The year was 1944, just after D-Day, when Roger Shaeffer and Bob Franklin met on the beaches of Normandy for the first time since graduating. And as always, they met again at the Half-Century Club dinner where they've often told the tale of that first meeting--the wonderment of it never fading.

"I came in on an LST and was injured a few days after we hit the beach," said Shaeffer, a retired businessman who now lives with his wife, Gwen, near Seattle. "Bob was the one who got me on a ship back to England and to a hospital in Dartmouth. He visited me there and even wrote home to my mom and dad to let them know I was all right."

This year Shaeffer and his 1943 classmates were among the members of the Half-Century Club who welcomed 98 new inductees from the Class of 1948--"survivors" according to Class President William Warren. "At our age, we do quite a lot of things for the first time," he said, enumerating a list that included Prohibition, the Depression, World War II, and Oberlin College blue books. "After seven decades of 'firsts,' I am awed by our survival."

Special dinner guests included three alumni celebrating their 70-year reunion: 1928 graduates William Allen, Berta Lehman Vail, and Fulton Hume. For Loretta Masters Kearns, this year's Half-Century gathering marked her first return to Oberlin since graduating 55 years ago. "Being able to attend Oberlin was the highlight of my life," she said. A retired music teacher living in Irvine, California, Kearns studied piano, trombone, and xylophone at the Conservatory. "I grew up in Massachusetts and my dream was to go to Oberlin.But it was the Depression and I really needed a scholarship. And I got it!

"I was so shy when I came here," she added. "Oberlin changed me. I'm overwhelmed and totally delighted to finally come back. The atmosphere is still the same. Of course, there are changes, but the changes are wonderful."

KS