For KU Alumni, Study Abroad in Bonn Creates Lifelong Bond

In the fall of 1971, a group of 12 University of Kansas students embarked on a junior year abroad program at the University of Bonn, Germany. There, they learned the language, took German-speaking classes and traveled Europe, including communist East Germany.    

More than fifty years later, members of the group gathered again, this time in Boulder, Colorado, where they made new memories while sharing old ones.

“I have never been to a high school reunion,” said Greg Lynch, who graduated from KU in 1974 with degrees in European history and physics and astronomy. “But Bonn was different because of the people and the bonding experience that we had. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this for anything.”

The reunion was the fourth time the group has reunited. The first was in Bonn in 2004, followed by a gathering in 2007 held in Berkeley, California, and dubbed Bonn by the Bay. For the third reunion, the group returned to Bonn in 2011.

Along with KU alumni, the reunions include other Americans who were studying at the University of Bonn that year.

The most recent gathering was held in May, where the former classmates stayed in cottages at Colorado Chautauqua. They hiked, toured Boulder and spent most of their time together dining and chatting.

“We have nostalgia, but we also have new memories,” said Debbie Carroll, who graduated in 1973 with a degree in German.

In the early 1970s, students needed an adventurous spirit to embark on a yearlong study abroad program, said Brenda Stafford, who graduated in 1973 with degrees in German and political science.

Communication with friends and family back in the United States was limited to letters and rare, expensive phone calls.

“I talked to my parents on the phone twice the entire year,” Stafford said. “We were each other’s support system. And we, honestly, just had a heck of a lot of fun together.”

The KU students started the program with a six-week orientation that included intensive language training and homestays with families in Bonn. Then, the students spent two semesters in German-speaking classes at the university.

The group would review lecture notes together, combining the pieces of German they each understood.

“At the beginning, until we got better, it was kind of like a puzzle we were putting together,” Stafford said.

As a full-year program, Lynch said, they had an in-depth experience living in the country.

Their time in Germany was colored by Cold War politics and fell just 26 years after the end of World War II. On weekends and breaks, the students hitchhiked through Germany, including excursions into East Germany. Lynch described his visit to East Berlin as the “Wizard of Oz” in reverse.

“It went from Technicolor to sepia. Everything was black and white and all dirty and overcast skies,” he said and recalled meeting a young family with a baby girl. “The last thing they said was ‘we hope someday our daughter can visit you in the West,’ which was impossible at that time.”

The year abroad was transformative. Along with gaining lifelong friends, the group said they returned home with a sense of independence and a new perspective on the United States.

“It was the first year of really being independent in your life. You had to solve the problems; you had to make all the decisions,” said Patti Acosta, who graduated in 1973 with a degree in German.

For Carroll, it changed how she viewed the world.

“After you came back, you had a whole new perspective on what your life was like and what your culture was like because you had lived in another culture. You had a scientific perspective of what life was like in the United States,” she said.

The experience also shaped their careers. Stafford was a high school German teacher. Lynch had a career in the U.S. Foreign Service and was posted in Germany twice. Carroll took several business trips to Germany.

“The year in Bonn really shifted my trajectory,” said Lynch, who decided to join the Foreign Service after his experience and was placed in Germany because of his language-speaking skills.

After returning from Bonn, some in the group continued to stay in touch. In the early 2000s, the idea of an official reunion was born. The gatherings continue to grow with 19 people attending the Bonn in Boulder reunion.

“We are in our 70s, so the numbers should be declining dramatically, but they are not. The reunions keep getting bigger and bigger,” Lynch said.

The adventurous spirit that inspired the group to travel to Germany 50 years ago remains, as does the fun.