Fall 2015 Edition
Alumni & Friends Magazine
We are family, Bobcat-style
This band of Bobcats celebrates New Year's Eve together every year, a tradition they've maintained since the early 1990s.
Jon Greenberg, BSJ 鈥01 | November 20, 2015
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Bobcat bonanza!
A band of Bobcats鈥擝rad Bush, BBA 鈥83; Mike Gregg, BBA 鈥83; Patrick Donadio, BSC 鈥80, MBA 鈥81; Sedat Gokcen, BSEE 鈥82, MA 鈥84; and his wife, Jeanne Gokcen, BSHS 鈥82, MAHS 鈥84鈥攂ecame friends when enrolled on the Athens Campus. They remain pals. One reason is proximity. The Gokcens and Donadios live in Columbus, Gregg is in Massillon, and Bush is in suburban Cleveland.
But there are other reasons, too.
鈥淲e are still really close,鈥 said Jeanne Gokcen, founder and CEO of FutureCom Technologies. 鈥淣ot just us as a core group, but also our spouses, whether or not they went to OHIO with us. Our kids have grown up together.鈥
Bush, who works in the consulting field, put it this way: 鈥淔undamentally, we鈥檙e the same people with a little less hair, a little wiser.鈥 He added, 鈥淲e still have the same antics, the same sense of humor.鈥
Their New Year鈥檚 Eve parties arose naturally, though there鈥檚 playful disagreement about how. Donadio and the Gokcens say the galas started when they invited Donadio, a public speaker and executive coach, and his wife over one Dec. 31.
Bush counters that upon moving to Cleveland in the early 1990s, he hosted a large group of OHIO friends for New Year鈥檚.
鈥淚t really took hold once we started having families,鈥 Bush said.
Everyone agrees to that.
However the New Year鈥檚 Bobcat shindig began, it鈥檚 become a favorite tradition where friends became family and families became friends.
Gregg, a compliance officer for Ameriprise Financial, said the guys still quote lines from Caddyshack and Stripes, movie comedies first seen at OHIO, and tell the same stories.
Don鈥檛 their spouses get sick of that?
鈥淚f they do, they鈥檙e pretty good about it,鈥 he said, 鈥渁nd don鈥檛 let us know it.鈥
Their New Year鈥檚 greening custom shows no sign of abating as participants enter their mid-50s.
鈥淩eally, all the guys are like my brothers,鈥 said Sedat Gokcen, CTO of FutureCom.
鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 give up those New Year鈥檚 Eve parties with my buddies for anything,鈥 Bush said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e like family.鈥
