Bucknell University will welcome more than 2,300 alumni and family members to campus for its annual Reunion Weekend May 31 to June 3. Reunions will be celebrated for class years ending in 3 and 8, as well as all classes who graduated more than 50 years ago.
Bucknellians coming back to campus will enjoy activities ranging from all-class celebrations and class-year events to trolley and Segway tours of campus; Bucknell 360° classroom sessions; and outdoor activities including paddle board, canoe and kayak trips on the Susquehanna River, a hike at Dale’s Ridge, and a golf tournament.
Special events include the Freeman College of Management’s Friday morning real estate series; a reunion celebrating the College of Engineering’s 125th anniversary; a tour of the Animal Behavior Facility celebrating the 50th anniversary of the program; and a ribbon-cutting ceremony and naming of Davis Hall, one of the South Campus Apartment buildings, in honor of a gift by Frank Davis ’82, P’13 and Elena Davis P’13. A complete list of special events and celebrations can be found here.
The weekend also will include the presentation of the Bucknell Alumni Association Awards during the invitation-only President’s Leadership Breakfast on Saturday morning, June 2. Recipients include:
- Joann Golightly Brown ’48, the 1948 Class Reporter for the last 70 years who has attended every Reunion since graduation and is a perennial volunteer for her reunion committee, will receive the Loyalty to Bucknell Award.
- James A. Geiling ’78, an intensivist, hospitalist and professor of medicine at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine who served 25 years in the Army’s Medical Corps and is an avid worldwide volunteer, will receive the Outstanding Achievement in a Chosen Profession Award.
- Peter Balakian ’73, The Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities, professor of English and director of creative writing at Colgate University who won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his book Ozone Journal, will receive the Service to Humanity Award.
- Jaynemarie Enyonam Angbah ’03, who has spent more than a decade as an adjunct lecturer, curriculum developer, cultural competence consultant, educator and school-based therapist, most recently at Boys & Girls Clubs of America, will receive the Young Alumni Award.
The exhibit Beautiful War by Bucknell art professor Eddy López will be on view Thursday and Friday from noon to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Samek Art Museum’s Downtown Gallery, 416 Market Street.
Through the Years, a collection of photographs and other materials from the University Archives collection, will be displayed in Bertrand Library, Lower Level 1, during the library’s open hours, Thursday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Weekend’s Bison Blast celebration will begin at 9 p.m. on Saturday featuring music from the band UGO. Weather permitting, the day will wrap up with late-night fireworks beginning at 10:30 p.m. Community members should be aware that the fireworks may last until 11 p.m.
Reunion Weekend comes to a close on Sunday with a 10 a.m. service of worship, remembrance and celebration, an interfaith service in which all alumni, faculty and staff who passed away in the past year will be remembered.
The Lewisburg community is invited to join several of these events during the weekend including Bucknell 360° sessions; an open house at Startup Lewisburg, Bucknell’s entrepreneurs incubator; the exhibit at Samek Art Museum’s Downtown Gallery; and Sunday’s service at Rooke Chapel.
The complete schedule is available here.