Alumni return for an event-filled Homecoming

RELEASED: October 30, 2008

For a photo essay of the weekend's Homecoming events, click here.

DANVILLE, KY—A bit of much-needed rain on Friday didn't dampen the spirits of alumni and friends who returned to campus for Homecoming Oct. 24 – 25. And Saturday dawned bright and sunny for an activity-filled day capped off by Centre football's 25-6 victory over Birmingham-Southern.

Although the rain on Friday drove the groundbreaking ceremony for Centre's new science building into Young Hall, it didn't quench the enthusiasm for the planned 40,000-square-foot campus facility dedicated to instruction and research in the sciences. Young Hall will also be partially renovated and the two-building complex will house the psychology, psychobiology, biology and biochemistry and molecular biology programs, and will provide space for work in synthetic chemistry, as well.

A special ceremony on Saturday morning marked the designation of the quadrangle formed by Old Centre, Wiseman Hall, Boles Hall and Maple Avenue as Benefactors Plaza. Included in the Plaza are the names of all members of Centre's newest donor-recognition organization, the Lifetime Giving Society, which recognizes individuals and organizations whose total gifts to the College, whether during their lifetimes or through their estate plans, are equal to or greater than $100,000.

After the Plaza dedication, the Distinguished and Young Alumnus Award recipients were recognized, along with the Athletic Hall of Fame inductees, at the annual Alumni Recognition Ceremony at the College's Norton Center for the Arts.

This year’s honorees were:
Distinguished Alumnus/a Award: Mark Bridges '88, Jim Hawkins '78, and Susan Weesner West '81
Young Alumna Award: Mary Quinn Kerbaugh Ramer '98
Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees: Cheryl Hart '93, Peter Mazzaferro '54, Josh Will '97, and Bo Wyenandt '89

In addition to honoring individual alumni, the ceremony also included presentations of special reunion class gifts from the classes celebrating incremental five-year reunions. Led by their respective reunion committees, each class focused their efforts over the past year on gifts to establish a student scholarship fund in the name of the class.

One of the weekend's highlights was the return of the original, restored Ahrens Fox fire engine that the famous Praying Colonels football team rode through Danville after their legendary 1921 defeat of Harvard.As an accompaniment to the fire engine exhibit, Rob Robertson '63 launched his recently published book, The Wonder Team: The Story of the Centre College Praying Colonels and Their Rise to the Top of the Football World, 1917-1924 (Butler Press, 2008), at an alumni book-signing event at the College's Norton Center for the Arts.

With a well-attended gallery talk, artist John Harlan Norris '00 concluded a month-long exhibit of his paintings titled Inanimates at the Jones Visual Arts Centre (JVAC), and visitors toured Centre's beautiful new student residence, Pearl Hall.

Returning alumni enjoyed reunions, a buffet lunch, a chance to return to the classroom with distinguished faculty members, a 5K run, and musical events featuring The Beach Boys and Nashville artist Matt Wertz.

For a photo essay of the weekend's Homecoming events, click here.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

For news archives go to http://www.centre.edu/web/news/newsarchive.html.