If you missed the champagne bars, fireworks, and giant cake, don’t despair. We just published a gallery of photos from Toast to Tech, the culmination of MIT’s sesquicentennial celebration. Head over to the Alumni Association website to take a look, or click on the photo below. To get a real taste of the action, pop open a bottle of bubbly and eat a cupcake while you peruse the pictures.
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The photo galleries are up! Enjoy images from the highest-attended reunions ever. There are also shots of the 50th reunion Class of 1961 as well as highlights to read. For your added pleasure, even more photos below. It’s like you’ve hit the jackpot.
The Toast to Tech party, attended by some 8,000 members of the MIT community, was a highlight of the weekend. Photo: Dominick Reuter.
Tom Scholz '69 of the Platinum-Award-winning band Boston donned a cape as he played Symphony Hall's historic pipe organ. Going strong for 114 years, Tech Night at Pops is MIT's longest-running reunion tradition. Photo: Dominick Reuter.
The MIT10 reception provided an opportunity for young alumni to meet each other and explore the MIT Museum. Photo: Darren McCollester.
President Susan Hockfield (center) talking with alumni and guests at the 25th reunion brunch. Photo: Darren McCollester.
From left: Class of 1961 classmates Susana Ravecca-Figoli, Marla Moody, Susan Kannenberg, Karlene Gunter, and Marion Weiner Berger prepare to march in the Commencement Procession. They were among 80% of 1961 alumnae who attended this 50th reunion. Photo: Darren McCollester.
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It took six decorators and two bakers more than a week to build MIT’s biggest birthday cake ever. The result? A 24-foot long masterpiece that looked as good as it tasted. Watch the video to see how it all came together. Happy 150th MIT!
This year’s Reunion Row had a lot going for it: It was a beautiful day–blue skies and warm sun–and the rowers were in great spirits after a weekend of exploring, reconnecting, and celebrating the Institute’s 150th.
View footage of the race, which consisted of one final heat using eight-man shells and began at the near side of the Harvard Bridge, finished at the end of the boathouse pier.
Last month, the Alumni Association held a contest seeking the best original toast to be read at the MIT150 finale spectacular, Toast to Tech. Nearly 350 people submitted entries. Some were funny, some were sentimental, some waxed poetic. More than a few contained a sweetly nostalgic rendering of the belief that “Tech is hell.”
Joe Harrington ’61, senior VP of the 50th reunion class, delivered the winning toast.
Eventually, the field was winnowed down with one winner and four finalists selected by a panel of distinguished judges: Pulitzer Prize winners Junot Diaz and John Harbison, Professor and STS Director David Mindell PhD ’96, President Emeritus Paul Gray ’54, SM ’55, SCD ’60, and retired New York Times journalist Karen Arenson ’70.
All toasts were displayed at the event, and the winning words were read to a crowd of some 6,000 by Joe Harrington ’61, senior VP of the 50th reunion class.
Without further ado, the top five.
Winning Toast
Sometimes we speak a language others do not understand. We fail more often than we succeed. But then in the quiet of a roaring crowd, a glimmer of thought changes the world. MIT—believing the impossible, creating the unknown, providing hope for future generations…making Marks In Time. That’s MIT. Here’s to MIT!
—By Deslie Webb Quinby MBA ’95, Atlanta, GA
Finalists (in alphabetical order)
MIT…a three-letter acronym implying Merit, Intelligence and Transcendence worldwide…
MIT…where Multi Interdisciplinary Tasks of any sort can be done…
MIT…that put our Mood In Test when so much cramming time we spent…
MIT…a Make-It-True drive for a better world in years to come!
—By Luis A. Bonfanti SM ’97, Buenos Aires, Argentina
To MIT or not MIT, that is the Logic Gate.
Whether tis better for the Mind to suffer the Pings of Outrageous Ignorance, Or take our
Synapses to heights of Great Potential Ay, there’s the nub.
To Dream, to Learn…perchance to Hack.
Tis an Outcome devoutly to be Wished.
—By Thomas C. DeCanio SM ’77, New York, NY
—By Ilya Gorodisher ’85, SM ’86, PhD ’90, Stillwater, MN
May we all drink champagne as we drank from the firehouse—with passion, laughter, friendship, and curiosity. May we stay young in our quest for exploration and adventure and revel in the remarkable unknown surrounding us, as only MIT could have prepared us to do. Keep that firehouse gushing forever!
—By Grethe B. Holby ’71, MAR ’73, New York, NY
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MIT150 spelled out on the Prudential Center offered a stunning backdrop to fireworks shot over the Charles River on Saturday, June 4.
In case you missed it, MIT and the Alumni Association threw an AMAZING party Saturday night, Toast to Tech, to cap off 150 days of sesquicentennial celebrations. The Pru was lit up with MIT150 (see it in the video), there was music, dancing, a cake that had more paparazzi swarming it than the Hollywood icon of the week, and wearable glow sticks. Oh yeah, and fireworks! Enjoy a taste of them below (the end, always the best part). The band, Boston City Rhythm, was improvising the music during the display, if you can believe it. Read more about the event as well as the cake.
As for the Prudential Center lighting, MIT150 appeared in windows from the 32nd to the 49th floor: 86 spelled out MIT and 99 spelled out 150. It took more than 20 people some 3 hours to create the message.
And stay tuned. We are working furiously to bring you full Tech Reunions coverage.
