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President's Page           August 2013Dear Classmates, Wives, Associates and Honorary Members, As we approach our 62nd year, the class continues to be active, traveling, interested and interesting as reported,from various corners of the USA and beyond. Our 61st reunion was a bit quieter than our wonderful 60th but we did have 20 classmates and a few hardy wives in the P-rade. Led by Stokes Carrigan, we gave President Tilghman a last lusty cheer at her final review as President. A moment of note occurred that Thursday afternoon. Current and past class officers and wives met with President Tilghman and President-Designate Eisgruber in the garden of Mclean House to present President Tilghman, our honorary classmate, with a token of our respect and affection for her years of leadership. This consisted of a framed drawing of the Shirley Gonfalon with the three tiger mascots created by classmate Leigh Smith for the ceremony honoring President Tilghman at the Alumni Day luncheon in February. A picture of the presentation in May can be seen on the Class Notes section of our website and was published in the reunion issue of PAW. Leigh has been drawing our tiger mascots since he first created the design for our senior beer jackets. The San Antonio Mini in May was a wonderful event through the effort and leadership of Dave Smith, Ray Baldwin and Ted McAlister. Fifty classmates and wives enjoyed seeing a remarkably vibrant city with the beautifully upgraded River Walk, the historic Alamo, a bus trip north to the city of Fredericksburg to visit the Museum of the Pacific War and a stop at the LBJ ranch and 'Texas' White House. Bob Eby, our mini reunion chair for many years, has stepped down and Dave Smith, off his success with the San Antonio mini, has accepted the challenge. At this time we are looking at several options for minis in the next year or two but welcome all suggestions. We continue to learn of and report on the passing of classmates through emails to the class and posting on our website as information becomes available. Although I cannot mention all our classmates who have died over the past year, I do want to acknowledge two men who contributed in major ways to our class and Princeton. John Clutz, our president, died last spring. John was our longest serving class officer, as Treasurer for 15 years, Vice-President for 5 years before becoming President. He also served as treasurer of our last 3 major reunions. Dick Kazmaier, probably one of the most widely known and respected members of the class, died in early August. An outstanding athlete, leader of the 1950-1951 undefeated football teams and Heisman Trophy winner, Dick also served as a University Trustee and a member of the Princeton Varsity Club Board of Trustees and contributed in many other ways to Princeton and the community at large. He was Chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and served as president of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame. He found and led Kazmaier Associates, a successful sports marketing and management company. I would like to remind you of the program started by Hal Saunders and continued by Steve Rogers to encourage everyone to write a short biography that may be used at the appropriate time as a memorial for the PAW. As Hal had stated, who better,knows what we would like others to remember about us. These should be about 200 words and be sent to Hal where they will be kept on file. The class was again a leader in Annual Giving for a non major year reunion. We attained a participation rate of 74.3%,and a remarkable $496,562 in total gifts. Don Malehorn continues his leadership as Class Agent. With the passing of John Clutz, class leadership has changed. These changes were voted on and approved at the Executive Committee meeting in May. I have become president, George Aman is first vice-president and recording secretary, Don Malehorn is second vice-president and Annual Giving class agent, and George Towner remains secretary-treasurer. New Members at Large to the Executive Committee elected for a 3 year term are Paul Benacerrof, John R. Helm,and Robert C. Johnston. Regional class luncheons have continued under the local leadership of Geoffrey Nunes in Boston, John Moore in New York City, Charlie Schaefer in the Philadelphia area, George Towner in Washington, DC and Ed Tiryakian in the Triangle area of North Carolina. All areas would welcome classmates interested in attending. Again, we encourage all those with computer access to check into our website at: www.princeton52.org . Steve Rogers, as our webmaster, and George Towner have done an excellent job maintaining the site and keeping it up to date. In sending out emails to the class, we have seen that we do not have correct email addresses for a number in the class. If you are on the internet and do not receive class email, you can check this by going to the Profile page. By now, I am sure that you are aware that a major purpose of the President's letter, in addition to