Alumni Dedication

Doug Schair '67, the driving force and lead donor for the Schair-Swenson-Watson Alumni Center, wasn't able to attend the building dedication this fall. He passed away unexpectedly last January, as construction was entering the final phase. When his sister, Leslie Cohen, spoke at the ceremony on October 22, she said, "This dedication is a moment to acknowledge the long and loving relationship between a man and his alma mater." And so it was.

Colby's newest building is the gathering place for which alumni have yearned, and it houses the College Relations offices under one roof, as Schair envisioned. It features geothermal heating and countless environmentally green details, and, in the words of Student Alumni Association Co-President Amy Squires '06J, it is already "a meeting place for clubs, a venue for events, a student space, and a connection to our Colby past."

After Cohen regaled the crowd with letters her brother wrote home as a student ("Dear Mom, When I come home next weekend for Saturday lunch, I would like you to prepare the following if possible: wiener schnitzel"), she recalled her brother saying that he would love to teach at Colby. "Instead he gave his heart and soul to the college he loved," she said.