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A reproduction of the cover for the musical score of the 1954 production Suspended in Air. Tom Doherty ’56, Jack Bacon ’56, and Arnold Levine ’53 wrote the lyrics, and John Hsia ’53 and Norman Telles ’51 composed the music. About 150 people helped with the production. Three of the four women in the cast were undergrads at Emerson College. The fourth was an MIT secretary.
As Tech Reunions approach, we start to get nostalgic here in the Alumni Association. So I was delighted to learn of the ditty known as “My Mother Was a Tech Coed,” first sung at the 1954 Tech Show, which was a staging of a musical comedy called Suspended in Air.
According to the Institute Archives, from 1899 to 1969 the annual Tech Show was quite a production. At first it was an operetta, minstrel show, or vaudeville revue. This morphed into elaborate and expensive original muscial comedy productions staged in Boston. In 1955, the show moved to the newly opened Kresge Auditorium until the final staging. In 1970, the Tech Show merged with the Gilbert and Sullivan Society and the MIT Classical Music Society to form the MIT Musical Theater Guild.
A reviewer for The Tech dubbed “My Mother Was a Tech Coed,” a song-and-dance routine performed by George Marcou ’53, MCP ’55; George Perry ’56; and David Rados ’55; the best number in the show, saying that while it was undoubtedly corny, “it was also tuneful, fast moving, and a delight to watch and listen to.”
So without further ado, I give you the lyrics, which I found on a website celebrating all things McCormick Hall. There are some other songs on there too.
My Mother Was a Tech Coed
She never held me on her knee
But she was all the world to me
That lady with the pointed head
My Mother was a Tech coed.
Couldn’t cook, she couldn’t sew,
But she could fix a radio
She used T-squares to make a bed
My Mother was a Tech coed.
She gave her fingernails a hue
By dipping them in Thymol Blue
Her lips were dyed with Cresol Red.
My Mother was a Tech coed.
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Guest blogger: Bob Ferrara ’67, senior director for strategic planning, communications, and alumni relations, Division of Student Life
L to R: Ray Magliozzi '72, Ron Faccenda '68, Stan Zdonik '70, and George Swift '69 pose at the NRSA reunion.
Perhaps the most exceptional of all the living group receptions hosted at Tech Reunions 2010 was the event organized by alumni of an organization that has not existed for the last 25 years. Alumni from the mid-80s and earlier may remember the Non-Resident Student Association, which was headquartered in a row house on Memorial Drive next to McCormick Hall. NRSA was the commuters’ “fraternity,” a thriving bunch known not only for their great intramural hockey teams but also for their excellent parties. Alumni from the 1950s and before knew this group as the 5:15 Club, from the departure time of an important train from North Station. When the group was first organized back in the early 1930s, almost a third of MIT students commuted from home.
Thanks to the determined efforts of past NRSA presidents Allen Clark ’63, SM ’65, PhD ’69; Steve Corman ’58, SM ’61; Dave Williams ’61; and others, a hugely successful reunion was organized this June. Some 40 NRSA alums (from as far away as Italy) attended, including the renowned Magliozzi brothers, Tom ’58 and Ray ’72, of “Car Talk” fame. Both grew up near MIT in East Cambridge.
Building on their successful reunion, the 5:15/NRSA alumni have created a new Web site, written the first history of the organization, and even compiled a near complete list of all past presidents of the group. Allen, his wife, Claudia, Steve, and Dave did a lot of homework to find contact information, but if for some reason you or a friend were missed, please contact the group. Future reunions are definitely in the works.
For history buffs, here’s a look at the group’s lifespan:
1933–1959: The 5:15 Club, an organization serving student commuters, is founded.
1956–1959: A second group, the Commuter Association, is formed with offices on the second floor of Walker Memorial.
1959–1966: The two groups combine to form the Non-Resident Student Association (NRSA). They are recognized as an Independent Living Group with offices at 318 Memorial Drive.
1966–1986: The group moves to 311 Memorial Drive to make way for McCormick Hall expansion and is then disbanded due to low number of commuters.
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Check out all the action from Commencement and Tech Reunions on the Alumni Association’s new media galleries, which allow you to quickly indicate which photos and videos you especially like, search galleries by filters, and see related content.
More galleries will be added in the coming days as we make the transition to the new system, so keep checking back.
View a Reunions overview gallery, which includes shots from the Tech Challenge Games and Tech Night at the Pops (additional photos are below), among other festivities, as well as a gallery from the Class of 1960′s 50th reunion, where they donned their red jackets for the first time. Also read more highlights from the weekend.
Cheering on the orange team at the Tech Challenge Games.
Tech Night at the Pops is a rousing family affair. And there are balloons!
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Greg Tao '10 stands with his father, Bernard Tao '76, SM '77, in front of a floor board in Burton-Conner. Photo: Liv Gold.
A couple weeks ago the Alumni Association ran a story about Bernard and Greg Tao, a father-son pair who went to MIT (though decades apart), lived in Burton-Conner, and had rooms on the same floor. Slice paid a visit to the Taos the day before commencement and took a few photos in their old hall, which is lined with photo collages–called floor boards–from previous years.
Floor boards from the late 1970s showed a grinning Bernard Tao ’76, SM ’77; more recent boards showed an equally smiley Greg Tao ’10. Read the original story, and then get a glimpse of the boards in the slideshow below. (Caption information available on Flickr.)
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