State of the Union Report - September 2008

The following message was sent to the Hunters group today.

It's been three months since I last issued a status report, so it is a good time to do another one.

'67 had a reunion in Vancouver in July. They now have 56 found classmates.

LH, my contact for '68, sent me a list of 60 found classmates. That's 56% of the 108 graduates, which is even better than '67! My wholehearted congratulations to '68.

AC also sent me a list of 49 found classmates for '70. That's a big leap from the last reported number.

I am happy to report that '72 has grown from 75 to 94 found classmates. In about April, KW and I had set a target to reach 100 found classmates by end of the year. Looks like we will achieve it very soon.

All the above classes have done well. The reason why I reported these classes first is that they have all started to organize themselves before the Alumni Search project was started. Now let's see how the other classes are doing.

I am glad to inform that '69 has found 27 classmates so far. That's a good progress despite a late start. Congratulations to WH.

Not to be outdone by '69, '71 has grown from 20 to 37 found classmates. They have organized two gatherings in July and September. Well done, KO.

'73 must be the superstar of this period. They have grown from 23 to 47 found classmates. Congratulations to CK and MK!

Luck is not with '74. They only added 1 person to reach 20 found classmates. Add oil, both JWs and RL!

I am happy that we have two new Hunters since the last report - AC for '77 and GM for '76. '77 has doubled the found classmates to 28, and '76 has jumped to 22 found classmates. Well done, AC and GM!

The Hunter post for '75 is still outstanding. 10 classmates have been found so far.

So here's a summary of the status:

1967: 56
1968: 60
1969: 27
1970: 49
1971: 37
1972: 94
1973: 47
1974: 20
1975: 10
1976: 22
1977: 28

Cheers,
-mw ('72)

Class of 72 North America Reunion

The Class of 72 had a rave success in the 4-day North American reunion at the end of August, as witnessed by some of the post-event feedback:

"Hence, let us salute the hosts for the effort and energy they had spent that gave us such joyous memories!!!!"

"Even though I might have never talked to some of you back 36 years ago, I had a great time in the reunion."

"Take you and I for example, I cannot recall we did even say Hi to each other in KCC, however, we did not have any STRANGER feelings. I enjoyed your humour, I learnt about your terrible accident at work and was impressed by your character."

"The kind of hospitality extended to us by our hosts in LA is immeasurable and my appreciation is equally 'wordless'."

"I want to add that all the spouses and family members blended in with us right away like other long lost 72ers. Wayne has to endure some language barrier but several of us tried now and then to keep him company and he came back the next day for the reunion dinner. He left me with a memorable very long and warm and hearty hand shake."

"I just received your photo CD for the NA reunion. You are so considerate that I don’t know what to say except thank you from the bottom of my heart."

"You should be glad that at least you showed up on the last day and still got so much fun. Imagine those could not make it at all."

Six Degrees

The following message was sent by a KCC72er:

"Thanks for the invitation and welcome! Glad to be in touch with the group. Can't thank you enough for reconnecting us! I found you through human web! I got the email from my brother and my sister-in-law whose sister graduated in 1970 I believe, and of course the rest is history."

Thanks to the KCC70er who made the connection.

We can all benefit from and contribute to the process of alumni search.

1. Start by looking around yourself. Are your sibilings alumni of KCC? How about cousins, neighbours, colleagues, friends in other circles, etc. Former neighbours and business associates should also be included. So should your teachers and students.

2. If you are married, ask your spouse, and go through the same thinking process with him/her.

3. Don't stop yet. Ask all those people whom you know in the above connections to do the same for you.

4. Lastly, when you meet new people. Ask them if they know of any alumnus from KCC.

When more of us participate in the process, the effect will start to multiply, and soon, we will have found all our missing friends. Many similar wonderful stories have been told before Christina's, and I am sure countless will follow. Let's make history.

KCC 50th Anniversary

This year marks the 50th anniversary of KCC. To celebrate her birthday, the college is organizing an Open Day for the alumni, and the alumni association is holding the celebration dinner in the same evening of 22nd November, 2008.

Some retired teachers and alumni are flying into Hong Kong to join this event. I will definitely join, and hope to see many of you there too. Please pass the news on.

Class of 1972 family photo at the HK Yacht Club

Class of 1972 family photo at the HK Yacht Club
Originally uploaded by guzhengman

The reward of finding lost friends is priceless. On 14th June, 26 classmates of the Class of 72, four spouses, and one teacher gathered at the Hong Kong Yacht Club for a dinner. Some of the faces have been missed for over 30 years. The sunny smiles showed how much we enjoyed this event. Those who read the other postings in this blog may ask why "only" 26 classmates. Well, it was not a formal reunion. Three of us happened to be visiting from abroad. We just chose a date when they were all here and said, "Let's meet."

The Class of 1972 Year Book Cover

This is the cover page of the graduation year book of the Class of 1972. It was scanned and posted on my Flickr photo site to let my classmates view the book to refresh their memory of the good old days. The second, and more important objective was to serve as an advertisement on the Internet that we are looking for our lost classmates. Initially, only this page was viewable by the public. Starting today, however, the entire photo set can be browsed by anyone. The photoset is at http://flickr.com/photos/guzhengman/sets/72157604348736598/

State of the Union report

The following email was sent to the Hunters group today. I have made some slight changes to the content, including using initials to preserve people's privacy.

How do you like the title of the the subject? I shall be doing periodic updates on the number of found classmates.

You can't imagine, until I tell you, that the class of 67 has found 53 classmates. Yes, that's an amazing 60% of their population. They achieved it before the launch of the KCC Alumni Search project. Take a moment to visit their web site http://www.cca.cc/kcc/ I tried a couple times to invite their webmaster, PL, to join the Hunters group in vain. He said he had a very simple mandate - to find the lost classmates of their own year. My reply to him was that I had a very simple mandate too - to find the lost classmates of all years.

'68 now has 12 found classmates, a pretty good number.

With the inclusion of ST, 5 classmates from '69 has been found. I have invited WH to join us.

'70 and '74 are tied with 19 found classmates. I am looking forward for the day when they break the magic number 20.

I am excited that '71 has surpassed '70 and '74 to reach the magic number 20! HC and KO ('71) should thank WL ('70) for introducing FY ('71) who in turn referred 3 other classmates from her class.

On the other hand, '73 is still leading you by a slight margin. They are now 23.

'72 stays at a top record of 75 found classmates. This number won't be reached by other classes any time soon, but we can't be complacent. Add oil, HK and YS!

'75 has made progress to reach the lucky number 8.

'77 is catching up fast. They are now 14 strong. Watch out for this dark horse!

Last but not least, I have been wondering why nobody has referred anyone from the class of 76. Today, I am happy to advise that they have "broken the egg". I have yet to discover whether the 2 found classmates have been in touch with each other before I found them.

So until the next report, here are the latest records:

1967: 54
1968: 12
1969: 05
1970: 19
1971: 20
1972: 75
1973: 23
1974: 19
1975: 08
1976: 02
1977: 14

Cheers,
-mw ('72)