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Alumni return to help celebrate Commencement

Click here for low-resolution video from UD’s 155th Commencement.  Click here for high-resolution video from UD’s 155th Commencement. Click here for Commencement 2004 photo album. See related articles: UD holds 155th Commencement under azure skies Biden urges students to keep informed Honorary degree citation for Joseph R. Biden Jr. Alumni return to celebrate Commencement Senior class gift tops $25,600 Two students recognized for academic achievement One family is triply happy Happy birthdays Friend awarded Medal of Distinction Campus volunteers help make the day a success About UD’s 155th Commencement Graduation numbers Academic regalia Why a mace? Signs of the times Commencements past

5:28 p.m., May 29, 2004--The University of Delaware’s 155th Commencement ceremony opened May 29 with an alumni procession, which included representatives from classes of the 1930s through 2003, representing all segments of alumni living in 81 countries throughout the world.

This year’s procession included 42 who are parents and two who are grandparents of graduating seniors, as well as 10 members of the 50th reunion class of 1954.

With the Class of 2004, the number of living UD alumni is in excess of 130,000.

Marching with the Class of 1954 was Doris Trivits, an elementary school teacher from Wilmington who is the grandmother of graduating senior Evan Trivits. Her husband is a member of the Class of 1955, and two of her three children also are UD grads.

Jacqueline Seidel Berger, Class of 1947, also marched in the alumni procession and came to see her granddaughter, Melissa Anne Berger, receive her bachelor’s degree in education. Jacqueline Berger, who formerly taught high school French, now teaches classes at UD’s Academy of Lifelong Learning in Wilmington.

Mary Ann Hall, from New Castle, who received the Emalea Pusey Warner Award for outstanding senior woman when she graduated in 1954, also marched in the alumni procession.

“Today is special for a couple of reasons,” Hall said. “It reminds me of the wonderful time I had at the University, [and] I have a granddaughter [sophomore Mary Katherine Scanlon] and a grandniece [sophomore Stefanie Nicole Ralph] here.”

“It’s a very real pleasure for me to see the graduation and how the school has changed since I was here,” Hall said.

“Fifty years! It’s hard to believe the time has gone by,” Lorin Ronald Krusberg, Ag ‘54, said. “My time here was absolutely amazing. I was on the swim team and I played French horn in the band,” Krusberg said. “It’s been a great life.”

Dorothy Sunderland Anderson, of Wilmington, who graduated in 1936 with a degree in history and a minor in economics, remembered her own, very different graduation. “It’s exciting to see all these young peopleŠ. I’m just so happy to be here,” Anderson said. “We graduated in Mitchell Hall. There were less than 100 women and less than 100 men. This is big. It’s wonderful.”

Andrea Stokes Scott, of Greenville, said the ceremony had special meaning to her because she was unable to attend her own Commencement in 1971.

“It’s awesome!” Scott said as the graduates left the field. “This is a select group. This is a fabulous place.”

Leading the alumni procession were this year’s recipients of the Alumni Association’s Warner and Taylor awards, which recognize the outstanding senior woman and man. These graduating seniors are Patricia Cordes and Charles Collins-Chase.

Photo by Kathy Atkinson

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