{"id":4104,"date":"2026-10-19T16:25:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T23:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/?p=4104"},"modified":"2026-10-19T16:25:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T23:25:01","slug":"a-tribute-to-harry-mersmann-82","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/2026\/10\/a-tribute-to-harry-mersmann-82\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tribute to Harry Mersmann \u201982"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Some Reedies have a knack for gathering people and for putting on a Reedie sort of party. Harry Mersmann \u201982 was that kind of person. After he passed away on June 22, 2026, a group of his classmates gathered in Yosemite over Labor Day weekend to celebrate his memory: Sunny Childs ’83, Paul Edison-Lahm \u201983, Stephen Engelmann ’83, Katie Laris ’83, Sara Nichols ’83, Owen Shapiro ’84,\u00a0 and Mark Worthington ’83, along with spouses and family members:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The group gathered annually for many years\u2014in Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Santa Rosa, and Ft Bragg. Harry was the sort who built friendships that literally lasted a lifetime. Many of the listed alumni have stayed in touch since their graduation, with Sunny, Stephen, Katie, Sara, and Harry all in this photo from their graduation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Harry’s son, Max, who joined the group in Yosemite this year, is long-range planning a Harry type of memorial in Stockton, CA where he lived and died. Meanwhile, Harry is loved by so many in the Reed community that his friends are putting on a Zoom gathering just to talk about Harry on Friday, Nov. 20th at 10 a.m. PT<\/strong> \u2013 people who want to attend can register here.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, you might consider raising a glass in his honor\u2014Harry created a host of Hum 110 inspired cocktails to go along with each unit of the syllabus<\/a>. A glass of his “House of Atreus<\/strong>” might be perfect for the occasion, or a “Death in the Afternoon” <\/strong>if you aim to be a little more on the nose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some Reedies have a knack for gathering people and for putting on a Reedie sort of party. Harry Mersmann \u201982 was that kind of person. After he passed away on June 22, 2026, a group of his classmates gathered in Yosemite over Labor Day weekend to celebrate his memory: Sunny Childs ’83, Paul Edison-Lahm \u201983, … Continue reading A Tribute to Harry Mersmann \u201982<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2891,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[205],"class_list":["post-4104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2891"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4113,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions\/4113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}