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A COMMUNITY FOR LIFE The Class of 1965 had an evolution when planning for its 55th reunion in 2020. COVID struck, along with a realization. “Holy crap, we’re not going to be able to have an in-person reunion,” Tony Smith, a member of the reunion committee, recalls thinking. The idea of using Zoom to organize the group was floated. Smith says, “We didn’t know how to use Zoom, but figured we better learn fast.”
by Bekah Wright
The medium, he says, proved to be “intimate and authentic.” “It was a way of staying in contact with people you knew and have loved over the past 50 years,” Smith says. The virtual gathering opened some alumni worlds. “I’ve had multiple sclerosis for the last 39 years and been in a wheelchair for the last 29,” Peter Schaeffer says. “So, the pandemic put everybody else on my turf as a shut-in.” For all the alumni, they had discovered what they refer to as “a silver lining in a cloud of COVID.” A core group got things started. Schaeffer, a former member of Choate’s Board of Trustees and the self-proclaimed Reunion Chairman for Life, who was already adept at “herding classmates like kittens,” became the organizer of the regular Zooms. Schaeffer’s efforts would earn him the nickname of Yoda. “He’s the guru who keeps us together and focused on every call,” John Callan explains. “His spirit is so solid and devoted.” Joining him was Callan, president of the Class of ’65; Smith; and Tom Courage, “The Scribe” and person who most often takes meeting minutes. Conversations took on a momentum of their own, going beyond mere plans for rescheduling the reunion and Choate reminiscing. Rob Simpson and Tom Courage surveyed the class to learn more about their lives and what gives them purpose. As Simpson put it, “Fundamentally, purpose keeps people alive.” Pretty soon, of the living members of the class, 70 joined in on what became weekly Zooms, with an average of 20 classmates at each session. Topics ranged from family updates, the loss of spouses, and life transitions like retirement to the best electric vehicle to purchase and great places to travel. These meetings, first called Peter Schaeffer’s Relentless Reunion, gained the moniker Dew Drop Inn.
