Page 59 - Georgetown Preparatory School Alumnews Winter 2021

TGhe Class of 1967 and the Ojai 8
eorgetown Prep’s Class of 1967 uncovered, a lot in common, a unity of spirit. They picked by accident, a valuable secret about itself up right where they had left off 47 years before.
Rob Clark ’87, P’19 Publishes “Everyday Resilience for Everyday Heroes”
Rob Clark ’87, P’19 is a professional speaker and the author of two children’s books - “Homecoming” and “Flynndini Lives!” - and one self-help motivational book, “Smiling in the Cube.” His fourth, and most recent book, “Everyday Resilience for Everyday Heroes,” was published by Koehler Books in September 2020. “Everyday Resilience for Everyday Heroes” highlights the four major facets of resiliency: adversity, perspective, passion, and appreciation. Through personal anecdotes, newsworthy tidbits, and descriptive analogies, Rob Clark leverages classic storytelling to provide a framework and structure to help us all move forward with confidence.
Rob has over 25 years of direct sales experience and has become
one of the leading authorities on resilience in the workplace. Rob has been the subject of numerous articles and podcasts, and his weekly blog, The Resilient Worker, has reached hundreds and thousands of readers over the past five years.
In addition, Rob brings the power of The Resilient Worker blog to life with keynote and personalized speeches. He has delighted both Fortune 500 companies, small companies, and every size company in between with his wit, charm
and sincerity. Rob lives outside Washington, DC with his wife, Jennifer, four children, Justin, Riley, Courtney, and Cassidy, and one amazing dog, Parker.
and about Prep that it wants to share with other graduating classes.
First the story of their discovery:
Several classmates from the Class of 1967 were frustrated that less than one-fifth of their class was showing up at the regular Prep- sponsored 5-year reunions. Some would travel several thousand miles only to discover that more than a dozen of their classmates who lived within 50 miles of Prep were no-shows. At their 45th reunion, there was again a low turnout, causing many to worry that the 50th reunion would
be a bust. A few had called Prep ahead of the 45th to see how many classmates were signed
up to attend, and upon learning only a few had, canceled. How could this be turned around in time for the 50th reunion? Why were turnouts for these reunions so low when so many graduates lived fairly close to the campus?
So, two and one-half years before their 50th reunion, eight classmates from the 60-member Class of 1967 decided to meet together over a four-day April weekend, in the little mountain town of Ojai, California. They gathered from
New York, San Francisco, Albuquerque, Houston, Delaware and Tulsa. They took a risk. Most of these 8 had not seen the others since graduation day on June 4, 1967, forty-seven long years before. They all wondered if they would still have much in common with their former pals, especially those they had not been that close to back in their school days.
What these 8 discovered was magic. There was an instant brotherhood - everyone got along famously, no one seemed to have fundamentally changed, and they had 47 years’ worth of great stories to share. They smoked cigars, shot baskets on the basketball court, drank wine, traveled to the Santa Barbara beaches, hit some baseballs off of a pitching machine, made breakfasts together, sat around the fireplace... and talked. They had
One topic toward the end of their 4-day weekend was “How do we get a better turnout at the 50th reunion?”
That is when they discovered several of
them had contacted Prep ahead of prior reunions to see who was coming, and when they found
out not many were, opted for that reason not to come. The major reason for poor turnouts was
the expectation that not many others would
show. They thought maybe the way to solve that problem was to send out a monthly newsletter listing who among them would “commit” to
going to the 50th reunion. The first newsletter had 6 commitments. One of their problems was that, at the time, Prep’s database was out of date and only about 25 of the names on Prep’s lists
had the correct email or mailing address. Prep’s records also failed to recognize who among them had passed. They had two challenges: find as many of these 60 classmates as they could, and through their monthly newsletter and phone calls, convince them to attend their 50th reunion.
They divided the class into six lists of names and assigned a number to each classmate. The number four next to your name meant it would be really hard to find you or convince you to come to the reunion. The number 1 meant you would not be hard to find and you would most likely attend. Six classmates were assigned a list of names and they started a competition to see who could win the most points by finding and then persuading those on their list to the reunion.
They combed through Facebook, LinkedIn, social security records, even old newspaper stories. Sometimes the results were sad: they found that 13 of their classmates had passed, a few only months before. They tracked down all of the rest except for two, whom they never found. The “Ojai 8” got “commitments” from all but two of our 1967 classmates to attend their 50th reunion.
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