In 1950, Coca-Cola was 5 cents, you could get a pretty good car for under $500, and movie stars were telling us they smoked Chesterfields because they tasted so good.

The Class of 1950 took their own walk down memory lane during their Golden Anniversary reunion weekend in early May.

To kick off festivities, President and Mrs. Bickart hosted a breakfast, and the Nifty Fifties Class posed for a new class photo on the steps of Guggenheim Hall.

As part of commencement ceremonies, the 63 class members and two widows of class members who returned to celebrate this special reunion were presented with commemorative gold-on-silver diplomas by President Bickart in honor of their 50 years of service to Mines.

The class rounded off their reunion weekend with a class dinner at Mt. Vernon Country Club, and by attending the annual All Alumni Banquet to view the "big check" the Reunion Giving Program presented to the School.

The Class of ’50 raised an extraordinary $354,581 in endowment and annual fund support, second in gift total to the Class of ’40, which raised over $1.4 million.

Total reunion gifts from the 11 reunion classes amounted to $2,317,224.

Top gifts by the Class of 1950 came from John V. Newhouser, Larry Barrett and Johanna P. Collester.

John established the John V. and Charlotte Newhouser Geology Endowment Fund with a leadership gift of $50,000.

Revenue from the endowment will be used to purchase instructional equipment for the department.

Larry gave an additional $128,000 to the Lawrence E. Barrett Endowed Scholarship Fund, and Johanna made an additional gift of $65,350 to the Collester charitable remainder trust in honor of her late husband, Stewart.