Seiler attributed the boost to volunteers' diligent efforts to connect with their classmates.
The reunion will emphasize reconnecting to both the College and the Class of 1963. Faculty lectures, walking tours and student-led events will allow alumni to rediscover the College that they studied at 50 years ago, while a fishing trip will deepen personal relationships within the class, Seiler said.
Volunteers organized a "Dartmate" schedule of special programming for classmates' spouses and partners, Seiler added.
The premiere events include a dessert reception with Interim President Carol Folt and a waterfront luncheon. A memorial service will commemorate the deceased members of the class.
For the first time, organizers created a reunion yearbook with 680 pages of classmates' reflections on work, family and retirement, class president Larry Bailey '63 said.
"People wrote and wrote," he said. "Our yearbook has been a smash hit."
The Class of 1963 boasts members including a Nobel Prize winner, a co-writer of the cherished "Animal House" (1978) and the former CEO of IBM.
Class vice president Dan Muchinsky '63 fondly recalled his time at Dartmouth acquiring critical thinking and writing skills.
"I still think that some of the best days I spent were in Sanborn," he said.
He highlighted differences between the Dartmouth of years past and today. In the early 1960s, 1,500 students were members of the ROTC, football games were well attended, classes were held on Saturdays and coeducation was still a decade away.
Once women returned to their own schools after a big weekend, students would throw a "Thank God They're Gone" party, Muchinsky said.
Yet Robert Berkwitz '63 remembered the difficulty of meeting women at Dartmouth.
"It was a real pain to get a date," he said. "It was, like, a three-hour drive back in those days."
Muchinsky contrasted the era's relaxed attitude toward alcohol to today's stringent policies. During his time, drinking was almost "expected," he said.
Bailey described class pranks that included a student stringing a sheet over Baker Tower emblazoned with the number 63, he said.
While the political turmoil often associated with the 1960s did not come to Hanover during their time, Bailey remembered packing into the Hanover Inn, the only place with accessible television, to watch the news with fellow students.
"We thought we were on the brink of a nuclear war," Bailey recalled.
Muchinsky remembered gathering with other students to see Robert Frost, "a genuine celebrity," recite poems in Dartmouth Hall.
He said he looks forward to reconnecting with classmates who do not often attend reunions events.
"A lot of things happen in 50 years," Muchinsky said. "Some have had spectacular lives, and some have had a lot of difficulties."
Bailey said he is excited to see Thad Seymour, Dean of Students at the College from 1959 to 1969, speak June 8.
Reunion events are paid for by participation fees, Seiler said. The reunion lasts from June 7 to 9 and includes a three-day extension.