providing class news, is to deliver the dues envelope and encourage your participation. You may wonder way it is still necessary to solicit dues payment at this late stage in our Princeton journey. Primarily, it allows us to maintain contact with each other and Princeton through the PAW, our email and other university communications. We do not ask our Associates and Honorary classmates to contribute. For many years, our dues have remained at $50, so we hope you will continue to support the class. Put Brodsky, President September 2012Dear Classmates, Wives, Associates and Honorary Members, Having celebrated our 60 th Reunion in grand style, showing fellow Princetonians and the world in general that we are "Still in Step", the Great Class of 1952 moves forward with optimism and good cheer. First, recognition is due the team that put together our 60 th Reunion, wonderfully led by Mary and Bill Murdoch and Don Malehorn. Many classmates and Associates contributed and deserve a huge 'thank you'. The class again established an attendance record for a 60th reunion with 128 classmates returning and for Annual Giving, a remarkable $2,568,000 was raised. Some highlights of our weekend included Shirley Tilghman's visit to our Headquarters on Thursday evening during dinner and her wonderful words of praise for the class and what the Class of 1952 has meant to the University. Our class forum, Life Begins at 80, Saturday morning, led by Hal Saunders with a lively panel discussion, was well attended. Our Service of Remembrance in the University Chapel, led by classmates, The Rev. Canon Sam Van Culin and The Rev. Dr. Alexander Zabriskie, with the reading of the names of the 90 classmates who have passed away since our 55 th reunion and with a homily given by our classmate James A. Baker III, (repeated on our Class website) was a beautiful and moving experience. As part of our relationship with the Class of 2002, the '02 -'52 collaboration, developed over the years since 2002 arrived on campus, particularly by Joe Handleman, Roger McLean and Hal Saunders, a group from our class that also included Jim Baker and Ray Baldwin whose father was in the Class of 1912, on Friday evening went over to the 2002 10th Reunion Headquarters, and with President Tilghman looking on, formally presented to the officers and class of 2002, our reunion jacket with a letter of transfer, as our class had received from the Class of 1912, conferring the right to wear the jacket in the future at a time if their choosing. President Tilghman then addressed the Class of '02 and told them what an honor they had been given and what they had to live up to, the very high mark set by the Class of '52. We will continue to use our jacket for as long as needed. A final highlight of the weekend was the dedication of the statue of Richard W. Kazmaier '52 and the accompanying plaque in the plaza in front of Jadwin Gym. The plaque honors Kazmaier, the 1951 Heisman trophy winner and the members of the Class of '52 who were awarded a Varsity P in football as members of that undefeated 1951 team. We urge you to visit our class website (www.princeton52.org)and bookmark it so that you can visit it quickly and easily. We plan to have more current information pertaining to the class which will be highlighted on the Home page. We now have a Class Forum page to allow us to share articles from classmates about topics of current interest. We also plan to post some of the photos taken at our 60th. The website also contains an early version of the Class Notes on the Secretary's page as they will appear in the PAW, as well as Memorials for classmates who have passed away and other up to date items of Class News. Our 2013 Mini-Reunion will be in San Antonio under the able direction of Dave Smith, Bob Eby and Ray Baldwin. It is scheduled for April 18 th to April 21 st . Full details will be mailed later this fall. Periodic regional luncheons will continue to be held in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC and the "triangle" area of We would like to mention, as Steve Rogers did in his August letter of last year, Alumni Weekly Memorials. As part of a long tradition, memorials of departed classmates are published in the PAW as they become available. Our class leaders, in recent years have encouraged us to write a brief review of what we would like others to know about us, education, family, career, what interesting things we have done, whatever you would like. Dan Duffield, as Secretary and now Emeritus Secretary, has done a remarkable job but it is clearly not possible for one or several to keep up so please think about doing this. These should be sent to Steve Rogers or Hal Saunders. As Steve said, be concise, as the PAW allows only 200 words, rarely more. Finally, a gentle reminder to respond to the enclosed request for class dues payment. It is still the same amount, $50. It covers the cost of sending the PAW and other such communications that are sent, including our book "60 Years of Significant Events" which will include pictures taken at out