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CACO Celebrates Centennial | January Marks 100 Years of Cornell Leadership

Shortly after the founding of Cornell University, alumni began coming together for reasons of nostalgia, as well as to have a voice in the future of their university and to lend support to their alma mater. Today, 100 years later, Cornellians have upheld the responsibilities and enjoyed the benefits of staying connected to and influencing a world-renowned university.

"When we enter Cornell we become part of an extended family of Cornellians," says trustee Carolyn Chauncey Neuman '64, a past president of the Cornell Association of Class Officers (CACO). "We become part of that family through our class year, and whether or not we return to Ithaca once we finish our classes here, our genealogy connects us across the regions of this country and across the continents. The connection lasts a lifetime."

In January 2005, CACO celebrates its 100th anniversary. In addition to the Mid-Winter Meeting, its annual leadership training weekend, a gala event has been planned at the Hilton New York. President Jeffrey Lehman '77 will deliver the keynote address. "CACO has a strong history of evolving and growing to meet the changing needs of its members and the University," notes CACO president Mary Bowler Jones '78. "Our current focus on enhanced leadership training and recruitment and retention of a more diverse class officer body was developed to ensure CACO's vitality for the future. We hope many Cornell friends will join us for our exciting centennial event in New York in January as we celebrate past successes and look forward to CACO's second century."

CACO has served as an effective umbrella organization, gathering together alumni class leaders and laying the groundwork for campus reunions, lifelong learning, volunteer service, and networking. It has functioned as a gateway to reconnect alumni to the University. It has been a catalyst and an incubator for attracting and training new class officers, and for many it has also served as a springboard to increasing levels of volunteer leadership positions. "The basic premise of CACO is leadership training," explains Otto Schneider '55, CACO vice president and Mid-Winter Meeting chair. "Through CACO, class officers learn the nuts and bolts of their functions and share ideas, and they discuss how to do significant work in the community or how to bring cultural and intellectual pursuits into class activities. But what it comes down to is the people. That's what makes it a great organization. The groundswell of enthusiasm keeps it going."

Bill Vanneman '31 has been a class officer every year since graduating, and with very few exceptions has always attended CACO's annual Mid-Winter Meeting. "I think CACO is an extremely useful organization," he says. "It serves a valuable purpose. Class activities are one of the strongest bases for building alumni loyalty and therefore alumni participation. Vibrant class organizations are what make Cornell shine."

It all began with an unlikely request. In 1904 President Jacob Gould Schurman asked alumni trustee Charles F. Treman 1889 to organize alumni classes to boost attendance at Cornell's commencement ceremony. The following winter, class secretaries met for their first annual Mid-Winter Meeting, and on June 20, 1905, a president--William F. Atkinson 1885--was appointed to lead the Association of Class Secretaries.

Compared with the many opportunities for alumni involvement and leadership roles available today, the duties of CACO's original class secretaries seem staid, but their central purpose has remained unchanged. Henry DeForest 1884 outlined the role of secretaries in 1913. They were to "see that proper and uniform statistics of each class are kept, such that the regular class reunions are organized in a way to secure the greatest attendance from their members; to stimulate the work of Secretaries by proper cooperation; to secure a greater unity of action and feeling in the various classes, and in the alumni body as a whole."

Accomplishments in those early years included the publication of an alumni directory and the establishment of class treasuries. Dues were recommended at $4 per year. By 1910 Cornellians were providing scholarship support, and in 1934 alumni sponsored the first "Cornell Day" to recruit prospective students. During tough times for the nation, alumni responded with outreach efforts. In 1934 Cornellians established a placement bureau, and in 1942 they held a reunion by radio, thus saving funds to purchase war bonds that would help finance the Allies.

Today CACO unites seventy-four classes and more than 1,600 class officers. Class secretaries have been joined by webmasters, class correspondents, Cornell Fund representatives, and other new positions. Leadership training programs have been fine-tuned by tapping the expertise of experienced and enthusiastic volunteer leaders. And CACO's original mission of building class leadership for alumni programs in order to connect Cornellians to the University and each other has stayed true over the course of a century. "Once you choose to become a class leader, a whole world opens up to you through other Cornellians," says Neuman. "I believe that staying connected to Cornell is good for you, whatever your connection to Cornell. Sharing your professional experience and expertise with a global university is very rewarding. At the same time, the opportunities for lifelong learning outside of your profession are also good for you. The message that Ezra Cornell has almost emblazoned in our hearts--‘any person, any study'--is inspiring for a lifetime, and it's always available to us."

For more information about CACO, please visit its website at caco.alumni.cornell.edu or contact Class & Reunion Programs in the Office of Alumni Affairs at (607) 255-1988.

By Diane Lebo Wallace

2004 Frank H. T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award | Winners Honored

During Homecoming Weekend, nine devoted Cornellians were honored as recipients of the 2004 Frank H. T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award. Named in honor of Cornell's ninth president, this prestigious award recognizes alumni who have demonstrated extraordinary service to their alma mater through longterm volunteer activities within the broad spectrum of various alumni organizations. It is the highest honor bestowed upon alumni for service to the University.

Honorees are selected from candidates proposed by fellow Cornellians. Typically, they have been involved with alumni activities since their graduation, and this year's recipients are no exception. "This year's Rhodes Award recipients exemplify alumni dedication at its highest level," says Muriel Bertenthal Kuhs '61, president of the Cornell Alumni Federation. "Their extraordinary achievements inspire us all, and help preserve Cornell's place ‘far above.' "

The 2004 awardees are: Eleanor Applewhaite '59 (New York, New York), Harry Bovay Jr. '36 (Houston, Texas), Edward '63, MS '65, and Nancy Taylor Butler '64 (Tinton Falls, New Jersey), Emmett '64 and Carol Britton Mac- Corkle '64 (Menlo Park, California), Sanford '29 and Josephine Mills Reis '29 (Sarasota, Florida), and Ginger H.S. So '61 (Manlius, New York).

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