Williams College
June 9, 2018
Class secretaries play an important role by developing a sense of community among the far-flung members of their class. They devote countless hours to gathering and writing Class Notes, ensuring that in each edition of Williams People, their classmates—no matter how much their lives have changed since they left the Purple Valley—continue to connect with each other and to Williams.
The Thurston Bowl is awarded for distinguished service as class secretary. It was established by the family and friends of Ted Thurston, Class of 1912, who, in his 65 years as secretary, missed only one deadline—simply because he forgot to mail his completed notes to the magazine.
This year’s Thurston Bowl recipient is easy to work with, fun, and responsive, and she has several tricks up her sleeve for gathering fantastic notes from her classmates. She offers prompts to get their pens moving and fingers typing, and she typically kicks off her notes by responding to the prompts herself. Whether she’s sharing news of her children, discussing what she’s reading, or providing details about the weather outside her window, she draws a connection between these present-day moments and her memories of Williams.
In an entry last fall, she detailed some of her summer reading, connecting each book to her growing understanding that each of our perspectives is shaped by our own experiences—and what that means about how we connect to each other. She then invited her classmates to share some of those experiences, and, in so doing, helped close the distances of time and geography that separated them. She also urged her classmates to continue connecting at reunion, giving them a unique prompt: Make a prediction about something that will happen this weekend. One has to wonder if she predicted she would receive this honor.
For her skill at making connections—between people, between ideas, and with Williams—for her dedication to her classmates and the college, and for the fun she has doing this important job, the Society of Alumni is proud to honor, from the Class of 1983,
Beatrice R. Fuller
Megamenu Social