Alliance, the primary LGBTQIA+ group on campus. The Aulbani J. Beauregard Center for Equity, Justice and Freedom. The Diversity Support Coalition. Safe Zones, an educational program to raise awareness of LGBTQIA+ issues. TransUNH.

For a select few in the standing-room- only crowd, that list resonated as a lot more than a bulleted account of Barre’s credentials.

It represented once-unimaginable progress. Progress they all left the first fearless fingerprints on.

Those individuals will be forever unified as trailblazers in the pursuit of LGBTQIA+ rights at UNH and beyond.

So just about to head out into the “real world,” he went into the Holy Cross placement office, looking for some direction. There he met Professor Bill Wetzel, visiting from UNH to talk to prospective students about going to the Graduate School here in Durham.

It was a fateful encounter that would give Ted professional direction and create a lasting relationship between the Ristainos and Wetzel for decades to come.

Wetzel encouraged Ristaino to check out the MBA program at the business school at UNH. A few weeks later, the Ristainos took a drive up and fell in love with the campus, the Seacoast and the state. Ted enrolled in the two-year MBA program and graduated with his MBA in 1975.

After 10 years, I continue to find inspiration here all the time. In the spring, I attended The Beauregard Center graduation ceremony. When I hear powerful and moving student stories like the ones I heard there from students focused on inclusion and diversity, I’m vividly reminded of why we exist. The university has a deeply consequential mission of readying our students to become contributing members of their communities and society as a whole. I’m so incredibly proud of our role in creating a revenue source to deliver on that mission.

“Earning my degree feels fantastic. … I just enjoy learning. It’s as simple as that: I have always loved school,” she said a few weeks before her May 2015 graduation.

Boudreau passed away in November 2022 at the age of 86; her obituary noted that she continued to be an avid collector of books and enjoyed her family, solving puzzles and crafting.

In her 2015 interview, she joked that being an elder member of a UNH class had its funny moments: “The gray hair … the glasses … and usually older people sit up front. Sometimes when young students come in to the first class of the semester, they think I’m the professor!”

At the time, Professor David Watters lauded her as an inspiration to her younger peers. “Verna has an insatiable curiosity and delight in learning. I’ve been fascinated to watch the friendships she formed with the 18- and 19-year-olds in her classes. That suggests to me that her presence in unspoken ways is a real inspiration.”

Says McGregor Executive Director Chris Lemelin: “One of the wonderful things about McGregor and being a part of UNH is the willingness of our past members and UNH alumni who have gone on to careers in medicine to come back and provide high-quality training to our current providers.” He knows that connection well: he’s an alum, too — class of 2006 (psychology) and UNH Graduate School class of 2011 (public health).

Dr. McKenzie worked as a volunteer with McGregor while he was earning his political science degree at UNH. “Without my experiences at UNH and McGregor, I wouldn’t be where I am today. When I entered UNH, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, but my time at McGregor helped me discover a love of medicine.”

Mary Ann had transferred to UNH ahead of her junior year to become a member of the class of 1963. As an art major, “I loved walking through campus and being close to nature,” she says. Other great memories she shared were that she met her husband here, and learned to ski here. Her advice to the most recent class of graduates? “Be sure to come back more often,” she joked.

That was the theme of Reunion Weekend: come back more often, stay in touch more and cherish those UNH memories that were made so many decades ago.

The family also believed strongly in education: In 1974, Ruth earned an associate’s degree at UNH at the age of 46, and nearly 10 years later, taking one or two classes at a time, she earned a bachelor’s degree in history at the age of 55.

“My mother went abroad on the Cambridge program one summer, and she continued to talk about it for years,” says her daughter Julie Dunfey. She studied history, literature and theatre while there.

He was determined to be successful, and he knew that getting a college degree was key to that success. He found that his athletic and academic talents helped him make his way — as did people who lent a helping hand.

“If it wasn’t for some people along the way, helping me in sports, I would never even have gotten to college,” he said previously. He earned a business degree at Temple University in 1961.

It started when she saw “An Inconvenient Truth,” the 2006 climate change documentary featuring former vice president Al Gore.

“I was partway through it, and I said, ‘We have to change the business. We have to wake up here,’” Lamprey said in a 2015 interview. From there, she brought new focus to the Lamprey Brothers company — from selling oil to helping customers burn less oil, namely through energy-efficient HVAC equipment.

Growing up, the center of home was our kitchen table where we ate dinner at the outrageous hour of 5:30 p.m. That dinner table is where I began to learn what kind of person I wanted to be. If I complained about how a teacher spoke to a student in a dismissive way, my dad would say, “If you don’t like it, what are you going to do about it?” At our dinner table there was no easy out. You had to look at problems from all sides and propose a solution.