Reunion by McNair Evans H, a professional photographer and son of our late classmate. Please note, Associates and Honorary members are not asked to contribute. Be sure to send along news of what is going on in your life. This information will be forwarded to the Class Secretary or Webmaster so that it can be shared with other members of the class. John Clutz, President August 2011Dear Classmates, Wives, Associates, and Honorary Members: We’ve entered the 60th year since the end of our official scheduled stay at Old Nassau, and we – nearly 500 of our original 838 – are "Still in Step,” to borrow the keynote phrase from Don and Mary’s April letter about our Reunion. Being still in step, we have several things to report in this "State of the Class” report for 2010-11. -- Our 60th Reunion , May 31-June 3, 2012. Mary Murdoch and Don Malehorn head the committee that has been working on plans for over two years. Full information will be mailed to you in October and will be on the Class website ( www.princeton52.org ) when the Committee has finalized it. The April save-the-date letter is on the site now with the names of the committee members. -- Other Class Gatherings. Our five regional luncheon groups are all thriving under their coordinators, listed under Executive Committee on this page. Classmates and wives gathered at the Class dinners at Windrows in Princeton in October (Harvard weekend), February (Alumni Day eve), and May (Reunion weekend). Geoff Nunes represented the Class at the Service of Remembrance in February. John Moore and his Mini XXV/NYC Committee put on a wonderful event in the Big Apple April 28-May 1. Attendance at our 59th Reunion was limited, but those present had a good time and gave a good Tiger cheer at the end of the P-rade to Shirley Tilghman h52. -- Looking Back: Our 60 Years. They have been momentous years in many ways and many contexts – international, national, local, artistic, business, avocational, athletic, personal – all sorts of fields where events have been important to us as individuals. The Reunion Committee would like to know what event or situation was most significant or most interesting for you since 1952, not necessarily as a mover or shaker or even with you as a direct participant, but just what had the greatest impact on you personally. We aren’t quite sure what we’ll do with these entries, but we plan to share them in some way with our classmates, so make sure you would be willing to have others see what you send. Mail or email a paragraph or two to the 60th Reunion Co-chairs, to Mary Murdoch at wmurdoch@alumni.princeton.edu or 1 Fringe Tree Court, Princeton, NJ 08540-3915, or to Don Malehorn at dmalehorn@optonline.net or 12 Pepperidge Road, Morristown, NJ 07960-2533. -- Alumni Weekly Memorials. We are a remarkable and varied bunch, but we sometimes don’t learn how remarkable except through the PAW memorials to departed classmates. Quite a number of classmates have been willing to prepare these brief essays and in some cases learn much about classmates they didn’t know well or didn’t even know at all on campus. But to ease the task of preparing future memorials, Ed Tiryakian and others have suggested that each of us write a short statement of what we would like to have included about ourselves – family, career, Princeton activities, travel, whatever you would like. Hal Saunders has volunteered to maintain a file of such information for use when the information will be needed. Send it to Hal, at But be concise: the PAW allows only 200 words per memorial, with only very rare exceptions. -- Memorial Library Donations. Another aspect of how we are remembered is our memorial book program. The endowment, established from insurance policies purchased when we graduated, continues to pay for books for the University Library in memory of each deceased classmate, each with an appropriate book plate. -- SDCN. We’ve followed up our sponsorship of the annual conference of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network in March 2010 with a number of individual donations and with a further gift of $5000 from the Class treasury. Our support for the SDCN, our Alumni Community Service project, is a product of the ’02-’52 relationship and is a Class "Enduring Mark.” -- Looking Ahead: Class Leadership. David Boyer, Rob Diefenbach and Marshall Keating have accepted appointment as members-at-large of the Executive Committee for 2011-2014. As required by the Class Constitution, I have appointed Joe Bolster, Roger McLean, Bill Murdoch and Hal Saunders to serve with me on the Selection Committee to propose class officers for 2012-17. Your suggestions for candidates would be welcome. The slate will be considered by the Class Executive Committee in February and published in the Class Notes in the Alumni Weekly in March. Ballots will be mailed by April 15, with the results to be announced at our Reunion Class meeting, -- Communications. Secretary Dan Duffield has continued without fail to submit an interesting and thoughtful report on Class activities in every issue