When Gordon Kaye ’74 comes to campus for a reunion, he first walks or drives to the old quad, where the Chapel faces. “It just sort of centers me,” says Kaye, who met his wife, Susan Kaye K'75 at Hamilton, and whose daughter went here too. “It gives me a sense of where I am.”
Kaye loves coming back to campus, to see the distance Hamilton has come, and to connect with former classmates. He’s been to 13 reunions—some as just another alum, others as alumni president, and he’ll be returning for Reunions ’19 too.
The college has been on a tremendous trajectory in terms of the quality of the academics, the student centric-ness of it. It’s just mind-blowingly beautiful.
Kaye truly enjoys seeing how the College has bloomed in the intervening years. “The college has been on a tremendous trajectory in terms of the quality of the academics, the student centric-ness of it,” he says. “It’s just mind-blowingly beautiful—new buildings and new spaces and new landscape.”
Reconnect, renew bonds, and network with your fellow alumni during this special weekend.
But above everything for him is the people. “It’s great seeing your classmates,” Kaye says. “Some of them have been tremendously accomplished personally, but the real issue is that they’ve all grown up and become interesting people, and it’s wonderful to see them and to talk about a very intense shared experience that we all had at a very small remote college.”
If you’re considering heading to the next reunion, take a tip from Kaye on reunion musts:
- The parade. “Walking slowly with your classmates through all the oldest part of the college, the quads, and under the trees, is always very moving.”
- Memory spots. “The campus is so beautiful and so dignified that it brings back a lot of memories. I go to the spot where my wife and I first met. The building actually doesn’t exist anymore, it was the old science building, and it’s now the stunning state-of-the-art new science building.”
- The theater. “Our theater is as good as many Broadway theaters now.”
One more stop you might want to make: Kaye has been bringing his kids to the Hill over the years, and he used to take them to the big heavy rock near the dining room, the one on a chain you can sit on and swing. “To my kids that was the college until they were 18 years old,” Kaye says. “So I always try to stop by that spot also.”
Join Gordon and your fellow alumni: Come and reconnect with Hamilton for Reunions ’19.
