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Mairzy Leciston was making herself right at home during Reunion Weekend festivities Saturday, even though she isn’t a Lafayette graduate herself.
Strolling under the tented Quad amid the general din and joviality of the dinner party being thrown for alumni, their friends and family, Leciston felt comfortably ensconced in the latter classification. And then some.
Lafayette graduates run in the family.
Her husband Robert is a 1963 alum. Daughters Kimberly Leciston Senacheriv ’87 and Autumn Leciston Bragg ’90 also followed the Lafayette path.
So did Mairzy’s son-in-law. And his brother. And her sister’s husband.
Need any more convincing that Mairzy Leciston has earned her place at the Lafayette table?
Find it, then, in the exuberance she displayed while taking in the sights and sounds of the dinner party. With a deejay and live music to help accentuate the mood, a panoply of colors in the flourish of flowers on display, and the whiff of good food and good company in the air, Mairzy voiced the sentiments of those in attendance.
“Wonderful! Terrific! Absolutely fabulous!” exclaimed Mairzy, dressed in a black cocktail dress, when asked what she thought of the evening’s festivities.
What did she enjoy the most?
“The whole night, the band, the food, the flowers — absolutely the flowers!”
Indeed, the event and the entire weekend offered much for the extended Lafayette family.
Friday’s activities included a golf outing, campus tours, a complimentary luncheon, Reunion College presentations ranging in topics from medieval art to chocolate, a dinner with music and, at the Farinon Center, a chance to cap the day off with a movie.
On Saturday, President Dan Weiss gave a stirring reflection on his first year in charge as well as an invigorating look at the road ahead for Lafayette. Little Leopards who came to the College over the weekend with their moms and dads got to enjoy the morning parade, then feast on a picnic among the numerous other families who showed up. Alumni paid tribute to the late Cy Fleck Sr. ’20 as well as Cy Fleck Jr. ’52 with the kickoff of the Fleck Consistent Giving Society, while the Class of ’96 later entertained with the Café de Arts.
Then there was the dinner at night.
Mother Nature threatened to sabotage the event with rain, but she proved no match for the feisty alumni who were ready to party.
“I’ve been able to talk to people I haven’t seen in a while,” said Rand Rhodes ’91, a North Wales, Pa., resident who majored in biology and has worked with Merck & Co. for the past 15 years.
A few hundred yards away, some Phi Delta Theta brothers used the occasion to have a reunion of their own. Several suggested that the school tie in the general reunion theme with reunions among the Greek community.
Meanwhile, other attendees carefully crossed the hay-laden Quad field, careful of both where and how they walked for if one wasn’t vigilant, the mud could grab hold of a shoe and take it right off.
Patrick Hughes ’81 frequently comes back to campus, but appreciated the opportunity to “see a lot of people I haven’t seen around since the 20th reunion.”
The speakers placed strategically around the tent played songs familiar to the alumni — Seals and Crofts’ “Summer Breeze,” John Sebastian’s “Welcome Back,” and a slew of the usual Motown favorites.
Still, for Amanda Higgs Drobac ’86, the event was as much about family as anything else — her own family, and the Lafayette family as a whole.
“This is fantastic. I have two kids and they’ve been having a good time watching the parade and all the other activities. I think the College has done a great job,” she said. “Walking around the campus, it’s a great feeling to be around College Hill.”