The Unplanned Mini Reunion

Culver
September 19, 2019

Our magnificent host: Craig Duchossois

It wasn't really a planned Mini Reunion, but when 7 classmates all showed up at Culver for the All-School presentation by DeWitt Jones (sponsored by our class's Student Enrichment Fund), it was deemed appropriate to label it as one!

The classmates included:

  • Howie Bridges

  • Steve Cuthbert

  • John Davis

  • Craig Duchossois

  • Lou Desenberg

  • Brad Laycock

  • Doug Neumann

Our "Headquarters Hotel" was Mike & Ashley Joyce's gorgeous lakefront "cottage". (Ashley is one of Craig's daughters. The cottage's carriage house across the road is where we had Thursday dinner under a tent during our 50th Reunion.)

The Mini began with John Davis, Brad Laycock, and Doug Neumann arriving by Wednesday evening, September 18th. And, of course, the first thing on everyone's mind was FOOD (uh ... and beverage). So they chose the Lakehouse Grille("Where Quality Is Never Out Of Season") as the place to satisfy their needs.

No ... none of the bikes belong to Brad.

Doug and Brad (photo by John)

The next morning…

GOOD MORNING, LAKE MAXINKUCKEE!!!

we gathered at Cafe Max with Sam Alameda (our Culver Fund POC at the Academy) for breakfast and socializing.

At the invitation of John Davis, we were also joined by two Class of '57 alums: Jerry Ney and Fritz Keeler. Jerry has lived in Culver for several years and volunteers prodigious amounts of time to support the Academy and the Culver Academies Museum and Gift Shop in Downtown Culver. At the encouragement of Jerry, Fritz just moved to Culver during the summer from the San Francisco Bay Area. John had met Jerry during one of his visits to a Golden Gate Old Guard Luncheon and knew Fritz from his past attendance at those luncheons.

Following breakfast, John took the opportunity to meet with Alumni Office people (Alan Loehr and Amy Davis) and Sam Alameda. Others had the opportunity to explore the campus. We then re-assembled the group in the lobby of the Crisp Visual Arts Center (the Eppley Hall of Science in our day) to meet and interact with both DeWitt Jones and Josh Pretzer (Culver's Dean of Faculty) ... and have lunch. Here's our group after lunch.

L to R: John Davis, Craig Duchossois, Lou Desenberg, DeWitt Jones, Steve Cuthbert, Brad Laycock, Howie Bridges (Missing: Doug Neumann; still sleeping in???)


After lunch, Howie Bridges and John Davis walked over to the Linden dormitory in which Howie's daughter (Caroline '05) lived to see if the "hand print" collage made while she was there was still mounted on the wall.

It was! (The green prints in the center, about one-third of the way from the top, are hers.)


At 2:30 PM, we were ushered to the front row of Eppley Auditorium to watch the presentation by DeWitt Jones. See the DeWitt Jones web page under Student Enrichment Fund for more details on his visit to campus.

After DeWitt's presentation, all of us (except Lou, who needed to head home) gathered back at the Joyce cottage for a delightful cruise around Lake Maxinkuckee, courtesy of Craig and Joyce House Manager Dave.

L to R: Craig Duchossois, Howie Bridges, Doug Neumann, John Davis, Steve Cuthbert, Brad Laycock

L to R: Brad Laycock, Howie Bridges, Doug Neumann, John Davis, Steve Cuthbert, Craig Duchossois

Following the cruise, it was off for drinks and dinner at Lucrezia Trattoria in downtown. Sorry to say that we were all too caught up in telling stories to each other to capture any photographic evidence of the event. But we did all truly enjoyed the evening. Thanks, Craig!

The next morning (Friday), John was the first to depart. He took the opportunity of being back in Indiana to spend a day and a half in his hometown of Indianapolis, lunching with some grade school classmates and visiting places remembered from those pre-teen years.

Craig was not far behind John in terms of departure, as he had to head back to Chicago for a meeting. And Brad had to start his road trip back to Virginia.

Howie, on the other hand, actually stuck around until Saturday so that he could be under the “Friday Night Lights” to watch the Eagles play Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory (Indianapolis, IN). Plus he enjoyed a sunrise (much like the one pictured above), watching water skiers, and seeing about 20 pick-up trucks with trailers by the boat ramp (there for an all-day bass fishing tournament).

What a GREAT unplanned Mini Reunion!!!