Weekend Highlights

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All-Alumni Luncheon and Association Meeting

The largest on-campus gathering of alumni each year, this festive luncheon and alumni association meeting on Saturday promises to be fun, informative, and a great place to see all the reunion classes in one place. Seating will be by reunion class in Branch Rickey Arena. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED.

All-Alumni Social Under the Stars 

The All-Alumni Dance has become and Alumni Weekend tradition, but we've made a few changes this year! Gather Saturday night with all alumni outside the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, along the JAY Walk after the reunion class dinners for a chance to kick up your heels and dance the night away to music from the past five decades. Beverages and light snacks will be served. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED.

Alumni Weekend Blues & Barbeque Kick-Off Event

You spoke and we listened! In 2007 we made BIG changes to the Friday-night All-Alumni kick-off event. All alumni are invited to this casual reception and barbeque buffet featuring live music from OWU's own Professor of Politics and Government Sean Kay and his singing partner Jim Breece. This will be a wonderful opportunity to see classmates, listen to great music, enjoy light hors d'oeuvres, beer, wine, and a fantastic, upscale barbeque buffet. We've eliminated the formal program and hope everyone will enjoy each other at this exciting new event. One thing that won't change is our special guests will be emeriti faculty and staff. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED.

Alumni College

Alumni College Sessions (classes, discussions, and tours) will commence Friday afternoon and will be led by alumni, as well as current and emeriti OWU faculty. The final schedule is still under construction. Please check back periodically. 

Alumni Choir

The alumni choir is open to all song enthusiasts, even if you weren't in the choir as a student! The choir will perform Sunday morning during Convocation at 10 a.m. Rehearsal is 2 - 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon in Gray Chapel. Music will be sent to those who sign up by April 21. All music aficionados are welcome!

Class Reunion Dinners and Reservations

Class reunion dinners are the heart of Alumni Weekend! Class officers and committee members have worked diligently to prepare for this quinquennial gathering. All class dinners will be held on Saturday evening and will be preceded by a social hour. Exact times and locations are listed in the preliminary schedule of events. Reservations for class reunion dinners are a must and should be made using the Alumni Weekend Registration Form. Space at class dinner sites is limited, and entry to class reunion dinners cannot be guaranteed without advance reservations.

Recognition Ceremony

The Alumni Recognition Ceremony on Saturday, marks a high point during Alumni Weekend. The Distinguished Achievement Citation, the Alumni Association's highest honor recognizing alumni for professional accomplishments and/or outstanding service to humankind, will be bestowed this year upon the following alumni: Carol Scott ’53, David Hobson ’58, Jay Ankeney ’43, and Richard North Patterson ’68. 

Carol Scott has devoted her life to helping other people locally and nationally. She began her distinguished career of volunteer service while at OWU, organizing student visits to veterans at the Chillicothe Veterans Hospital and to senior citizens at the Delaware County Nursing Home. In 1969, she founded the Clark County Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC), a nationally recognized community-based organization that provides job training to individuals seeking self-sufficiency. Scott was the first woman elected to the Board of Directors of Wilberforce University where she served as a trustee. She has provided leadership to many philanthropic and educational organizations.  

David Hobson has had a distinguished career as a lawyer and elected official. He became a member of the Ohio Senate in 1982, where he served until 1990, acting as its President from 1988 to 1990. In 1990, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Ohio’s Seventh District. He continues to serve in the position after last being re-elected in 2004. David Hobson is a member of the influential House Appropriations Committee and has been active in military funding and appropriations to support military pay and military family support in his position as Senior Member of the Defense Appropriations, Veteran’s Affairs and Military Construction Subcommittees. In the 104th Congress, he was named a Speaker’s Designee which advanced him to the second spot in budgeting and made him a member of the Republican leadership. Rep. Hobson plans to retire in 2008. 

