An important part of the Class of 1979’s 25th Reunion in 2004 was the naming of 25 Distinguished Classmates and conducting a Forum during Reunion weekend that featured several of these classmates.  That effort showcased the accomplishments of a wide variety of our classmates and highlighted the impact we are having around the world.  At the conclusion of that effort, we realized that we had only scratched the surface of identifying distinguished members of the Class of 1979.  So over the past year, we again solicited nominations from the class, consulted with classmates and with Cornell’s Alumni Affairs & Development staff, and performed intensive web research.  In the end, we identified the second installment of Distinguished Classmates, this time thirty in all, in honor of our 30th Reunion. 

We have defined a Distinguished Classmate as a person who has made a meaningful, recognizable, and lasting contribution to their profession, community, business, or constituency.  We anticipate that we will be naming Distinguished Classmates for many reunions to come. 

These 30 classmates span eight broad fields: arts/media, education, entrepreneurship, health care/medicine, product businesses, service businesses, public service, and service to Cornell.  They represent all seven Cornell undergraduate colleges and hail from across the country.  The Distinguished Classmates booklet contains a short biographical sketch and picture of each of the classmates.  Over the next year, we hope to create pages on our class website that feature the profiles of all 55 Distinguished Classmates identified at our 25th and 30th reunions.