, who turned her professional schedule inside-out so she could be with us all day on Saturday, and for her great musicianship at Marge's; Lisa Harbatkin, for a Chelsea Piers site visit; Marge Landsberg Goldsmith, for solid advice, support, great party-planning, and for joining me for the initial Bateaux visit; Renee Pachter Cafiero, for her usual astute proofreading; Rhoda Rothenberg Ferat, for being Asst. Treasurer for Marge's party and Housing Organizer; Leonore Tiefer, for a GREAT survey; Angela Vona, for letting me bounce ideas off her and for support of a Friday night event, and for gathering "lovely ladies" of the class in various unofficial reunions; Jane Walk Meisel, for intelligent comments and for making the first contact with the Bateaux; Pat Williams, for moral support; and last but certainly not least, my husband Leonard, who came along on Saturday and joined in at the piano.

It was, by all accounts, a terrific reunion -- exhausting and fun! Thanks to the Alumnae/i Association, for  their planning and support.  Let us all stay healthy and see each other again in 2016!
Hunter College High School Class of 1961
50th Reunion - Synopsis and Index to Pages
Click here for Gale Brinn McCall's photos, or paste this in your browser: www.galemccall.net -- click on '50th Reunion."
Click here for photos by Sandy Pinker Herman, or paste this in your browser:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=310627789903%3A976741684&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee
This page was last updated: September 20, 2019