Harvard College Class of 1966 share their stories

As their 50th reunion approaches, several members of the Class of 1966 share their Harvard stories.

Tony Kahn

Harvard College gave us many things as undergraduates, but a close connection with each other wasn’t one of them. Exchanging stories about what it was like to handle a very imposing and impersonal institution as very young adults was not on the curriculum. Thank God for reunions. They’ve been my main means of getting to know my classmates as individual human beings. To enrich the conversation for our upcoming fiftieth reunion, I’m spending the next few years recording the voices of my classmates, talking to me from the heart about themselves and Harvard after nearly 50 years. I edit these conversations into short narratives of three to five minutes. People have been remarkably open and confiding about their personal experiences, and, for me at least, the stories so far have been riveting and revealing. I'm making them available on my YouTube Channel. By our fiftieth reunion, I should also have DVDs (or whatever has replaced them by 2016) available to the class. I'm grateful to all the classmates who've spoken with me so far for their generosity and for keeping me busy, since my retirement from public radio, doing the thing I love best.

Below, hear several members of the Class of 1966 share their Harvard memories and stories: 










Tony Kahn ’66 has been a producer for PBS and NPR
for 40 years and is a weekly panelist on Says You, the National Public Radio comedy quiz show. He is looking for more people from the class of 1966 to interview and can be reached at tonykahn@gmail.com.   

Read more articles by Tony Kahn ’66
Related topics

You might also like

These Harvard Mountaineers Braved Denali’s Wall of Ice

John Graham’s Denali Diary documents a dangerous and historic climb.

How Stories Help Us Cope with Climate Change

The growing genre of climate fiction offers a way to process reality—and our anxieties.

What Do Puppies Know?

Canine capabilities emerge early and continue into adulthood.

Most popular

The True Cost of Grade Inflation at Harvard

How an abundance of A’s created “the most stressed-out world of all.”

Harvard physicians on the digital healthcare revolution

Harvard physicians on the future of medicine

The Teen Brain

It’s a paradoxical time of development. These are people with very sharp brains, but they’re not quite sure what to do with them...

Explore More From Current Issue

A close-up of a beetle on the textured surface of a cycad cone and cycad cones seen in infrared silhouette.

Research in Brief

Cutting-edge discoveries, distilled

Modern campus collage: Treehouse Conference Center, One Milestone labs, Verra apartment, and co-working space.

The Enterprise Research Campus in Allston Nears Completion

A hotel, restaurants, and other retail establishments are open or on the way.

A person climbs a curved ladder against a colorful background and four vertical ladders.

Harvard’s Productivity Trap

What happened to doing things for the sake of enjoyment?