However, I did not know of Laurence Halstead. My dear mother's maiden name was Halstead, and I could not believe that she would not have told me of her USMA relative. I happened to be between homes at the time without personal papers.But Hansen persisted and made me do my homework. Without the details, suffice it to say that a relationship was established. The point here is that these committee members do a brilliant job of genealogical sleuthing.

Thus on Friday, 30 April 1999; Romney and I will be attending "1899 Day" at West Point. This celebration will mark the centennial of the graduation of the Class of 1899. All descendants and other relatives of the cadets have been invited to attend.

The program will consist of a reception Thursday evening. On Friday, there will be a morning tour of the academy, a luncheon, a visit to the Special Collections Section of the USMA Library, a visit to the Superintendent's house, a class memorial service, a p-rade, and a concluding banquet.

Though I shall verify this matter, it seems to me that the Class Centennial celebration was initiated by a grad who felt that his grandfather's class centennial should be celebrated. He got it together, it was a great success, and now it is a tradition aborning.

A sidebar: as a patron of The Friends of the West Point Library: I will relish the Special Collections Section. One of my classmates told me that had I paid as much attention to the Library as a Cadet I would have been an Engineer. If you are not a member, I believe you should be. I lived at West Point for seven years and my family is interred there. I am always thrilled to return to the citadel of my heart.

Blessings.........
and grip hands,
William Bathurst '54

Since I worked with the Class Centennial Committee for several years, I will add a bit to the story--as I mentioned previously, the Class Centennial is a tradition unique to West Point and, in my opinion, the most interesting one that graduates know nothing about.

The tradition was actually begun by a retired Army LTC (a non-graduate CE officer from SC) who thought it would be appropriate to arrange for the living descendants of his FATHER's [Note: That's right...his father was VERY old when he was born!!] class to hold a reunion at West Point on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of their ancestors' USMA graduation. He made a valiant effort to contact as many descendants as he could find, arranged with USMA authorities to hold the reunion, and brought the whole thing off--I believe it was in 1969.

The descendants of that first Centennial Reunion were so taken with the idea that they formed a Class Centennial Committee with the idea of perpetuating the 'tradition'. Volunteers now research court records, archives listings, etc, throughout the country to try to reach as many descendants as possible. In the 4 years of my involvement with the project (1981-1984), the centennial classes generally had fewer than 40 graduates. The committee would usually locate a descendant for every alumnus who had any, and normally about 100 descendants would attend...I would say that generally about 80% of the alumni would be represented. A moving part of the reunion was the Last Roll Call at Trophy Point when the names of each graduate were read as Taps was played and descendants who were present would stand to honor their ancestor.

As you might imagine from Bill Bathurst's post, each year there are a few folks among the centennial descendants who have some continuing connection with USMA. Most of the descendants are grandchildren, great-grandchildren, or great-great-grandchildren (the originator of the tradition, as a class son, was unique in my experience). Generally, the people who attend have never been to West Point before--many had no idea they had an ancestor who was an alumnus before being contacted by the committee, but some had warm memories of the grandfather who had told them stories of his service when they were young children. [The most memorable attendee for me was a hardy lady who came to the reunion from her home in the Arctic Circle...she had traveled by sled dog, train, and bus to get to West Point for the occasion.] A highlight of the reunion is always the opportunity for the descendants to view the archival data about their ancestor and his classmates. At the formal banquet on the last night of the reunion, each family designates a representative to tell briefly about their ancestor. To say that the experience is nostalgic and moving would be an understatement!

Wonderful tradition...I have tried to get the Alumni and Development folks here at Auburn University interested in a similar effort. Not sure it could be the same at any other place, though, since the graduating classes at most institutions would not present the same kind of history lesson one gets from a trip through the USMA archives.

Sam Burney '64