Life Long Relations – Not just a Tag Line

Life Long Relationships

It’s not just a tag line.

It is 30 years ago now that I received my early decision admission to William & Mary!  So for the better part of my life, I’ve proudly been a member of the Tribe.

Through my work at the Alumni House, I met and was befriended by many older … and younger alumni.  Just after Homecoming this year, my 25th reunion, I was excited to see on the W&M website banner, that there was a picture of a dear friend from the Class of 1940.  His love for and devotion to the college is very real.  He and his late wife can trace their W&M roots back to 1693!  I have attended weddings, baptisms and funerals for many members of the Tribe, most of whom I did not actually attend college with.  But we are one big happy family, and that is what families do.  I have helped to connect alumni to alumni, and sometimes alumni to students so that they can help provide graduate school advice, job search tips and sometimes where to find an apartment in a new town.  I know an alumnus who graduated in the ’50s who often has students to his home for home cooked meals. Often enough that his wife was made an honorary alumna!  I have a friend who graduated in the ’60s, whose mother was my elementary school principal, and my daughter now babysits for his grandchildren.  I remember when I took my marketing class in the School of Business, the professor had taught the father of a friend in the class.  When I first came to work at W&M, the oldest living alumnus was Ralph James, Class of 1916.  When I met Mr. James, we discovered that we shared the same birthday, 66 years apart and that I was a little sister to his fraternity.

My kids are always lamenting that I can play the Kevin Bacon Game with almost any other member of the Tribe.  They tire of hearing, ‘my roommate’s sister is her sister-in-law’, or ‘his mother’s sister lived on my freshman hall’ or some other connection.

I still have lunch about once a month with one of my roommates and thanks to Facebook I communicate with another roommate who lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

Now, in the admission office, I help to build the future classes of William & Mary.  I also happily spend free time with the Catholic Campus Ministry so literally have friends from the Class of 1940 to the Class of 2014!  So you tell me, is it just a tag line?

– Betsy Quinzio