Letter from 45^th Reunion Gift Chair

Dear Class of 1963 Classmate,

The 2008 academic year is underway, and 2008 marks our 45^th Reunion! Enter June 6-9 in your “Palm”, check you frequent flyer miles and plan to be at the Class-of-1963 Reunion.

Part of every reunion celebration is a Class Gift and the Class of 1963 gift campaign is officially underway. Our Class has a truly spectacular record as to the total value of our gifts, but the percentage of us that participate at all has been just average over the years except for once. Our campaign’s goal is to get as much of the class as possible to participate, so we can proudly announce our collective effort to President Hockfield, to ourselves and to the other alumni attending Tech Day during our Reunion.

Every gift is: fundamental to our success as a class, a vote of support for MIT and even affects MIT standings in the various college ratings. Any gift to MIT will count toward our class total and you can designate your gift to any of the thousands of funds for almost anything you value at MIT. You might consider giving to the Class of 63 Scholarship Fund or the Class of 63 Student Live Fund.

Visit http://giving.mit.edu/reunions to make your gift now or to learn more about our class projects and reunion giving.

In the months between now and June, you will receive updates on Reunion plans and Reunion Gift campaign progress. In celebration of our reaching the 45^th milestone, I invite and encourage you to join us.

Best wishes,

Martin Schrage ‘63

Class of 1963 Reunion Gift Chair40th Reunion Gift Update and Letter from Bob Johnson

40th Reunion Class Gift Chairman

The Reunion Gift Committee is chaired by Bob Johnson.

Tempus Fugit

They say: Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans. While you contemplate whether to make the trip back to Cambridge in June, your reunion committee has been hard at work planning a wonderful, lively, interesting, and entertaining set of events.

The 35th reunion begins on Thursday night, June 4, with Tech Night at the Pops, a rousing MIT tradition for almost a century. Friday you can enjoy the many off-campus tours offered by the Association during the day, and join the class at beautiful Stonehurst, the Robert Treat Paine house, for an elegant evening of conversation. Saturday is Technology Day, the theme of which is Creating Wealth: Knowledge, Capital, Skills, Resources. In the evening, the reunion committee has arranged a casual dance, buffet dinner, and beer tasting on campus. Sunday morning a class farewell breakfast will officially conclude the reunion, but the fun continues through the day at the 7th Annual Tech Challenge Games and Techsas Barbecue. Mark your calendars now for June 4-7 and plan to be in Cambridge! You are welcome to participate in any or all of the events.

Reunion/Tech Week

June 4 - 7, '98

Cambridge

Pro Bono Publico

Our 35th reunion gift is coming along extremely well, but we really want to see more members of the class participate. If you have already given, thank you! Right now, we need 141 more donors to reach our goal. Can we count on you?

Participation at any level shows you support MIT's mission and recognizes the benefits you have enjoyed from your MIT education. With a gift of $35 you will receive MIT's Technology Review, a nationally recognized magazine-the complimentary subscription you now receive is only good for this reunion year.

Remember: By our ongoing support of the Institute, we do contribute to the public good. Gifts to any designation allow MIT to maintain its academic excellence and research-friendly environment. While faculty, post docs, graduate fellows, and undergrad students are developing new technologies and solving biological mysteries in the labs, MIT remains in the business of training tomorrow's leaders in industry, government, science, and art. Please join your classmates in making a gift in honor of our 35th reunion to support the Institute.
 

•  Help us reach our 35th reunion gift goals. Send in your contribution of any amount before Tech Day (June 6).
•  Send in a gift of appreciated securities to take advantage of considerable tax benefits. For more information, contact the MIT Recording Secretary's Office at 617/253-9722.
•  Send in your Tech Week reservation as soon as you receive the forms in the mail (by the end of March).
•  Send in your class dues and help defray the costs of our future communications with you.