of the PAW – a total of 14 columns through the year – and he has sent birthday greetings to every Class member. -- We’ve supplemented Dan’s class notes with occasional "52Net” email messages to all members and associates for whom we have email addresses (15 messages in the year 2010-11); one of those messages led to contributions of two ’52 beer jackets for the Alumni Council’s Princetoniana collection. -- John Clutz continues to oversee the website at www.princeton52.org . Most of the website (but not including the on-line Directory) is accessible without a password. Links from 52Net messages encourage readership of specific articles there, and Dan’s Class Notes columns are posted, often several weeks ahead of PAW publication. -- Annual Giving. The Class increased participation in AG over the previous year, raising $521,171 from 77.8% of the Class (the average for all classes was 61.2%). Thirty-two classmates took part in the campaign, under the leadership of Don Malehorn. We’re now in a major reunion year, so we have a special motivation to show our continuing attachment to Princeton. We’ll have more to say about this in future communications, but please be thinking about how you will respond. Please respond to the enclosed request for Class dues – still at the same level for almost 20 years. Your $50 covers the costs of sending the Princeton Alumni Weekly and other communications including the updated Class directory , which will be sent early in 2012 to all members of the Class. Please consider paying an additional $60 to help finance our 60th Reunion and encourage broad participation. Treasurer Rudy Lehnert reports that the Class Treasury is in good shape, but we’re going to need those funds for many years yet – and, unfortunately, we’ll have fewer of us paying as time goes by. Note: Associates and Honorary Members are not asked to contribute. Steve Rogers, President September 2010Dear Classmates, Wives, Associates, and Honorary Members: As of mid-year, we had 500 members of the Class, of whom 381 contributed to Annual Giving. That figure of 76.2% participation – slightly higher than last year - suggests that most of us continue to have warm feelings about Princeton and respect for its mission of education. Of course, it also reflects the continued devotion to and vitality of the Class of ’52, and, importantly, the hard work by Don Malehorn and Warren McCabe in their leadership roles and the dozens of others who participated as callers and "Swatters.” Events of the year: --We adopted as an Enduring Mark the Class support of a special relationship with the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network (SDCN), an activity at several colleges and universities inspired by Hal Saunders’ work in developing systems for better understanding among different groups. -- The 2010 Class Directory that Bob Lamperti prepared has been sent to all members. We hope you are finding it useful. That’s one of the services supported by Class dues, along with the cost of Alumni Weekly subscriptions and other Class communications and activities. If you find an error in the Directory, please make a note of it and enclose it with your dues payment. --Some 94 Members of the Class, including wives, Associates and friends, attended Mini XXIV in Boston. Roger McLean and his committee did a magnificent job in arranging and conducting a program to see and enjoy the "New Boston” while renewing fellowship among classmates. Meeting with Larry Luchino ’67, President of the Boston Red Sox, was a highlight. The full report of the mini is on the Class website (www.princeton52.org) under Reunions. --The regional meetings in five locations have continued as an integral part of the Class program. Three of them – DC, Boston and NYC – have been instrumental in planning mini-reunions. The regional groups have been most successful where there are significant concentrations of Classmates, but there is no minimum number – two or three classmates meeting from time to time can raise a glass and a Tiger cheer as well as the larger groups. --The Expect to receive additional information and registration materials early in the New Year. Two or three times a month, on average, things come up that benefit from promptness, even though they may be repeated in Dan Duffield’s Class Notes or "snail-mail” letters, and we send the information to all Class members, Associates, and Honorary members whose addresses are in the Directory on the Class website (www.princeton52.org ). Every time we send a message a few come back marked "address unknown” or "does not like recipient” (a rather ambiguous response!) or "in the queue too long.” Barry Loper does yeoman work in trying to track down valid addresses in these cases, but the bottom line is a request that you let us know when you’ve changed your email address or if you have gone two or three months without receiving a 52Net message. You can make the change in the web site directory yourself, or you can send the new address to alumrecs@princeton.edu or to john.clutz@verizon.net