When the old friends stepped into East Housing’s 402 Flory, it was as if they had traveled back in time. To them, the suite still smelled faintly of Middleswarth potato chips and Sheetz chili dogs, and the common space seemed to hum with echoes of late-night laughter.

Paul Kardish '84, a former special agent with the FBI, couldn’t help but grin as he flicked the light switch, half expecting the neon “Pabst” sign to buzz to life in the window. It didn’t, but that didn’t matter — they brought their own.

"Kip Benko '84 hung that sign right back up," Kardish says with a laugh, recalling his friend’s first — and only — responsibility for Alumni Weekend. That familiar glow once marked their suite as the unofficial headquarters of good times and great friendships. Forty years later, they would make sure it served the same purpose.

“The whole night took us back to ’84,” Benko would later say. “We got to come back home.”

The Pilgrimage
This is a story about eight suitemates who made an unusual request to rent out their old East Housing Residences’ suite, 402 Flory, for their 40th reunion during Alumni Weekend in June. “We thought this was a pipe dream,” Kardish remembers. “No way they were going to let these guys back in there.”

But the Advancement Office knew that the Class of 1984 had been exceptionally close and hoped to reprise those strong communal ties for Alumni Weekend. In the end, it wasn’t a difficult decision.

“Paul and his classmates have always been really supportive of the institution. All of us here at Juniata, we want to provide a great experience for our alumni to reconnect and re-engage — to make it feel like they just left campus,” says Mat Stoudnour, associate vice president for advancement.

"Those bonds created when you’re 19, 20 years old have an impact in so many ways."Mat Stoudnour, AVP, Advancement

“There’s a special fellowship that our alumni talk about,” he continues. “Those bonds created when you’re 19, 20 years old have an impact in so many ways. It’s really a testament to Juniata and our drive to create a memorable living and learning experience for every student. And so much of that experience is formed in the residence halls.”

With plans in place, suitemates Kardish, Benko, and Mike Appleby '84 arrived Thursday, before the start of Alumni Weekend. This was two years in the making, after all, and there were things to do. The streets of Huntingdon hadn’t changed much, but they could feel the weight of time as they drove down Washington Street. They had already climbed the 1,000 Steps earlier in the day.

Appleby, a retired QVC executive, and Benko, a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center physician, lived nearby, and biopharmaceutical representative Chris “Corky” Collins '84 joined the festivities on Friday. Their band of brothers also included Bob Maruca '84, Jack Makdad '85, Pete Werts '84, Mike Lesh '85, and John Voler '84. After Juniata, they pursued careers as physicians, dentists, lawyers, business executives, entrepreneurs, and even a naval aviator.

“You knew everyone in the group was going to be successful, but you had no idea how they were going to get there,” says Kardish. “We were all from different walks of life, but for some reason, we just got along exceptionally well.”

The Value of the Liberal Arts
Those relationships were the keys to a lifetime of success, says Appleby. “Living with those seven, eight guys ... it brought out things you never knew you had in yourself.”

His first job out of college was with QVC. Launched in the mid-1980s, the fledgling television network quickly reinvented home shopping, ultimately pioneering an immersive, customer-focused digital experience. Appleby grew up with the company, retiring as a senior vice president for quality assurance and supply chain. He also taught business for a few semesters at Juniata.

“Everyone had an academic champion,” Kardish recalls, easily recounting how several Juniata professors shaped the lives of his suitemates. “And yet, for us, having to negotiate and navigate everything and get along as well as we did was phenomenal.”

Kardish went to the FBI after law school at Gonzaga and postdoctoral studies at New York University. “Juniata was so rigorous. I got to law school and realized I was so far ahead of the game. The most underappreciated skill at the FBI is communications. The key is information and getting it out of people,” he explains. “I was really very good at building relationships with informants, talking with everyone from kings to paupers. It’s a lost art, but one that Juniata helped cultivate.” That would later serve him well as senior vice president and general counsel at several publicly traded companies.

