After ten months of planning, meetings, and hard work, it seemed like October 18th, the day chosen to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Berkeley Student Cooperative, would never arrive.  The excitement of the alumni board, the current students and Co-op staff was almost palpable as last minute details were attended to during the week preceding the event.

Finally, the three groups converged on Hs Lordships banquet facility on the evening of the event to transform the venue, with its panoramic view of the San Francisco Bay, into a glittering celebration of the community created by the Berkeley Student Cooperative.  The spirit of the current students working with the alumni volunteers and staff testified to the seamless transfer of community from one generation of co-opers to the next.

With more than 450 alumni and students convening in the same room, the highlight of the event for many participants was simply the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and make new ones.  Nancy Blattel, who chaired the 75th anniversary gala, commented:  “I reconnected with a number of past Co-op board members and officers whom I had known as students during the years I served as the alumni board representative in the 1980s.  Many people said they did not realize what a commitment the long board meetings were for an alum until they were out of school and had full-time job and family responsibilities.” 

BSC Housing Department Supervisor Betsy Putnam also relished the reconnection with old friends, stating, “When the big night finally arrived, I got to see about 375 of my closest friends.  Just kidding, but I really did know a lot of people and it was so much fun to see everyone.  I hung out with current co-opers, people in their mid-80s, people whom I lived with in Barrington and Rochdale--oh, like 30 years ago--who still seem young to me, but seem pretty middle-aged when I look at the pictures.”

Observed among the guests were many former Co-op Presidents, including Nancy Lulu Falls, Debbie Bopp, John Ehrlich, Nancy Brigham Blattel, Joanna Honey Shor Posner, Peter Lawrence, Bekah Cutler, and Wade Huntley.  The Berkeley Chief of Police, Doug Hambleton (Castro, Wolf and Northside) was in attendance along with Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and Loni Hancock, currently serving in her first term as the representative of California State Senate District.  And from UC Berkeley, the BSC was honored by the attendance of Harry LeGrande, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and Susan Muller, Associate Dean of Graduate Student Affairs.

Restaurateur Narsai David acted as Master of Ceremonies for the evening’s program, honoring three general managers of the Berkeley Student Cooperative for their years of service: Hal Norton, who was represented by his daughter Rory, Richard Palmer, and George Proper.  Alumni also had the opportunity to meet the BSC’s new Executive Director, Jan Stokley, who joined the organization in June 2008.  Not an alum herself, Stokley observed, “There’s simply no better way to understand the lasting impact of the Berkeley Student Cooperative on its members than to meet the alumni and hear their stories.”

Professor Emeritus Leon Litwak delivered a keynote address that spoke eloquently of the impact of the student co-op movement during his years at Berkeley in the 1950’s.  A boarder at the Co-op, he observed, “ The Co-op was more than a place to eat. I thrived on the conversations, the camaraderie, the lifelong friendships. And I appreciated the ideas it embraced.”  And those ideas were important nourishment for Litwak, who described himself as “the class rebel, the rebel with a cause.”  Running unsuccessfully four times for the Student Senate, Litwak went down to a resounding defeat, despite the endorsement of the UC Cooperative Association and the Council of House Presidents. “Somehow a platform calling for abolition of the loyalty oath and ROTC, protecting the rights of student workers, and ending discrimination in housing and hiring didn’t quite make it with the electorate, most of it concentrated along Piedmont Avenue.”

But like many co-op leaders, Litwak was ahead of his time.  The 1960s saw the Berkeley campus emerge as the center of the Free Speech Movement, civil rights, and anti-war activism.  That’s the tradition that he urged the University and the Berkeley Student Cooperative to embrace, observing, “In making Berkeley a free, open, and pluralistic campus, the Free Speech Movement and Mario Savio gave as much to this university as any of its distinguished Nobel laureates, financial benefactors, or fabled athletic coaches.”

As the evening drew to a close with music and dancing, many of the alumni convened in after-dinner parties, or made plans to attend the brunches being hosted for them the following day by their former houses.  And on everyone’s lips was the question, “Why don’t we make this an annual event?”