News Detail
More than 400 alums join Alumni Weekend
More than 400 alumni returned to Ransom Everglades for Alumni Weekend April 29-30, enjoying special dinners and dabbling in events ranging from cocktail parties to soccer games to an art history lecture. The Class of 1986 even caught up with a special guest – a revered former teacher flown in from Beirut.
David Arnold '86, helped lead the charge to find and bring home – just for the weekend – former RE math and science teacher Walid El-Khoury, who had a huge influence on Arnold, now a surgeon, and a generation of RE students.
El-Khoury, now at Brummana High outside of Beirut, couldn't believe Arnold, Liz Koreman Landau '86, Elana Oberstein-Harris '93 and others wanted to fly him back for their reunions. Arnold called him from a corner of his operating room one afternoon to get reacquainted.
"I am overwhelmed with emotions," El-Khoury said before the Head of School luncheon. "To go to this extent, to this much trouble – after 30 years to remember you is quite a treat."
"For a lot of us who went into math and science, he was a big part of that," said Oberstein-Harris, a physician. "He made those subjects fun."
The 50-year reunion classes kicked off the weekend with intimate brunches on the Everglades and Ransom campuses. Most alums joined the festivities at an opening reception Friday at the Lewis Family Auditorium. After various reunion dinners, many returned to campus early Saturday for the annual Alumni Regatta, won by Pam Kelly '86 and Michiel "Monkey" van de Kreeke '88.
That began a day of fun: Kids' events at the pool. An alumni-student water polo game. An alumni soccer game. An art history class with Jose Rodriguez. The Head of School luncheon.
The only low point was the absence of the beloved and esteemed Dan Leslie Bowden, who had been expected to offer a poetry class but could not attend because of health issues.
The reunion classes raised nearly $100,000. The 1966 Everglades women had the highest participation percentage going into Alumni Weekend with 57% and the RE Class of 1996 had the greatest number of alumni participants with 52 alumni gifts (42%). The RE Class of 1986 raised the most amount of money with $22,730. As a whole, Ransom Everglades reached its goal of 30-percent alumni participation in Annual Giving from all reunion classes.
REunion Photo Galleries
El-Khoury, now at Brummana High outside of Beirut, couldn't believe Arnold, Liz Koreman Landau '86, Elana Oberstein-Harris '93 and others wanted to fly him back for their reunions. Arnold called him from a corner of his operating room one afternoon to get reacquainted.
"I am overwhelmed with emotions," El-Khoury said before the Head of School luncheon. "To go to this extent, to this much trouble – after 30 years to remember you is quite a treat."
"For a lot of us who went into math and science, he was a big part of that," said Oberstein-Harris, a physician. "He made those subjects fun."
The 50-year reunion classes kicked off the weekend with intimate brunches on the Everglades and Ransom campuses. Most alums joined the festivities at an opening reception Friday at the Lewis Family Auditorium. After various reunion dinners, many returned to campus early Saturday for the annual Alumni Regatta, won by Pam Kelly '86 and Michiel "Monkey" van de Kreeke '88.
That began a day of fun: Kids' events at the pool. An alumni-student water polo game. An alumni soccer game. An art history class with Jose Rodriguez. The Head of School luncheon.
The only low point was the absence of the beloved and esteemed Dan Leslie Bowden, who had been expected to offer a poetry class but could not attend because of health issues.
The reunion classes raised nearly $100,000. The 1966 Everglades women had the highest participation percentage going into Alumni Weekend with 57% and the RE Class of 1996 had the greatest number of alumni participants with 52 alumni gifts (42%). The RE Class of 1986 raised the most amount of money with $22,730. As a whole, Ransom Everglades reached its goal of 30-percent alumni participation in Annual Giving from all reunion classes.
REunion Photo Galleries
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Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.