Wharton Alumni Return for May Reunions Diverse Graduates Compare Wharton Past and Present
“I still remember the huge computer in Vance Hall to which we used to feed punch cards,” recalls Catherine Bonnier Grossman, WG’80, now a Vice President of J.P. Morgan.
“Seeing these study rooms, the computers — I’m just amazed,” echoed C. Donna Chapman-Wilson, WG’85, as she toured Huntsman Hall. “When I was a student we typed our papers on typewriters. I keep asking, ‘Where am I?’”
On May 13-16, 2005, former Wharton students returned to campus, taking the opportunity to reflect on changes over the past eight decades and to march as part of an alumni processional that welcomed the newest Wharton MBAs to the ranks of alumni.
Alumni Processional Becomes a Tradition
In its second year, the processional linked generations of Wharton graduates on the most joyous day of the academic calendar. More than 40 alumni — representing classes from 1950 through 2000 — donned mortarboards and black robes to march from Houston Hall to Franklin Field and welcome the class of 2005.
Gerardo Hamilton, WG’80, waited 25 years to walk onto Franklin Field wearing a cap and gown. The director of MX Promo, an advertising specialties firm in Mexico City, Hamilton missed his own ceremony in 1980 because he finished his coursework in the summer. In Philadelphia for his 25th reunion, Hamilton explained, “For me, it’s like I’m graduating 25 years to the day from when I should have been there. As life goes on, you need these memories.”
Chapman-Wilson helped organize the African-American Alumni reception on May 14, which she hopes will become an annual event. “I started calling people to come simply because we’d lost contact with each other,” she recalls. “I noticed that the African-American MBA Association started an online network, and since most of my classmates were not yet in it, I wanted to help them reconnect.”
“After a few years,” Chapman-Wilson reflects, “the quantitative lessons go away and what stays with you are the life lessons. Some of the classes I quote most often have nothing to do with my discipline, but have more to do with working with people. I learned about people skills, negotiation, shareholder value — all of which help me now in my work with clients. Everybody I talked to over the weekend said that this school changed them. At Wharton, everything just expands — your relationships, your knowledge, your outlook.”
Alumni Span Ages and Experiences
Only five years out of Wharton, Assaf Tarnopolsky, WG’00, already has an historical perspective on the heady era of the dot-com boom. “It was a crazy time to be at Wharton. Businesses were growing at an unbelievable rate and it was exciting to be at this incredible school alongside bright, motivated people.”
Although Tarnopolsky had a high-ranking position at an Israeli-based startup before he came to Wharton, he felt he lacked the business knowledge to feel confident in his job. Fortunately, Wharton’s core curriculum brought him up to speed. “For someone like me who came from a nontraditional background, Wharton offered a solid base of fundamentals. I had never encountered statistics before, and I came away with the ability to perform complicated analysis.”
Few alumni could appreciate Wharton’s history as well as 101-year-old Henry Gartner, W’25, in town for his 80th reunion, who noted: “I’d say the campus has changed about as much as automobiles have changed since the invention of the original model T.”
Gartner had last been on campus for his 75th reunion, when, he recalled, it rained on the parade. This year, leading the Old Guard in the sunny Saturday afternoon’s Parade of Classes, he was enthusiastic to be back at Wharton. “I never expected to attend my 80th reunion. It’s absolutely overwhelming, but I’m thrilled.”
From a distance, it was hard to tell who had graduated that day and whose student days were a half-century in the past. Only the Wharton colors stood out, bringing together past, present, and future.
(This feature was adapted from the alumni reunion coverage in the Wharton Alumni Magazine.)
