Oswego Matters

Relationships. Connections. These two ideas came to life for me in very meaningful ways starting with Reunion 2013. This was my husband Jerry’s ’77 35th cluster reunion, so many of our long-time Oswego friends returned to campus, and we shared memories and laughter galore, the joys that really only happen with those people with whom you have long-time relationships and experiences.

During Reunion Weekend, the Board of Directors of the Oswego Alumni Association holds its annual meeting. Board member Judy Letvak ’83, one of Oswego’s most loyal cheerleaders, ambassadors and advocates, was with us for the last time. She was unable to attend most of the Reunion Weekend activities, but she did attend the Board meeting.

Very unexpectedly, Judy passed away just two weeks later. The outpouring from alumni—fellow Board members, her wide circle of close friends from the ’80s who still gather annually, and recent alumni friends she had mentored in their post-Oswego job searches—was testament both to Judy and to the power of relationships and connections we make at Oswego.

The relationship Jerry and I have with magazine cover feature George Wurtz ’78 and his wife, Nancy, goes back more than 30 years —when we were all young, newly married and starting families and careers. George and Nancy lived in Fulton, where George started what was the beginning of a successful career in industry at Miller Brewing. Nancy was my Lamaze teacher and the nurse who helped deliver our first two children.

George and Nancy moved away in the mid-1980s, but we have reconnected as George has engaged with Oswego and our students in many meaningful ways.

And then there is this issue of the magazine. When Michele Reed, our most recent editor, retired last spring, we had to move quickly to ensure we continued to get OSWEGO in the hands of our readers without interruption! We reached out to our two previous editors, Denise Owen Harrigan—“Denny” to those of us in the Alumni Office—and Linda Morley Loomis ’90 M ’97. They enthusiastically agreed to sign on, along with Michele, to produce this, “the alumni editors reunion” issue.

It’s been a joy to reconnect with Denny and remember when we worked together in the Alumni Office in the ’80s and ’90s—and to see Linda again almost daily as she shepherded this issue to print.

So, my message? Cherish your friendships, relationships and connections. Don’t wait to reconnect. Come back to your next Oswego reunion, reach out and encourage those you knew when you were here to come back too. In the meantime, reconnect with friends and classmates through our new and improved OsweGoConnect online alumni community!

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