The Class of '61 entered Harvard in an era of complacency, convertible Thunderbirds and "the rebel without a cause." They emerged with a Kennedy-inspired optimism to do what they could for a country caught up in the civil rights movement and Vietnam War protests.

In the spring of 1961, the big issue on campus incited more than 4000 students to riot and brought out the Cambridge police with tear gas bombs. But the two-day long protest was against changing the diplomas from Latin to English; the real-world problems of civil rights and military involvement raged with nary a mention in the Yard. News of Freedom Rider arrests, fighting in Laos, and arms control was virtually ignored as the class concentrated on achieving an unprecedented number of honors degrees.

"Our class can rightly be portrayed as a natural fabric about to change. At the time we had no inkling. The headlines about riots and Kennedy ordering troops to Cuba were just rumblings to us," says Richard B. Barthelmes '61, advertising director for Gourmet magazine.

But then the junior senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy '40, won the White House and the Class of '61 accepted the youthful president's inaugural challenge. They acted within the system to build a new society--some joined the newly created Peace Corps, while others served in the Justice Department, the State Department and the armed services. The rest stuck with the private sector, from acting to medicine to publishing, but carrying on with the same spirit of channelled cando.

"It was the end of an era of smugness and security and self-congratulation," says William L. (Jacobson) Tynan '61. In the happy-go-lucky days of the Eisenhower era, the Class of 1961 was incensed by a $250 tuition hike from the original $1000 a year fee. In the classroom, Dean of the Faculty McGeorge Bundy lectured about the importance of U.S. involvement in Indochina and the relevance of the domino theory. In Government 180, "Principles of International Politics," then-associate professor Henry A. Kissinger '50 told an overflow crowd of 350 that "students sitting at my feet flatter my ego."

As freshmen the class set off all the fire alarms in the Yard for fun; then they orchestrated a sit-in to protest the inedible dining hall fare and disrupt the traffic in the Square. The all-consuming desires were for sport, study, and alcohol. "My main concern was beer," recalls Barthelmes.

"I remember seeing SDS [Students for a Democratic Society] on campus and thinking what's the point, what can college students do?" says Tynan, a reporter for Time magazine.

But at the end of senior year the Class of '61 was up in arms. "We were being cheated out of a birthright," says Peter J. Bloom '61, an international development expert. Bloom banded together with 4000 other Harvard students to place his life on the line in the face of Cambridge police. They blocked traffic on Memorial Drive and hurled firecrackers and eggs. The police retaliated with tear gas and made six arrests. Luckily, someone was on hand to supply the vicious mob with ice cream cones. All in the name of Latin diplomas.

"It was like a fraternity prank--foolish," says former Lowell House resident Richard H. Linden '61, now a member of the Massachusetts civil service commission.

"The fact that there was a riot over something that silly compared to issues such as nuclear weapons and hunger is indicative of the innocence and immaturity that all changed in the 60s," he says. "[The protest] shows how little we had on our minds," says John G. Ryden '61, the director of Yale University Press.

But the mood was slowly changing. A few members of the class fought for equality in the South before senior year, but their involvement was "looked at askance, as a jerky thing to do," says Linden. "When it was met with violence, it was brought to reality."

By the fall of their senior year, most members of the class were eligible to vote for the first time, at the age of 21. Kennedy was the favorite son and won 62 percent of the Class of '61 vote. When Kennedy brought Camelot from the Senate to the White House, the Class revelled in the glory of every Harvardian's favorite alum.

"We all thought that to graduate from Harvard was to graduate from the best of our generation. Kennedy affirmed that we could have an effect on the world," says Tynan, who acted in touring companies for Broadway shows and in a soap opera before going to work for Time.

When in January 1961, the President arrived in the Yard for a Board of Overseers meeting, the former Winthrop resident was promptly mobbed. "An enormous wave of affection and triumph took hold of people," says Tynan. "It was an affirmation of our importance and significance. He was one of our own." Tynan recalls Kennedy's quip at the time: "I've come to talk to President Pusey about your grades."

"It was an upbeat era, with an optimistic outlook on the world," says Kelso F. Sutton '61, executive vice president of Time Inc. "We were a transition class looking ahead."