Each suitemate had a similar story. Benko’s expertise in emergency medicine led to groundbreaking work improving patient care in acute dental emergencies. Makdad would take up the helm of Makdad Industrial Supply, a leader in HVAC throughout central Pennsylvania. Werts became the executive finance officer for ManTech, one of the nation’s leading defense contractors specializing in AI and cybersecurity. Every suitemate, like so many of their peers, credited their career success to their alma mater.

Friday Night: The Big Tent
Back at 402 Flory, the neon “Pabst” sign buzzed loudly, once again a beacon for old friends to wander in, drawn by the promise of stories and memories as vibrant as the tunes of Bob Seger, Tom Petty and the J. Geils Band playing in their heads.

“We didn’t know who would show up,” Benko says, recalling the uncertainty of that night. “But by 9 p.m., it felt like the whole Class of ’84 had squeezed into that suite.” Nearly 50 alumni from the class made cameos, all contributing to an evening filled with nostalgia and new memories.

As the crowd swelled, filling every corner of the suite with laughter and music, it didn’t matter who you were or what you’d become — everyone was welcome.

For Collins, the suite had become a big tent. “It wasn’t really an alumni reunion. For us, it was a family reunion. Everyone there, we all had different backgrounds. But Juniata was what we shared in common.”

And that’s what Juniata had always been — a home. A place where people from all walks of life came together and learned to live in harmony. “I remember thinking: You can always come back and count on people that supported you back then,” says Benko. “It was fun to watch everybody in the moment.”

Perhaps more than anything, he says, relationships forged in the residence halls have always been the true legacy of the suitemates college years. As their families grew and their careers took off, the suitemates didn’t find much time to reconnect. They scattered across the country — Virginia, Washington, California, Wisconsin, Florida, Pennsylvania. The 35th class reunion, held over a June weekend in 2019, changed that.

"It wasn’t really an alumni reunion. For us, it was a family reunion. Everyone there, we all had different backgrounds. But Juniata was what we shared in common."Chris Collins ’84

Since then, the friends have been inseparable. The bonds that once brought them together have been firmly re-established. Every year, one of the friends hosts the others. They have traveled to Green Bay and Pittsburgh. Several traveled to Scotland together. Others went to Arizona for the Philadelphia Eagles' Super Bowl appearance. They even checked in with weekly Zoom calls during COVID.

Their spouses even joined the story. A few were Juniata alumnae themselves. Many were there at the party in June, where they could jump in to finish their husbands' oft-heard stories and nail the punchlines without having lived through them as college students. This was now one large extended family.

As the night wound down, the group found themselves in the common space at 3 a.m., many sitting in the same spots they had occupied decades before. Appleby remembers looking around at his friends, marveling at how little had changed. They were older, wiser, and a bit grayer, but they were still the same guys who had lived, laughed, and learned together in this very suite.

"Communal living is just so darn important," he mused. "You build bonds so naturally. What I got out of Juniata is so much more than a degree. Those four years — they're so formative. I have 25 lifelong friends that I connect with from Juniata, and those relationships are worth more than almost anything I learned in the classroom."

Kardish agrees.

"There’s no better way to learn more about yourself than to live together in a dorm."Paul Kardish ’84

"That's where you really grow up. There's no better way to learn more about yourself than to live together in a dorm," he explains. "You evolve over time, but honestly, your core never changes. To be able to coexist with all those students is really the key to our success — you learn how to navigate conflict, how to pick each other up, and hold each other accountable."

And that's what they had done. This return to 402 Flory was something special. It was another reminder that Juniata ties were lifelong.

Saturday morning came too quickly, but as they departed, they knew they weren't really saying goodbye. They were carrying with them the essence of what Juniata had given them — a sense of belonging, of brotherhood, and of a home that would always welcome them back.

"It was more than just living in 402. I'll always be grateful for what we accomplished and for calling them my friends," says Collins, before adding, "Juniata took a chance on me. I really believe that Juniata can change a student's life, and those students go on to change the world. And these guys, they did that. 402 Forever!"