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A Welcome from Alumni
By Kelly J. Andrews
The Alumni Processional becomes a tradition in its second year.
Gerardo Hamilton, WG'80, waited
25 years to walk onto Franklin
Field wearing a cap and gown. At
Wharton's graduation on May 15,
2005, he finally got his chance.
He marched as part of an Alumni Processional to
welcome the newest Wharton MBAs into the ranks
of alumni. In its second year, the processional is
a tradition in the making, linking generations of
Wharton graduates on the most joyous day on the
academic calendar. Sixty alumni—representing
every reunion class from 1950 to 2000—donned
mortarboards and black robes to march from
Houston Hall to Franklin Field and greet the class
of 2005.
Hamilton, the director of MX Promo, an advertising specialties
firm in Mexico City, completed his coursework during
the summer of 1980, so he just missed participating in the
May ceremony with his 1980 MBA classmates. He always
regretted it. In Philadelphia for his 25th reunion, Hamilton
said, "For me, it's like I'm graduating from Wharton 25 years
to the day when I should have been there. As life goes on,
you need these memories."
At an alumni brunch before the procession, friends Tony
Asmann and John Kaufman, both WG'55, flipped through
the graduation program Asmann had carefully preserved. In
1955, the University of Pennsylvania's graduation unfolded
on a hot, steamy day in the Civic Center. They recalled how
they sweltered in their academic regalia, waiting for their
class of about a hundred new
MBAs to stand together and
be recognized as a group at
the University-wide ceremony.
Now friends for 50 years, the
two men returned to Wharton
from Chester County, PA, to
march again.
Helen Lowe Eliason,
of Wilmington, DE, and
Lorene Myers Southworth, of
Allentown, PA, both WG'50,
came to see the changes in
Wharton. They recalled that
as the only women in their
MBA class, they encountered
resentment from classmates
and faculty alike. Said Eliason,
"If there were two empty seats in the lecture hall, they were
on either side of us." Standing in line next to them to receive
her academic gown, Lawana Weldon Dumas, WG'85, a
marketing director from Haverford, PA, remembers that few
such divisions existed by the time she graduated. Wharton's
student body—then, as now, highly diverse—had ensured
that everyone was open to new ideas.
Thomas Sebring, WG'55, bypassed other reunion events,
but took the train from Paoli, PA, to participate in graduation.
"When I was invited, I thought it was a wonderful
idea," he said. "It's very meaningful to make connections
across generations." Standing along Franklin Field, he
held the satin banner for his class as Wharton's new MBAs
streamed past. From a distance, it was hard to tell who had
graduated that day and whose student days were a half-century
in the past, or even who was female or male. Only the
colors stood out—black robes adorned with gold, red, and
Wharton blue.
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