or, better, to both. In any case, please make sure your computer is configured to accept messages from shrogers@alumni.princeton.edu and john.clutz@verizon.net . Please (except for honorary members and Class Associates) send your dues to Treasurer Rudy Lehnert promptly – and save him the bother and expense of follow-up. You can, if you wish, also enclose a contribution to SDCN in a separate check payable to International Institute for Sustained Dialog with your dues (both are tax-deductible); it will help SDCN receive a $10,000 matching grant if received by September 30. Steve Rogers, President John Clutz, Vice President September 2009Dear Classmates: We’ve come through our 57th year still vigorous, still leading, still the "great Class of ’52,” as honorary classmate Shirley Tilghman has described us. One sign of continued vitality is our ability - in spite of economic difficulties - to make a substantial contribution to Annual Giving. Despite a struggling economy and the effects of age, we’re holding our own - 76.1 percent of the Class participated in Annual Giving for 2008-2009, compared to 57.7 percent of undergraduate alumni of all classes, for a total ’52 contribution of $598,760, a record. We also did well last year in supporting Class activities - especially subscriptions to the Princeton Alumni Weekly - with our Class dues. That brings us to an important point of this letter - it’s dues time again. PLEASE respond to the enclosed request for dues for the coming year - still at the same bargain rate of $55, with the option of adding a bit to help assure good attendance at the next major reunion. Responding now rather than waiting for Treasurer Rudy Lehnert’s follow-up letter will save effort and postage. Last year 323 Class members, 60.7 percent of the total, paid their dues - the best in several years. It could be higher! Please note that this request is to Classmates, NOT to Associates or honorary members. We had a truncated mini-reunion this year, officially canceled because of the swine flu. It was still a success for the 22 who were in San Antonio in April, under the guidance and care of the Mini Committee of Bill Healey, Ted McAlister, and Dave Smith. We owe our appreciation to them, with special thanks to Dave and Lois Smith, who commuted from Houston to support the effort, which included resurrecting an excellent program that took us to the Alamo , the River Walk, and much else in San Antonio, adapted to the circumstances. The next mini promises to be just as exciting - but (we trust) without the flu. Next June Roger McLean and his committee will show us the new look of that center of American culture and history that is Boston. Our four well-established regional groups, in the DC area, Philadelphia, Triangle North Carolina, and Boston, are flourishing, with luncheon meetings several times a year. All are welcome to join them, of course. And John Moore is in the process of setting up the fifth regional group, centered on the Princeton Club in Call him (203-661-8159 or jdm123@aol.com ) if you would like to be included. In response to several requests, we’re arranging for Associate members of the Class to have user names and passwords that will allow access to all parts of the Class website (www.princeton52.org) , including, for instance, the password-protected Class Directory and the Memorials page. One caveat: we’re required to give Class members the opportunity to opt out if they wish their personal data to be excluded. So - this letter is formal notice to Class members that their Directory information will soon be available to Class Associates unless they inform us that they wish otherwise. Please tell VP/Webmaster John Clutz (610-687-9635, or john.clutz@comcast.net) if you wish to have your personal data shielded. Our list of email addresses, to which our frequent 52Net messages are sent, has about 400 addresses - all of those listed by the Bureau of Alumni Records (they show in the Directory on the Class website) - plus those of honorary members and of the 45 Associates for whom we have addresses. Reminder: you won’t get 52Net messages unless we have your current address and it hasn’t become unavailable because it’s full or otherwise disabled. This dues letter, Rudy’s follow-up, and a letter or two about the mini are likely to be the only snail-mail letters you’ll receive. Essentially everything in 52Net messages except those items that must be sent by email for timeliness is repeated by other means, usually in Dan Duffield’s PAW Class Notes column, which continues to be the primary means of sharing information about the Class, but email is the quickest (and cheapest) means of communicating. Is anybody interested in adding Facebook to our facilities? Incidentally, Dan, our magnificent Class Secretary for many years, has added PAW Memorials to his responsibilities. The University’s Historian is looking for items such as photos, notes and letters from our undergraduate years (annotated to indicate the occasion and the names of classmates in pictures), course notes, and materials