Wearing a beige fedora, musician Austin de Lone '68 performs Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A'Changin'" to classmates who grew up listening to Dylan's music.

CORRECTION APPENDED

In town for their 40th reunion, the Class of 1968 celebrated Saturday evening in the same fashion they have for 25 years: an evening cabaret show featuring performances by fellow classmates.

When Marshall M. Goldberg ’68 took the stage, after two minutes of an ironic parody of “Hava nagila,” alumni lifted long-time New York Times reporter Linda J. Greenhouse ’68 up and down in a chair as the audience clapped along.

“Har-vard, you went to Har-vard,” Goldberg sang. “Don’t despair, Har-vard. With that degree, you cannot fail.”

“Spe-cial, you’re so spe-cial!” he sang to peals of laughter.

Classmates packed all three floors of the John F. Kennedy, Jr. Forum for the performance: a tradition that they started at the class’s 15th reunion to help honor musician Peter S. Ivers ’68, who had been murdered in March of that year.

“I think there’s an amazing cohesiveness and spirit in this class,” said Christina Schlesinger ’68. “A 40th reunion isn’t supposed to be all that extraordinary, but here we all are together.”

Later in the night, Austin de Lone ’68 sang and performed on the piano Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A’Changin’.”

Toward the end, all the night’s performers united on stage to sing “When I’m 64” by the Beatles.

Edward M. Kovachy ’68, the class’s alumni representative who has helped organize the cabaret since 1983, said in an interview later, “This is our last opportunity to sing ‘When I’m 64’ because after this reunion, we’ll be older than 64.”

Then, at the very end, the night’s performers joined on stage to sing a Beatles song that they have done at every cabaret since 1983: “Hey Jude.”

Performers and audience members waved their right arms back and forth together as they sang, “Naaa, na na na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, hey Jude.”

“It’s the moment that I wish would go on forever,” Kovachy said. “The whole audience as one.”

Dressed in the suits, ties, and dresses of their older years, the music they performed celebrated their youth.

“I love coming back. It’s a blast from the past,” said theater director Stephen A. Michaels ’68, one of the night’s performers.

Roger E. Kozol ’68 said that he also enjoys returning to Harvard.

“The longer you are from graduation, the less competitive we are with each other,” he said. “You get friendly with people you weren’t friendly with earlier.”

The reunion proved to be more festive than their Commencement, when they didn’t get to have a ceremony in Tercentenary Theatre because it rained.

Martin Luther King, Jr., who had been killed that April, was supposed to be the Commencement speaker.

Instead, the summa cum laudes were presented with their diplomas in a television studio as Commencement was broadcast on television.

Coretta Scott King gave the Commencement speech. [SEE CORRECTION BELOW]

“We had caps and gowns, but we couldn’t throw them in the air,” said Stephen “Mo” Hanan ’68, who helped organize the class’s first cabaret. “I never even saw Commencement until our 25th reunion.”

Computer science professor and former College dean Harry R. Lewis ’68—donning a sixties original orange bow tie—gave his top ten reasons why the sixties were better than today.

His number-one reason?

“Then we were so much younger than the 25th reunion class,” he said. “Now we’re so much younger than the 50th reunion class—but Harvard keeps them away so that we cannot enjoy the comparison.”

—Staff writer Bonnie J. Kavoussi can be reached at kavoussi@fas.harvard.edu.


CORRECTION

The Oct. 13 story, "Still Singing After All These Years," stated that Coretta Scott King gave the Commencement speech in 1968. In fact, she gave the Class Day address while the Shah of Iran spoke at Commencement.