Gordon College nursing graduates from 1975 to 2006 made history on May 5 when they held the first combined-classes reunion since the nursing program started in 1973.

Gordon President Lawrence Weill greeted approximately 100 graduates and guests gathered in the college's Student Center Atrium and praised them for helping to make the college's nursing program the best in Georgia.

"We are all very proud of this reputation, but we are most proud of you nurse alumni," he said. "I told my wife before coming that if anything should happen to me there was no better place for it to happen than in a roomful of nurses? and a hundred board (certified) nurses at that."

Before eating, graduates and their guests socialized while photographs of past pinning ceremonies, graduations and lectures were projected on a large screen near the dance floor.

Ron Andrews traveled 600 miles from Miami to visit with friends he hadn't seen in 14 years. After he graduated in 1993, he worked at Spalding Regional Hospital for a couple of years and then became a traveling nurse. He and classmates Sandra Landry of Griffin, Kathy Schumaker Hammock and Rob Foster, both of Thomaston, were the last ones out the door at the end of the evening.

Members of Gordon College's nursing class of 1993 catch up at a reunion. From left are Sandra Landry of Griffin, Kathy Schumaker Hammock of Thomaston, Ron Andrews of Miami and Rob Foster, also of Thomaston.

Andrews may have been the alumnus who traveled the farthest in distance, but it was Betty Traylor Coleman who traveled the greatest distance in time. A graduate of the nursing school's first class in 1973, Coleman said she had hoped to see Marie LoMonaco, the nursing school?s first director. Coleman remembers LoMonaco as very upbeat and encouraging and that she "took us under her wing."

Kezia Mobley of Hampton, who graduated in 2002 remembers LoMonaco's successor, Pat Brown. Mobley, who now works at Emory University Hospital, recalled having to show Brown that she could establish and maintain a sterile field which ensures that a patient will not be infected during a medical procedure.

"I'll never forget her looking over those glasses and telling me I contaminated the field," Mobley said. Although the experience was painful, she said, the lesson was not wasted on her. To this day she gets it right.

Also in attendance was the alumna organizer of the event, Milner resident Sharon Holcombe, class of 2006. As Gordon College's Coordinator of Alumni Affairs Lynn Yates tells the story, Holcombe walked into her office one day looking for help to hold a reunion. This turned out to be a happy coincidence since the college wanted to do the same thing.

Sharon Holcombe of Milner, left, and Kathy Schumaker Hammock of Thomaston were two of the approximate 100 people who attended Gordon College's School of Nursing reunion. The reunion brought together graduates from 1975 to 2006.

"This lady came to my office a year ago and was back time and time again to work on the reunion," Yates told the audience, marveling that "she has done everything? even though she has three kids and works full time."
 For her efforts, Holcombe was awarded a plaque from the college's office of alumni affairs and the applause of her fellow nurses.