2024 Alumni Day Highlights

By Alan Usas '71, Class Tech Chair

I try to make it to Alumni Day on the Princeton Campus each year and not just because it's easily combined with a trip to Philadelphia to visit the grandkids. The only thing that can spoil an Alumni Day is terrible weather. Given it's held in February in central New Jersey, there's always a chance for that to occur. But in 2024 the day was overcast and cool within normal limits. Karen and I arrived Friday afternoon and caught a showing of American Fiction on Route 1 (Terrific movie!) followed by a delicious dinner at Osteria Procaccini in nearby Pennington.

Parking was easy on Saturday morning with plenty of no-cost space at the Station Drive Garage near the Dinky station and Wawa. The morning session in Alexander Hall began promptly and for the next 2+ hours we were treated to a lineup of undergraduate, graduate, and alumni experts who each dazzled us with their achievements and presentations. The two featured talks were given by Madison Award winner John Fitzpatrick *78, director emeritus of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, who delivered “Wild Birds Are Canaries, and Our Planet Is the Coal Mine,” and Wilson Award winner Fei-Fei Li ’99, co-director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, who spoke on “What We See and What We Value: AI With a Human Perspective." Each in their own way opened our minds to an unfamiliar field (ornithology for me) and greatly added to my understanding of one closer to my own work (AI). For those unable to attend, the University has made recordings available for viewing here (scroll down to find the video). I highly recommend them to you.

Following the session, one of Princeton's fleet of electric buses transported us down to Jadwin for a reception and lunch. The Class of '71 had a nice turnout and the following were in attendance or spotted during the day: Bill Armiger and Diane, Paul Fitzgerald, Jeff Hammond, David Lyon, Sandy McAdoo, Kathy Molony, David Schankler, Tina Sung, Debbie Tegarden, and Alan Usas and Karen.

During lunch we heard campus updates from President Eisgruber '83, the new Provost Jennifer Rexford '94, and Dozie Ibeh, Associate VP for Capital Projects on the still ongoing numerous construction projects on campus. Molly Treuman '24 entertained us with an original song "Swimming" and talked about her time as a music student at Princeton. You can view her performance in the Photo Gallery linked below.

For us the next event was the always-moving Service of Remembrance honoring those Princetonian whose deaths were recorded in the past year. The classmates named in the program for '71 were Herbert Beck, Tim Empkie, John Garretson, Rich Hollingsworth, Peter Kozma, Eldon Loblein, William London, Eric Ordway, Jay Pottenger, and Juanita Ray Crane. Our class was represented in the procession by Kathy Molony '71 (widow of Rich Hollingsworth '71). I felt tears in my eyes as she stopped in the aisle to kiss her daughter Elizabeth Hollingsworth '09 on the way to the chancel. A recording of the service is available on this page.

Other campus events occurred during the afternoon, too. We stopped by the Closing Reception in the Chancellor Green Rotunda for delicious hors d'oeuvres and a toast to the 20th anniversary of the Princeton Prize in Race Relations.

I highly recommend Alumni Day for a mid-winter visit to the Princeton Campus. See you there in 2025!

Photos of the 2024 Alumni Day can be viewed in the Class Photo Gallery here.