Ha. I got one of those, too. Mine made it into the round file way too quickly to be scanned :)

by GKB—Dec 1, 10:35 PM

There’s much to be annoyed with, the least of which is that only one hermit got a relative featured in the thing, and that hermit wasn’t me.

But I’m sure my relation’s reputation will survive. Meanwhile, we can rest assured that brown people and women need not worry about their places in school history!

by greg—Dec 1, 10:38 PM

first reaction: why did we receive a set of pictures of 1960’s fbi agents and their secretaries?

second reaction: one of my current employer’s chief development officers believes that no one will give money to support faculty salaries. while the solicitation you have scanned is not for faculty salaries, at least they are willing to remind potential donors that faculty can benefit from donors’ generosity. (more cynical reading of this reaction: naive, non-careful alumni might think their gifts in response to this solicitation might actually benefit the faculty members to whom their gifts are designated.)

by chris—Dec 2, 06:40 AM

And there were so, so many more agents than secretaries…

I think the photos belie the message of the solicitation entirely. It would appear that the faculty is supposed a symbol of inspiration. They are not the leaders; rather, the leaders are the students they taught—in other words, you (dear donor). But there is no visual connection between student and teacher in any the mug shots. Even the candid is a wedding photo of NP and his wife (whose name I forget?). As you said, C, the whole thing appears as though they are begging for salary support.

They might have ameliorated that problem by including student shots of the profs, thereby making the claim that students can someday become inspirations to more students. Or something. That wouldn’t have been difficult: at least 2/3 of the men on the envelope, for example (I am not sure about England or Muncy), attended camp in their youth.

by greg—Dec 2, 09:02 AM

I finally read the solicitation letter. I do wonder how effective namedropping “FDR,” “JFK,” Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Mikhail Gorbachev; Jesse Owens, John Wooden, and Jack Nicklaus; and Elvis, The Beatles, and John Wayne is at getting nostalgic old farts to donate.

by greg—Dec 2, 03:43 PM

I think her name is Treva.

by JH—Dec 2, 03:43 PM

Indeed it is.

by greg—Dec 2, 03:46 PM

I went looking at the camp website to see if they had the solicitation on there. Didn’t find it, but damn am I glad I graduated before they started doing this.

by JH—Dec 2, 03:56 PM

Here ya go.

Come on. You know you wanted to be blessed on your way out the door.

by greg—Dec 2, 04:09 PM

Thanks.

Y’know, it’s not a bad idea, in the sense that a ton of Bible majors and faculty probably love it. But remembering where I was in the months before graduation, it would have been horrifying for me to go through that.

by JH—Dec 2, 04:36 PM

my, my, i´m not one to talk… but i really can´t believe that they didn´t catch this one…

This year an all too familiar site at Harding is missing. Neal Pryor, after forty five years of teaching, has retired.

i did not get one…they have yet to find us, though with FB we´re only a click away.

muncy was a freed-hardeman grad

by jeremy—Dec 3, 01:55 AM

Ahem. If you happened to download the PDF linked in 9, please download it again, replacing the file with this smaller, more economical one.

by greg—Dec 3, 10:56 AM