Old Guard of Virginia Tech
Background
The Old Guard, organized in 1967, accepts into membership each year the members of the class graduating 50 years earlier. The need for the formation of The Old Guard was pointed out by P. B. Earle, Class of 1901. He proposed that there be formed among alumni a group that would provide a means for continuing contact, reunions, and fellowship for members of classes that could no longer maintain class activities. This would allow the members of each class to visit with other classes before and after their own.
The Alumni Association agreed and created The Old Guard. J. Ambler Johnston, Class of 1904, and one of Tech's most devoted sons, wrote the first constitution for the organization. He probably also suggested the name, though records are not clear on this point. Uncle Ambler, as he was affectionately known, was a student of military history and a noted scholar of the Civil War. He may, however, have reached back to 1804 for a name. Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary (2nd Ed.) gives one definition of old guard as "the Imperial Guard organized by Napoleon I in 1804," and another as "any old group of defenders of a cause."
Whatever the source of the name, The Old Guard of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association is an organization of respected and revered alumni. The Old Guard offers you an opportunity to continue friendships and to participate in alumni activities even when you no longer gather for individual class reunions. An Old Guard Reunion is held each spring on campus.