Want more information about the 35th Reunion Gift? Contact Terri Flannery at 617/253-8123 or <rterri@mit.edu> or Martin Schrage at 978/276-0666 or <schrage@worldnet.att.net>.

Want to ask more questions? Visit the Class of 1963 Home Page at http://alumweb.mit.edu/classes/1963/.

Want to make a gift with impact?

Consider designating your gift to the Class of 1963 Scholarship Fund. In doing so, you will help the Institute to maintain its commitment to admitting the best and brightest, regardless of need. Scholarships remain one of the core needs of the Institute. This year our class-sponsored fund supports three students.

Currently, classmates have contributed a total of $393,830 since the fund was established at our 25th Reunion. Our goal is to raise $50,000 this year to increase the endowment in the fund. In order to meet this goal, we need to raise nearly $40,000 more. Please help us reach our goal by earmarking your contribution to the Class of 1963 Scholarship Fund. Such a gift is the perfect way to help MIT and future generations of MIT students.

Vox Populi

All this has been made possible by class volunteers!

President
Lawrence J. Krakauer

Vice Presidents
Paul D. Abramson Jr.
Alan Bell

Treasurer
Steven L. Bernstein

Secretary
Shoel M. Cohen

Class Agent
Daniel R. Ross

Reunion Chair
Lawrence J. Krakauer

Reunion Planning Committee
Steven L. Bernstein
L. Robert Johnson
John T. Lynch
Ronald E. Young

Reunion Gift Chair
Martin H. Schrage

Reunion Gift Committee
Maurice P. Andrien Jr.
Woods Bowman
Edwin F. Brush Jr.
John K. Castle
James A. Champy
Steven R. Ditmeyer
Herbert C. Doepken Jr.
Mark R. Epstein
Lawrence C. Erdmann
Thomas P. Gerrity Jr.
J. Michael Greata
L. Robert Johnson
Stephen P. Kaufman
Philip L. Marcus
Robert M. Mason
Robert H. Morse
James W. Poitras
Joel E. Schindall
John H. Wasserlein

Sententiae Antiquae:
a maximis ad minima: from the greatest to the least-we need your support
bis dat qui cito dat: he gives twice who gives promptly-we need it now
au bout de son latin: at the end of one's Latin; at the end of one's mental resources-we'll sign off here, best wishes!

FINIS EST

35th Reunion Gift Letter

Dear Classmate:

A few days ago, I walked from Massachusetts Avenue to Building Ten on my way to a MIT Club of Boston committee meeting. I was looking at the students and trying to get back into the frame of mind that I was in 38 years ago when we were freshmen. In the course of this, I started thinking about the emphasis that the Course VI faculty placed on fundamentals -- an emphasis that frustrated me. I wanted to learn about circuit design and other immediately applicable techniques. But they were right.

Look at the many paths that our classmates have followed and look at their achievements. I know Class of '63 classmates who have developed now widely used technologies; who head up departments and schools at major universities; who are heads of major corporations all over the world; or who have founded what have become major organizations. And, of course, many of us are key contributors in large and small organizations. Often our achievements are well outside our original field of study and hence the emphasis on fundamentals really paid off. MITís stated goal then and now is to train leaders and to equip them with the tools to move into uncharted territory. MIT achieved its goal with our Class.

One of the reasons that I agreed to chair the Reunion Gift Committee was that I knew that it would give me the opportunity to contact many of our classmates and hear about what they and their families have been doing. It has been just as much fun and just as interesting as I had anticipated!

As you know by now, we will hold our 35th Reunion at MIT the weekend of June 4-7, 1998. This will give you a chance to do a lot of this yourself. You will soon hear more from the Reunion Committee, but, in the meantime, be sure to reserve the dates on your calendar.

You may recall the recent letter to alumni/ae from Chuck Vest and were as impressed as I was by the impact MIT and its graduates have in developing the U.S. and global economies. And, I am sure that you are eager to help MIT continue to offer the very best to students and to the world. Together, all of us in the Class of 1963 can help MIT continue its tradition of excellence.