related to clubs and other activities. Call Class Historian Bob Lamperti if you have materials and wonder whether to submit them. On the subject of our history, a number of classmates have "gone missing.” We’ll append a list of their names to this letter. If you can tell us how to reach any of them, please let us know. Best wishes and good luck to all. We hope to see many of you at our fall get-together on the Yale game weekend, November 13-14, at our 58th Reunion May 28-30, and at Mini-Reunion XXIV in Boston, June 10-13. Steve Rogers, President John Clutz, Vice President August, 2008Dear Classmates and Associates, As you will see from the enclosures, this is the time of year when Treasurer Rudy Lehnert is looking for our dues payments. That’s what keeps our activities going. Please take a look at Rudy’s report for the 12 months ending June 30 on the Class website (www.princeton52.org). Or call him for a copy by postal mail. As you’ll see, the major unbalanced expenditures, that is, expenditures not directly offset by income, are for the Alumni Weekly subscriptions, printings and mailings (like this letter), the Class website and email facility, reunion support, and Alumni Council dues. We’ve kept the level of class dues at $50 for many years. Please send in your check! (Note: this request is only for alumni; honorary and associate members please ignore.) As for the activities of the year, here are some highlights: -- Mini XXII in Charlottesville was a great success, combining good fun and comradeship with a significant substantive program at the Miller Center of the University of Virginia focusing on "The Constitution and the Presidency: Legacies of Jefferson and Madison.” We visited both of their homes and got a real feel for the wealth of our American heritage centered in the Charlottesville area. -- Mini-reunions boss Tom Dosdall announced the dates of the next two mini-reunions, in San Antonio, April 30-May 3, 2009, and Boston, June 10-13, 2010. Committees are hard at work to ensure that Minis XXIII and XXIV will be as interesting and meaningful introductions to their cities as have been their predecessors. -- It’s almost routine for ’52 to win awards from the Alumni Association, but those presented to Bill and Mary Murdoch as co-chairs of the 55th Reunion were especially notable: not only for attendance but also for innovations - the book The Women of ’52 Tell Their Stories, the time capsule deposited for the Class of 2002 to open at its 50th Reunion, and the quiet space in the Reunion tent set aside for sitting, contemplating, and chatting. In recognition of her leadership in producing the women’s book, Priscilla Hildum is now an honorary member of the Class. -- We continue to communicate by email and the Class website, though Dan Duffield’s column in the Alumni Weekly remains the most comprehensive means of getting information to the whole Class. We encourage all who aren’t on email to gird up their loins and join the majority - it can be a simple process and it makes communications faster, cheaper, and simpler. Remember, you don’t have to read what you get, and spam filters can be quite effective. An alternative is to give us the email address of a family member, neighbor, or other good soul who would be willing to act as mailbox. 52Net messages aren’t very frequent, but they are timely. -- The regional luncheon groups, now four in number with the addition of the North Carolina triangle area to Washington, Philadelphia and Boston, are great occasions for small-group discussions several times a year. More can easily be set up, so let us know if your city/area is ripe for such activities. Or just do it! -- Looking into the near future, we’ll meet October 24 for the Harvard game, but also for the Class dinner the evening before, when we will have the opportunity to meet and hear the newest member of our class, Anne Sherrerd *87 P08 P10 and now h52, tell us about her work as Vice President and prospective President of the Alumni Council. We could say Anne’s selection as an honorary member of the class is to overcome her status as a Yalie, but it’s really because of her excellent work representing both graduate and undergraduate alumni of Princeton. That’s the news of ’52 this hot summer. But please remember - DUES - only $50, and important to the continued activity which keeps the Class of 1952 outstanding. With best wishes to all. Steve Rogers John Clutz August 2007Members of the Class of ’52: The "Best Four Years of All" and the 55 years since are behind us. The relationships within the Class and with the University evolve, but they remain strong enough to break records – witness the attendance at the 55th Reunion and the magnificent record the Class has shown in Annual Giving right through the year 2006-2007. But now we look ahead, and we see that Princeton still means a lot to us.We look forward to more interactions, more contacts with each other, more building on the record of cohesion of the Class of ’52. The Princeton Alumni Weekly remains the most reliable medium for news