Old School Reunion

By Colleen Kearney Rich, MFA '95

It started out as a joke. Ray Regan, BS Economics '91, created a fake electronic invite to convince his friends Archie Kao, BA Communication '92, and Bill Carter, BA History '01, who both live in Los Angeles, to come back to the East Coast for a visit.

“I added a few of our friends to the invite,” says Regan. “People kept adding e-mail addresses to it and passing it along. Then people started to RSVP, so we knew we had to find a place [to have it].” The joke invite said only Fairfax, so with two weeks to go before the date, Regan sought the help of Renee Jacobs, BS Psychology '93, and Mike Shields, MA International Commerce and Policy '01, to organize and cohost the event. It was Shields who secured Ned Devine's in Fairfax City for the impromptu reunion.

“We told them we were expecting 200 people,” says Regan. “But about 400 people ended up coming.” Even that head count is an estimate.

“People kept coming and going,” says Jacobs. “Ned's has two floors, so people were upstairs and downstairs.” The event began about 4 p.m., and some of the Old School folks stayed until closing. Throughout the evening, Jacobs made a valiant effort to collect as many names and addresses as she could—and to keep everyone taking pictures.

“There were a lot of surprising faces. People actually flew in for the party,” says Regan. As for the two original invitees, Kao made it but Carter did not.

Many of the party-goers were former Greeks, says Jacobs, who still keeps in touch with many of her Chi Omega sisters. “There have been a lot of weddings and baby showers,” says Jacobs, “but it is also a nice networking system. During college, there was a lot of competition between the fraternities and sororities. Now, I feel like we are all one big George Mason family.”

“It turned out to be a big success,” says Regan, who is a Sigma Chi. When asked if he would do it again, he laughs. “Only with more help.”

Karlis Peterson, BS Accounting '94; Jeff Linden; Dave Fraser, BS Electrical Engineering '91; Francis Shafer, BS Accounting '91; Rich Thielen, BS Electrical Engineering '94

Ray Regan, Sharon Scarsborough, Archie Kao

Elise Madison, BA English '96, MEd '00; Debbie Garrett-Wing, BA Government and Politics '94, with friend

Chi Omega sisters and former Dominion suitemates Mary Moore Self, BA English '93; Renee Jacobs; Lisa Eddy Knapp, BA Art History '93