Golden Guard Luncheon:
50 Years Later Alumni Still Look to the Future

On Friday, Feb. 9, members of the Class of
’57 — graduates of St. Edward's University and St. Edward's High School — were inducted into the Golden Guard, a special society for alumni celebrating their 50-year class reunion. Held in the Maloney Room in Main Building, where a number of the alumni present had lived as students, the lunch was abuzz with memories as attendees filed past a table of old yearbooks and photos provided by University Archives from the Scarborough-Phillips Library.

Rich Ries, ’57, who serves on the St. Edward's University Alumni Association Board and helped plan the event, opened the ceremony with a special thanks to the Holy Cross Brothers who shaped his education. “They were educators, professors and personal mentors. They were the first real teachers who saw the potential in all of us.” One of 15 members of the Class of ’57 inducted into the Golden Guard this year, Ries went on to note the positive changes that are securing the university’s place as one of the nation’s best small universities. “Amenities today are far in excess of what we experienced. St. Edward’s offers more opportunities than we had — greater diversity, more majors.”

But with all the changes, the afternoon address by Father Rick Wilkinson, CSC, showed the university is staying true to its Holy Cross heritage. In addition to evolving opportunities for study, St. Edward’s has also provided new avenues for service through programs such as International Immersion Experiences and Alternative Spring Break, in which students experience the realities of poverty or the effects of globalization, and what they can do to make a difference. “Our hope for them is much like our hope was for you,” said Father Rick, “that while they are here, they will gain not only the competency to see, but the courage to act. Then, not only will they, like you, be living St. Edward’s mission, but they will find their own mission in life.”

A New Tradition to Honor Alumni

This year’s ceremony also marked the beginning of a new tradition at St. Edward’s. Just as incoming freshmen receive a medallion of the St. Edward’s University seal when they enter the university, each member of the Golden Guard was presented with a medallion commemorating this special alumni milestone. Prior to the ceremony, Father Rick explained the symbols of the seal, such as the heart, “shot through by twin arrows of love and learning, whose heirs we are and will continue to be.”

Still Looking Ahead

In celebration of the “past, present and future of the university,” members of the Class of ’57 made a special gift to The St. Edward’s Fund at the close of the event. Paraphrasing William Butler Yeats, Ries eloquently noted, “All life is a preparation for something that probably will never happen,” he said. “Today, we made it happen.”

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