Here's a picture of me looking at one of the wildflower species I've studied for decades at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, where I've worked for 40 years. I've been a faculty member in the Biology Department at the University of Maryland for 35 of those years. This year I'm on leave from the University while working as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation, overseeing reviews of research grant proposals and making decisions about which to fund. Bonnie and I are enjoying our four grandchildren, still living in the house we bought in 1976, and enjoying activities like rowing rafts 225 miles through the Grand Canyon for 16 days last summer. Another few years and we'll probably be living full-time out in Colorado.

I've been taking some buses recently. I get on the bus and sit down in one of the seats near the front. I see the sign saying please give these seats to senior citizens. And reading that I feel guilty about sitting there. But then I think... I'll move if a senior citizen gets on. THEN I THINK... Wait! Am I a senior citizen? Well maybe, maybe not... maybe the age isn't 60 but 62. It was a revelation, really. I've never, ever, thought of myself that way. I mean, I give them my birth date when I buy beer at the A&P... but... Did you ever think of yourself as a senior citizen? (Photo stolen from Tom's Facebook page.) (Truth in advertising: This is an 11-year-old passport photo.)

In case you didn't see what Bob posted to the class Facebook page about the film ("NOS TETS") that he had a small part in and that won 2nd prize in the student film festival our junior year, with a link to the youtube video. I thought this might be worth something on the class reunion web page, too, although I'm not sure exactly where it would fit. In any case, I had a small acting role in it, and I expect that others in our class did, too. I think a lot of people might get a kick out of seeing it, and there might still be one or two people who have not yet succumbed to Facebook. (For the record, I haven't Tweeted yet, but that might happen someday, too.) (Photo stolen from Bob's Facebook page.)

Me and Judy Tenuta, doing a comedy bit at the L.A. Comedy Shorts Film Festival in April.

I retired a couple of years ago. Years of financial preparedness actually worked. And I keep very busy. I've built and/or maintain several websites, such as this one, for friends and groups. I also volunteer in civic organizations, such as our local neighborhood watch and disaster preparedness (CERT), and various charitable organizations. Basically it's work without the pay, but I do get to choose what I want to do. And then there's my main hobby: Comedy. Which may or may not explain the photo. I do comedy sketch and improv, mostly as part of classes. I don't want to work too hard by being in a working company. There are a lot of younger people in these classes, many looking to get into "the business" professionally, and I like the energy of that as well. I spend a lot of time with my friends, more than I was able to do when I was working. And I go to comedy shows, especially the ones that my friends are in. Mainly, I like to have fun.

My family – the Mizells – has one of the most pre-eminent names in South Florida history. For more than 100 years, we have built a well-earned and richly deserved legacy of service that has benefited Broward County and its African-American community. Our family legacy centers around the unique role our family members have played in meeting the needs of individuals, long before local government assumed those responsibilities as part of its official civic obligation. At almost every important juncture of Broward County history, the Mizells played a role when blacks were not permitted to obtain necessary services from the larger white community because of legal segregation and the prevailing racial attitudes of the time. It was often said that, in the family's heyday, a Mizell, brought you into this world, provided you with good schooling, built your house, helped your fight for your rights, took pictures of you and your family throughout your life, healed you when you got sick, and buried you when you died.

I left Swarthmore to be a potter. Ended up a blacksmith. All these familiar inbox names awaken Fond long-dormant memories Of '71 and the heady times we shared. Best Regards, Christopher Thomson

I left to be a mime. Came back, And became a dancer/actress. I have a life beyond compare, Full of internal and external adventures. And Swarthmore was a sweet part of the journey, Offering the possibilities of eccentricity and of wholeness. namaste, marya

I'm a professor in the geography department at UNCG, and travelled widely around Asia in the process. Basic interest has been in studying transformations in modernizing societies, from China to Bhutan and India. Daughter Leslianne a Swat grad too. Look forward to seeing classmates at reunion.

A: After Swarthmore I worked as a garment worker, a youth gang social worker, a cab driver, a liquor store clerk, and a federal government bureaucrat. And I continued my oddball political activity: I ran against Marion Barry for DC City Council at large (the voters made the right choice in that election, despite my opponent's subsequent issues), reported to the working class from my desk in the Pentagon's press room and the halls of Congress, and tried to understand the sacred texts. When the politics became too much like religion and the proletarian rapture failed to come into being (for itself), I went to law school. Looking back, some of it was insane; but not as insane as Nixon and Kissinger. Legally, I became a bond lawyer in Ohio, issuing the debt that I formerly wanted to cancel and worked for attorneys general in Tennessee and Massachusetts. Now I'm legal counsel for a state agency that issues debt (that I formerly wanted to cancel) and finances waste water and drinking water projects.

Monica is still married to Bill Kennedy '70 and she is Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. (This will do until she sends us a more complete update.)

From www.swarthmore.edu/lax Sunday, March 27, 2011 "Social Entrepreneurship: The Business of Transforming the World" Keynote Speaker Edgar Cahn '56

“Social entrepreneurs [are] transformative forces: people with new ideas to address major problems who are relentless in the pursuit of their visions, people who simply will not take 'no' for an answer, who will not give up until they have spread their ideas as far as they possibly can.”
         — David Bornstein, How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas

Social entrepreneurs at this year’s Lax Conference have tackled social issues from potable water to genocide, from empowering low-income workers to microfinance. The conference will be kicked off by keynote speaker Edgar Cahn ’56. Edgar is one of the country’s top public interest lawyers, creator of Time Dollars and the founder of TimeBanks USA, as well as the co-founder of the National Legal Services Program and the Antioch School of Law. In addition to panels and roundtable discussions, the conference will feature a poster session by student social entrepreneurs that will be facilitated by the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility.

Register now by visiting www.regonline.com/laxconference2011

About the keynote speaker:

Edgar S. Cahn '56 teaches Law and Justice at the University of the District of Columbia School of Law and directs the Community Service Program at UDC School of Law. He is a co-founder with his late wife Jean Camper Cahn '57 of the Antioch School of Law, UDC School of Law's predecessor and the first law school in the United States to educate law students primarily through clinical training in legal services to the poor.

He is also founder of TimeBanks USA, the Time Dollar Youth Court, and CareBanks,as well as president of the Time Dollar Institute, a non-profit corporation that creates and sponsors initiatives so that the beneficiaries of social programs can become co-producers of education, justice, self-sufficiency, opportunity, community development, and social change.

His use of "time dollars" as an economic strategy for addressing social problems is described in his books, Time Dollars (1992) and No More Throw-Away People: The Coproduction Imperative (2004), showing how to mobilize a nonmarket economy that recognizes and rewards reciprocal contributions of service and caring.

In addition to his undergraduate degree from Swarthmore, he also earned M.A., Ph.D., and J.D. degrees from Yale University.

For more information on Dr. Cahn please visit: http://www.timebanks.org/founder.htm.