Class of 1967 Celebrates Golden Reunion

The class of 1967 is returning to the Forty Acres to celebrate their 50th reunion on Monday and Tuesday. The reunion committee has extended an invitation to any graduates of 1967, students who started school in 1963, and any retired faculty and staff who were on campus at that time. This reunion is commonly celebrated in April to coincide with the anniversary of the school’s founding. 

Dr. Gene Hendrix, an alumnus and retired minister of education, is excited for the event. 

“I’m looking forward to seeing friends from our class that I haven’t seen in years and years,” Hendrix said. 

Director of Alumni Relations Britt Jones believes that feeling is likely held by all returning alumni.

“These reunions are similar to a family reunion. It gives all of the alumni a chance to reconnect with one another and to celebrate the cherished foundation provided by Hardin-Simmons,” Jones said.

One interesting element of this year’s Golden Reunion is that it brings to campus the founding members of Kappa Phi Omega. 

While most of the events are focused around celebrating the time these alumni spent on campus fifty years ago, some are looking at the changes the campus has undergone since then. One of the events that alumni will be attending is a bus tour of the Hardin-Simmons campus, which will feature the Skiles Social Sciences Building that is named after the campus president inaugurated that year. 

The returning class will also have the opportunity to see the Logsdon chapel, built almost twenty years after their graduation and the Richardson Library, which was built nine years after they graduated. 

However, in the eyes of the alumni, Hardin-Simmons will always be familiar. 

“Life on campus was simpler back then, and there have been a lot of changes since then. But it was probably just as busy on campus as it is now! It really wasn’t all that different from what it is today,” Hendrix said. 

Many of the students are excited to come back to the school that shaped their lives. 

“Going to Hardin-Simmons gave me a great foundation of education, and it gave me a background of Christian faith and ministry working with that education,” Hendrix said.

Many of the planned events will allow alumni and current students to interact with one another. Alumni will be eating in the campus Dining Hall on Monday, April 10 and will be attending the Founder’s Day observance that takes the place of chapel that week. 

“It would be great if students took the time to talk to these alumni; they have a lot to offer. These are the people on whose shoulders you stand as a student. They have been exactly where you are now,” Jones said.