After graduating from OWU, Jay Ankeney went to medical school Western Reserve University and received his M.D. in 1945. He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve and served as a Lieutenant from 1946 to 1948. After his military service, Ankeney was a Resident in thoracic surgery at Bellevue Hospital in New York City and later worked as a surgeon at Presbyterian Hospital. During this period, he studied under pioneering heart surgeon Jack Gibbons. In 1955 he returned to Cleveland, worked at University Hospital and began teaching medicine at Western Reserve University, specializing in thoracic medicine. He was one of the first surgeons perform an “off pump” open-heart procedure that allowed for the clearance of heart obstructions without the use of a heart-lung machine. He also developed the “Ankeney retractor,” a surgical tool he developed to conform to the shape of sternum during heart surgery; this tool was later manufactured by Johnson & Johnson and is widely used by surgeons. He has served on numerous medical advisory boards. In honor of his service as a Professor at Case Western Reserve’s Department of Thoracic Surgery, the department established the Jay L. Ankeny Endowed Professorship in Cardiothoracic Surgery. In 2000, he was inducted into the Cleveland Medical Hall of Fame. Richard North Patterson graduated from Ohio Wesleyan in 1968 with a B.A. in History. He studied law at Case Western Reserve University and received his J.D. in 1971. He worked as an Attorney with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office where he rose to the position of Assistant Attorney General. He left in 1973 and became a Trial Attorney for the Securities & Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco and served as the SEC's liaison to the Watergate Special Prosecutor. He left the SEC in 1975 and joined a Birmingham, Alabama law firm. While working in Birmingham, he took a fiction writing course from Southern Novelist Jessie Hill Ford. Soon after, his first short story was published by The Atlantic Monthly. He later retired from the practice of law and became a full time novelist and has written thirteen novels, eight of his last novels have been international bestsellers including No Safe Place, Eyes of a Child, and Dark Lady. Richard North Patterson's novels have won the Edgar Allan Poe Award and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. 

The OWU Alumni Award, given to alumni who demonstrate outstanding service to Ohio Wesleyan University. The 2008 Alumni Award will be awarded to Robert Bauman’ 53, and Gay Johnson Grossman ’88.  

Robert Bauman was an Economics and Accounting major and was active in the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity, Varsity Tennis, Student Government and was a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa leadership honorary. He was elected an OWU Alumni Trustee in 1981 and was elected a Trustee-at-Large in 1989. He served of the Board of Trustees until 1995 and has also actively served Ohio Wesleyan in Alumni Financial Planning and in the Bishop’s Circle.  

Gay Johnson Grossman majored in Economics/ Management and English and as an OWU student she was active in the Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority, the Panhellenic Council, the Wesleyan Student Foundation, and the Ohio Wesleyan Literary Magazine. As an OWU alumna she has been active as a member of the Alumni Board of Directors from 1994 to 2004. She has also been active in Regional Alumni Committees, the Monnett Club, the Friends of Andy, and has served as an Alumni Admissions Representative.   

The OWU Alumni Association confers Honorary Alumni Status to persons exhibiting consistent interest in and support Ohio Wesleyan University.

Dr. John “Jay” A. Martin, OWU Men’s Soccer Coach will be named and honorary alumnus at Alumni Weekend 2008.  Prior to joining the Ohio Wesleyan faculty, Martin served as a 2-sport assistant at The Ohio State University, from which he received both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. He has been the NCAA Mideast Region Coach of the Year; an honor awarded to one coach from all divisions, 13 times in his 28 years at Ohio Wesleyan, and has been twice named NSCAA National Coach of the Year in 1991 and 1998.  He has also served as the Battling Bishops' athletics director from 1985-2004. During those 19 years, Ohio Wesleyan intercollegiate athletics enjoyed unprecedented success. Martin has also been very active and a strong supporter of the OWU Alumni Association. He is a consistent volunteer and class dinner host during Alumni Weekend and has been the featured speaker at a variety of alumni events. He took the lead and coordinated the 50th year of Men’s Soccer reunion in 2007 and has worked with the OWU Friends group to dedicate a special recognition plaque for Ted Luckett ’84 (who died in the World Trade Centers on 9/11) and all former soccer players that have passed away.

Plan to join us at this impressive ceremony and honor fellow alumni for their remarkable lifetime achievements.

Questions?

For more information, please contact the Alumni Relations Office, Mowry Alumni Center, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH, 43015, at 740-368-3325 or alumni@owu.edu.