that links our Class, and contributions to Secretary Dan Duffield for his Class Notes columns are always appreciated. We are working on improving the Class’s new website – at www.princeton52.org – easy to remember! The on-line Class Directory requires that you sign in with your password (the same one as for TigerNet), but the home page – the one with headlines and occasional pictures – and most of the rest of the site don’t. While we encourage all members to register email addresses with us and TigerNet, we also plan to make information from the website and 52Net messages more available to those members who are not on line. The women of the Class of ’52 become increasingly important. As evidence, take another look at the great book Our Lives, companion to our 55th Reunion Yearbook, in which women of ’52 told their stories, and recall (if you were there) the fascinating women’s forum at our 55th Reunion. Many wives and quite a number of Associates attended the 55th, a trend that we hope will continue at future Class events. Suggestions of how to deepen the involvement of the women of the Class are welcome. Our next Mini-Reunion – the 22nd in the series – will be held April 10-13 next year in Charlottesville, Virginia. More on that will be in a separate letter and on the website, but remember the dates! Our Mini XXII Committee has begun putting the pieces together for a great time in celebration of our history, focusing on the theme of the American presidency, including guided visits to the historic homes of Jefferson and Madison (Princeton Class of 1777, not incidentally). With admirable forward planning, Mini-Reunions chief Tom Dosdall has already lined up San Antonio (2009) and Boston (2010) for Minis XXIII and XXIV. [If you did not/could not respond to the email questionnaire about possible attendance in Charlottesville, tell us either "Yes (meaning almost certain)," "Likely," "No," or "Unlikely" by mail to Steve at 3803 Ivydale Drive, Annandale, VA 22003-2006.] The minis are one opportunity for personal contact, a most satisfying means of renewing old friendships and making new ones. The Class dinner on November 9, the eve of the Yale game, is another. The Washington, DC-area regional luncheon group has been a wonderful instrument for exchanges on the personal level. We hope to replicate it with the appointment of regional coordinators for Boston (Roger McLean) and Philadelphia (Charlie Schaefer). We are also looking into the same type of arrangement for other metropolitan areas in which there is a critical mass (undefined!) of ’52ers. We will continue our generation-skipping association with the Class of 2002. At their 50th Reunion, ’02 will open the time capsule we deposited with the University Archivist on June 2. Full of recollections of our days on the campus as well as our thoughts and concerns of the future, the time capsule is another manifestation of our interest in looking ahead as well as reminiscing about the past. But our Class dues are still only $50. They remain a great bargain, a support for Class activities, and an inexpensive sign of commitment to ’52 and the conviction that we’re still thinking of the future. See the enclosed card from Treasurer Rudy Lehnert (NOT meant for Associate and Honorary members). Please respond! You will see some new names on the Executive Committee list on this stationery, and, regrettably, we have lost some great friends. But we have much to look forward to, as we listen to hear what more Princeton and the Class of 1952 have to say to us and what we have to say to each other. With best wishes to all. Steve Rogers, President John Clutz, Vice President 52's 55th Going Back To The Best Four Years Of All May 31 to June 3, 2007 September 2006Dear Classmates, One of life's deepest satisfactions and greatest excitements is connecting with and contributing to something larger than ourselves - family; life-long friendships; bodies of knowledge and practice; great ideas, causes, and enterprises; building a more secure, supportive, and just world community. One of the reasons we think of our years at Princeton as "the best four years of all" is that they were a time of transformational expansion of our horizons - an explosion in our sense of the world in some ways captured by the nuclear explosion on our beer jackets. For that experience we owe Princeton a priceless debt. One of the ways we honor that debt is by dedicating ourselves to enhancing Princeton's excellence in a changing world and to assuring that experience for the generations that will follow. Among the characteristics that set Princeton apart from many other world class universities are the energy, cohesiveness, spirit, commitment, and effectiveness of its alumni/ae body. One of the many ways in which that point is demonstrated is through the Annual Giving Campaign, which this year passed an incredible $40 million - an achievement of complex teamwork and hard work, not just money. Our Class of '52 has long held a strong place in the front ranks of this alumni effort. Record after record