One of the main things that MIT has given all of us is the ability to make choices. Now we are at a time in our lives when one of those choices can be to help those who are coming along in the next generation. Just as those who went before laid the groundwork for us, we have the opportunity to do the same for those who will influence the 21st Century.

I would like to encourage you to reflect on the value of your MIT education and to rethink your contributions priorities. Put yourself in the shoes of next yearís incoming class, the Class of 2002, and then remember our first days in Cambridge in September 1959. What could you do to make their experience even better than ours was?

Our goals for this campaign are simple: increase participation, increase gift levels, and we hope that many of you will direct your gifts to the Class of 1963 Student Aid Fund. We aim to raise $50,000 for the Fund, which we started 10 years ago at our 25th Reunion. It now stands at $382,984. This Fund currently supports three students each year. We would like it to grow stronger so that we can support more students in the future. I have been very touched by the expressions of gratitude we have received from "Class of '63" scholars.

Gifts received by June 6 will be included in our total 35th reunion gift announced at the Technology Day luncheon. This is a one year effort so only actual gifts, not pledges, will be credited to the reunion gift. Matching gifts will be included in our total gift though. So, if you work for a company that has a matching gift program, please remember to leverage your contribution to the benefit of MIT.

I hope each of you will consider making a generous gift to MIT. To those of you who have been steady contributors to MIT, I want to thank you and encourage you to again increase your contribution in this reunion year.

Looking forward to a successful effort on behalf of MIT and to seeing all of you again in Cambridge in June.

Sincerely,

Martin Schrage '63

Chairman

P.S. There can be considerable tax benefits from a gift of appreciated securities made before the end of the calendar year. I found that MIT handled most of the formalities and properly acknowledged the transaction. For more information, contact the MIT Recording Secretaryís Office at 617/253-9722.

35th Reunion Gift Chair

Ron Young is serving ably as our Webmaster.  I am having a hard time, however, filling the position of
"35th Reunion Class Gift Chair".  Again, the Alumni Association does much of the work involved in the
Class Gift campaign.  The Gift Chair NEED NOT be in the Boston area; all his or her responsibilities can
be carried out by telephone and e-mail.  The Gift Chair's major responsibilities are:

 - Participate in 2-3 meetings with staff  (in person or over the phone).

 - Identify prospects and set goals for campaign with input from committee and staff.

 - Recruit 15-25 gift committee members.

 - Write 3 solicitation letters to the class.

 - Solicit 10-15 classmates (incl. committee members).

 - Recruit classmates for a class telethon in the fall and/or spring, in Cambridge.

Although a fairly modest enterprise in its own right, the 35th gift is a very important campaign for the
class in a number of respects. We view the 35th campaign as an opportunity to begin identifying both
strong class leaders and potential major donors for the 40th reunion gift campaign.

The two general objectives for the 35th reunion gift are increased levels of giving and increased participation.
Unlike the 25th with its extended crediting period, this is an annual fund drive ÷ only gifts received in
the year of our reunion are included in the reunion gift total.

If you would be interested in serving your class in this position, or would just like to know more about
it, please let me know, at <larryk@kronos.com>, or phone me at one of the numbers below.

Any and all ideas for the 35th reunion will also be welcome.  I'll keep you informed as our reunion planning
proceeds.

-- Larry Krakauer   (larryk@kronos.com)
   President, MIT Class of 1963
   Work:  617-487-4725
   Home:  508-358-2319
   fax:   617-672-5940

The 30th Reunion Gift

At the close of the gift year, 48% of our class (338 donors) had made a donation. Our goal was to reach 51% participation.

Our goal was to have 65% of the donations be in excess of $100. We have surpassed that goal (70%).

Total gifts were $640,395, twenty-eight percent above our goal.

The reunion gift committee was chaired by Bob Johnson.