Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Autumn 2013 | Page 36

WHEATON alumni Alumni RelAtions There was a respectful silence Cindra Stackhouse Taetzsch ’82 Director of Alumni Relations Executive Director, Wheaton College Alumni Association Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Relations when I stepped up to the microphone on the stage of Edman Chapel on Friday, May 10. The seniors had finished a week of final exams and were visibly tired. But many were also excited because they’d just rehearsed for the ceremony that would take place in two days—they were really graduating! I welcomed them to the Alumni Association and encouraged them to stay connected with Wheaton. Then I read part of a letter I’d just received from an alumnus whose name they all knew. A few students gasped when I told them that Dr. Billy Graham’s class, 1943, was celebrating its 70th reunion that weekend, and he had sent a greeting to his classmates. Dr. R. Mark Dillon When I had first opened Dr. Graham’s letter and prepared to share it with alumni at the spring luncheon, it struck me that his words might also encourage our newest graduating class: Past President May this weekend be a time for catching up on what God has been doing in and through each of us since graduation. It is also a time to remember our years at Wheaton. I know that God used our time there to stir us, to challenge us, and to call us according to His plan for each of our lives. To God be the glory for the great things He has done through you over the years. I send my warmest greetings, and although I am unable to travel to Wheaton to be with you, I look forward to our great reunion at the feet of Jesus Christ! The sights and sounds of Commencement and Alumni Weekend evoke the long and rich story of Wheaton College. Each spring students graduate, parents clap and cheer, faculty march in colorful academic regalia, and alumni come home from all over the world to reflect on their time at Wheaton and on God’s faithfulness through the years. It’s my prayer that Dr. Graham’s greeting to the Class of 1943 encourages you today, just as it encouraged the Class of 2013 on the Edman Chapel stage in May. Director of Alumni Relations Cindra Stackhouse Taetzsch ’82 Alumni AssociAtion President Kurt D. Tillman ’78 President-elect Paul T. Klobucher ’96 Christopher A. Jahns ’82 executive Director Cindra Stackhouse Taetzsch ’82 Professor emeritus LeRoy H. Pfund ’49 Alumni trustee Representatives Kurt D. Tillman ’78 Paul T. Klobucher ’96 Christopher A. Jahns ’82 Board of Directors serving through 2014 Meagan Stuart Gillan ’75 Erin Hoekstra ’04 Christopher Yuan, MA ’07 Board of Directors serving through 2015 John Biedebach ’89 Kirstin Skytte Lindquist ’87 Jessica Heewon Min ’12 Tiffany Staples ’06 Board of Directors serving through 2016 connect with us online 34     A U T U M N   2 0 1 3 Joelle Meyer Herskind ’91 David McDowell ’68 Donna Peterson Nielsen ’93 Susannah Schwarcz ’00 Hythem Shadid ’79 Renae Schauer Smith ’91 Barbara Ruesche Scotchmer Winter ’60 Network with us on Linkedin: Wheaton College (IL) Alumni Like us at facebook.com/wheatonalumni Follow us at twitter.com/wheatonalumni Board of Directors serving through 2017 Judith Briscoe Golz ’83