Homecoming and Reunion Rolled into One

By Colleen Kearney Rich, MFA '95

At Homecoming 2004, Josie Ogaitis Webster, BSN '88, planned to get together with Carol Donnell Timpson, BA Sociology '88. Then they told a few friends who told a few more. Before she knew it, Webster had almost 30 people planning to show up at Homecoming.

With the help of the Office of Alumni Affairs, the group, mostly alumni from the Class of 1988, was able to secure a space for their mini reunion in the Johnson Center.

“We had a great time,” says Webster. “Even though some of us haven't seen each other for a long time, we were immediately able to reconnect.”

Although most of the group still live in the Washington metropolitan area, it had been a while since many of them had been on campus, so the group took a campus tour. “Despite living close by in Annandale, I had not been back [to Mason] since the early 1990s,” says reunion attendee Mauricio Milian, BA Economics '87, MBA '91. “The place looks very different. I could only wish that we had had half the infrastructure they have today.”

“In many cases, we were meeting spouses and children for the first time,” says Webster, who now is director of health policy and planning for the Maryland State Health Department. “It was very special.”

“It was a shock to realize how fast time goes by when you see people that you have not seen in many years,” says Milian. “It was also interesting to see how people's lives evolved from those carefree college days.”

Webster, Timpson, and Milian's group came “from all over the place” and included student- athletes (Webster played volleyball for Mason) and international students—but mostly they all started off their college careers in Dominion Hall.

Those friends who couldn't attend were also in everyone's thoughts that afternoon—and some were even on some cell phones, as attendees took the opportunity to ring up friends who weren't present. One of those who wasn't able to attend was Andy Bolton, BA International Studies '87, who was terminally ill. Still, his old college crowd kept him in the loop, and Bolton saw photos from the reunion before he passed away over the summer.

“We dined together and lived together,” says Webster. “There are some close bonds there.”

For details about the reunion, check out Webster's Mason Memory.

(Left to right) Tobi Moriarity; Patrick Moriarity; Mauricio Milian; Sean Briegel; Rocky Benedetto; Josie Ogaitis Webster; Eric Timpson, BS Accounting '88; Eric Pohlig, BS Psychology '87; Mary Pat Pohlig; Carol Donnell Timpson; Mary LaVagnino Zentner, BA Art Studio '91; Elizabeth Davidov, BA English '89; Peter Davidov, and all their future Mason patriots.