Reunion #6

Classes of 
the '50's

Hosted by 
Bill and Karel Deibel

Theta Deuteron of 
Theta Delta Chi

Seattle,
Washington
 


September 24th - 27th
2009
What a splendid reunion it was!

 Of course there was us, the scintillating attendees.   And the sparkle of the city of Seattle.  And bright, crisp, weather.  But what made it all actually work so very well was the gracious hosting provided by Bill and Karel.  The activities they chose for us were particularly interesting and, importantly, carefully structured such that we could stay together while enjoying them.  Their organization of the events:  the thorough planning, the detailed communication (primarily via a SUPER website built by Bill) and the flawlessly smooth logistics they arranged for getting us all around, were the product of a huge investment of time and effort.  We owe them a very large debt of gratitude for all they did for us.
Most importantly, even over the distance of a half-century, the bonds of brotherhood showed themselves to be undiminished.

Click here to see "portraits" of the reunees

Click here to see photos of the events


Our Seattle Reunion was all that we had hoped it would be.  The weather held very nicely, the events all went smoothly and proved to be interesting, but most importantly, the bonds of brotherhood showed themselves to be undiminished.
_______________________________
Click a chapter's illustration below to see the pix of that event.
We launched our reunion on Thursday evening
with a very pleasant reception and dinner chez Deibel. 


The next day we were brought by private bus to the Museum of Flight
(which holds among its many fascinations the awesome Blackbird),
and were guided there by a senior docent who serendipitously
was a “seasoned” (like us) graduate of MIT 


We had a free afternoon of doing on-your-own touristy things
(Space Needle, Duck rides, Pike Street Market,
the attractions of the Historic District, etc)


Friday evening we regrouped for dinner at the Pike Brewing Company, which is
 owned by two of Bill and Karel's personal friends.  Charming and gracious folks,
they gave our group not just dinner, but a private tour featuring
  an entertaining presentation of their processes of brewing.
. 


On Saturday morning we boarded a private bus, which drove us, via a ferry across Puget Sound, to Bremerton.

What a gorgeous trip that was!   As we waited for the ferry, Bill administered to us a quiz, penned by Bob Reichard,
about our Good Ol' days at Theta Deut.  (Bob alas could not be with us, but in the midst
 of the quiz, he was able to address us over the bus PA system through a cell phone).


  At Bremerton we visited the Naval Undersea Museum


......then Saturday afternoon, we toured the
luscious gardens of the Bloedell Reserve.

Dinner that night was at the The Coldwater Bar & Grill in the Westin Hotel, downtown.
 


Our farewell brunch Sunday morning was in Oliver's Lounge in our
“headquarters” hotel, the venerable Mayflower Park in the center of downtown. 
It was here that the volunteering (by enthusiastic election) of
* Ron Lieber! *                          
to be tsar of our 2011 reunion (in St Louis), took place.

As in all our previous reunions, a most enjoyable (the events), and deeply satisfying (the renewal of friendship) experience was had by all, and we're very much looking forward to our next gathering.
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Bonus sections:
        - Take the [CLICK] wallow-in-nostalgia Quiz created by Bob Reichard for the reunees!
- Marvel at the  [CLICK] side-by-side comparisons of how we looked Then versus Now (well... not exactly now, but in 2000, at our San Francisco reunion);   

- AND see our  [CLICK] 1950's class photos, including nostalgia collections from back in the day
    (provided by Jack Cronin, Bruce Martin and Brandon LeRoy Rigney).

- Tom McClimans graciously made a fun video of the action and put it on a DVD for us.   I  posted it [CLICK]  to our site, whence it can be downloaded for viewing. 
  The DVD works on my Mac though only by using a VLC Player, but the same files, after being posted, won't stream at all when accessed by my Mac
  and have to be downloaded.   Maybe those of you with PCs will have better luck (the actual video files are those ending in ".VOB".)


Links to the sites of previous reunions:
- Fredericksburg Virginia:  September 13th through 16th 2007, Hosted by Bill and Joan Rice
- Estes Park Colorado:  September 8th through 11th, 2005.   Hosted by John and Pat Stem
- Phoenix Arizona,  March 27th through 31st, 2002.   Hosted by Dave and Sheila Hill
- San Francisco California, October 26th through 29th, 2000.   Hosted by Tom and Bev Marlow
- Hilton Head South Carolina, March 26th  through 28th.  Hosted by Joe and Jane Carty  * 


Links to our "Perry's Stories":

- "Perry's Stories" - thumbnail bios of several members of our group.  These were inspired by Perry's comment early in our reunion series: 
    "What a lot of interesting stories there must be about the people in this room".    CLICK HERE to read the "stories" gathered so far.
(Additional contributions will be WARMLY welcomed!)
And speaking of Perry:
- Here's the REAL history of the measurement of Harvard Bridge in Smoot-lengths