McCormick8: The Early McCormick Residents' Reunion

Design by Janet Bruesselbach and Hilarie Orman

Now on DVD! If you remember slide rules and parietal hours, then you'll want to get the MIT McCormick Hall Reunion DVD. You can see footage of the 2005 reunion and the wonderful, candid interviews with 54 of the women who lived in McCormick Hall in its first years. Talking about their careers, their lives, their remininscences, and sharing the laughter of lifelong friends, these women tell the story of the far-reaching impact of Katherine McCormick's gift to MIT. Buy it now, online through the MIT Alum website! (ignore the "registration" and "June 30" information, it doesn't mean that you have to attend an event in order get the DVD; just make the purchase and the DVD will be mailed to you.) Anyone who was at MIT in those years or who is interested in the history of women in science will want to have this 2-hour video, giving a unique oral history of a pioneering group. The price covers the minimal production costs (all the work was done by Sue Udin, class of 1969, and other MIT students). Further, if you are one of the McCormick Hall Pioneers who is not featured on this DVD, we urge you support the work by purchasing a copy now, and your interest will help make this an ongoing effort that will include more interviews in future years. If you're interested in having an interview with you included in the supplement to this DVD, read this guide. Original reunion announcement We had one great reunion on April 30, 2005. It's hard to summarize the whole experience ... a whirlwind of talking, laughing, nostalgia, deju vu, and a collage of faces and memories. Susan Hockfield seemed to enjoy hanging out with all of us (about 115 of us old-timers), and for a while, time seemed to stand still.

We had several commemorative Frisbees leftover, and if you want to purchase one, contact AMITA through Sarah Simon (sarah.simon @ alum.mit.edu). I liked their idea of using the pictures of famous former women MIT students on pin-on buttons as a fund-raising method, so they'll sell the Frisbees as an additional way to raise money. The Frisbee discs are white with red lettering and the design shown above (Susan H. thought it was amusing).

A few pix:

Class of '68	Class of '71	Mixed group, at the hotel
The Power Women of MIT, Linda Sharpe, (Shelley Fleet, schmoozing and boozing), Beth Garvin, Susan Hockfield, and Emily Chung	The Frisbee toss (rained out on Sunday morning, scaled down for Monday morning)	, Anne Street kicks off the Reunion ceremonies (picture courtesy of Sarah Simon)
, Sue Udin, Emily Chung, and the crowd (picture courtesy of Sarah Simon)	, Sandy and Sarah at the AMITA collage (picture courtesy of Sarah Simon)	, Susan Hockfield and Norma Mele
Pictures by Janice Gepner	Pictures by Sze-Wen Kuo	Pictures by Elaine Kant (Elaine's reunion website with larger "thumbnails" of the photos in this row)
Remember the photographer Ming who was always there? A selection of his photos are at the leadership conference site.	Ming's Lunch photos	Ming's speaker photos.

Some Useful Links:

Chat. If you want to chat with old friends from the dorm, we've got a Yahoo group just for that purpose: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/earlymccormick/. It's a bit of a pain to sign up for Yahoo if you aren't already registered, but you join more simply by sending email to "earlymccormick-subscribe @ yahoogroups.com" (remove the spaces when using this address) and following the instructions that will arrive in email.

The Missing. You can let us know about classmates who have email addresses but who aren't on our email list (listed here; these are people who are in the Alumni Assoc database but do not have email addresses listed). There are additional people who have not registered any info with the Alumni Association, so we haven't any way to list their names; please help us spread the word to them by sending them the URL for this webpage.

Websites related to the reunion:
MIT 2005 Women's Leadership Conference

Survey.

It's difficult to characterize us, we've gone out in so many directions. But, at an anonymous and superficial level, maybe we can get some interesting data. Please take a look at our SURVEY FORM and fill out as much or as little as you like. We'll summarize the data before the reunion.

We've had over 100 responses to the survey.

And, finally, the results! Julie Norton '70 is a professor at CS Hayward in California, and she had a student do an analysis of our data. It's got some fascinating correlations.

• The analysis
• Our Favorite Hobbies
• Our Favorite Books
• Our Favorite Movies

History.

Ellen Swallow Richards.

MIT Archive exhibit of Katherine Dexter McCormick's student notebook.

History of McCormick Hall.

Did All Coeds of Our Era Live in McCormick?
Some students lived in Westgate when McCormick filled up and before the second tower opened. Others were able to live in MIT Student House, across the river. Others, especially those in the early years, were able to live in apartments, even though McCormick was the mandated residence. Marriage was always a pathway to married student or off-campus housing.

How many coeds were there?
A numeric list of counts of students by year, women per year, etc.

In memoriam, the deceased alumnae (requires the password for this site; you got it in email).

Note that March 4, 2005 was the celebration of the annual MacVicar Day at MIT.

Lynwood S. Bryant, housemaster in the 1960's, died recently. The Boston Globe printed his obituary.

Nostalgia.
Here is the infamous bathroom guide, courtesy of Elaine Kant: Page 1, Page 2
McCormick Timeline, contributed by Sandy Harris and updated by Elaine Kant. A work-in-progress, view latest version here.
Very nostaligic essay by Gail Marcus, from the Class of '68 25th reunion.
Songs from Tech Shows, etc.

Freshman pictures
(You got the username and password in email; use lowercase!)

Coeds class of 1965, freshman picture book, courtesy of Barbara Townsend

Coeds class of 1966, freshman picture book

Coeds class of 1968, freshman picture book

Coeds class of 1969, freshman picture book.

Coeds class of 1970, freshman picture book.

Coeds class of 1971, freshman picture book.

Coeds class of 1972, freshman picture book.

Coeds class of 1973, freshman picture book.

The 1972 MIT Women's Crew team won a medal in the Head of the Charles Regatta. Elaine Kant, a member of that crew, has the program cover, the women's page and the MIT medal, and two articles in spring of that year about the team's improvements from The Tech (April article and May article).

Katherine Swartz, '72, wrote an article for The Tech in 1971 with a perspective on the MIT-Wellesley exchange. (Requires the username and password).

Photos from Anne Vallee Williams' wedding reception at McCormick in 1966. (You got the username and password in email; use lowercase!).

Eve Sprunt's bio, including a guest editorial, "Mentor's Feminine Side", for the Journal of Petroleum Technology (you'll need an image viewer with "zoom in" to read this). (You got the username and password in email; use lowercase!).

Biography of Gail Marcus, published by the American Nuclear Society in 2001 (includes many photos).

Ruth B. McDowell ('67) is a renowned quilter; see her fantastic website

Sue Weiss Liebman took several photos around the time of graduation in 1968. She's got herself, Razel Wittels, Ellen Greenberg, and and the dorm.

Candid photos, 1968; I got a 35mm camera in January '68, and I took a lot of photos. Some McCormick photos, 1968.

Send contributions and suggestions about the website. If you are going to send photos, send a separate note without attachments telling me how many photos to expect.