has raised the bar for everyone in both major reunion and off-year giving and participation. The class has for many years topped the list of classes having given the highest amount cumulatively since graduation. This year, an astounding 80.7% of our classmates contributed. Only two other post-war classes reached that mark. We want our 55th reunion contribution to be no exception. We have set our goals accordingly: $2,500,000, which would double the previous record for a 55th Reunion, and 83% participation - potentially another record. How does this happen? My own view is that we owe our performance in part to the important things we have done together - starting with the 100% bicker, the spirit enhanced by the brilliant teamwork in Palmer Stadium, the collaborations from Prince to Triangle, from singing group to study group. Then many classmates rubbed shoulders in uniform after graduation. Our interactions in business and professional life have been countless. AND the team that early on assumed leadership of our Annual Giving effort has worked together for some 35 years! Why should we care about such records? It's not just the records themselves. It's what they say to us about who we are as the Class of '52 and about the larger purposes to which we are committed. I want to say a personal word about Princeton's use of this money. Some say, "Princeton has a huge endowment; it doesn't need any more." During my term as an alumni trustee, I was privileged to participate in the deliberations on two big issues: the decisions to broaden availability of student financial aid and the decision to enlarge the student body modestly. Central to those deliberations was one point: the strong feeling of obligation to make Princeton's quality education accessible to the fullest possible range of American and international students regardless of their social and economic backgrounds. The most moving moments in those deliberations were the strong statements of moral commitment to those larger purposes of Princeton. We are now privileged to contribute further to those larger purposes from which our lives have benefited so richly. Does your gift make a difference? Most definitely! This year four gifts made the difference between missing and exceeding our 80% participation goal. It's not just the total in dollars. It's the goals we achicvo-by-working-tegether. Our Annual Giving team is chomping at the bit! Class Agent Don Malehorn, Joe Bolster, Tom Dosdall, John Emery, Hoby Kreitler, Bill Murdoch, Dick Pivirotto and Jay Sherrerd will lead a group that will number more than 60 before the year ends. Please make their job easy by responding early and generously. Speaking of records, we are confident of breaking the attendance record for a 55th reunion, as we did at our 50th. You've already received the heads-up letter from reunion co-chairs Mary and Bill Murdoch. You will shortly receive their letter with registration information and material. Please respond as soon as your plans are clear. Finally, remember that there will be a class dinner in Princeton on October 20, the evening before the Harvard game. And don't forget Alumni Day on February 24, 2007. We will be in touch regularly throughout the year by regular mail and periodic '52Net messages for those on e-mail - and by phone. Check your mailboxes. Looking forward to a great year together, Hal Saunders August 15, 2006Dear Classmates, Wives, and Associates, We are kicking off another milestone year-the countdown to our 55*, May 31-June 3, 2007. You have already received a letter from our reunion co-chairs, Mary and Bill - -Murdoch, introducing the theme-"Going Back to the Best Four Years of All." In September, you will receive your registration form which we urge you to return promptly. We look forward to seeing you. An important part of our reunion will be the publication of two reunion books. First is the classmates' book that Don Oberdorfer is putting together for us. If you haven't already submitted your essay and checked your contact information, please do so soon, either electronically or by mail Instructions are in our letter of May 3, in Don's more recent letter, and on the class website, alumni.princeton.edu/~cll952. (You can also go to www.princeton52.org for this purpose.) Don will need final inputs in September at the latest, and the sooner, the better. Second is the women's book telling the individual stories that together paint a picture of a revolution in the lives of women in this country. The accounts submitted so far are compelling reading. We want as many as possible to tell the full story of this historic period through which we have all lived. We thank those who have written. For those of you who have not yet written, we earnestly ask you to do so. We are a very few days from going to press, but we still have flexibility to include your story. As is our custom, our Annual Giving team-fresh from the impressive 80.7% class participation in the just-ended campaign-will be leading us toward further record-breaking achievement. Please look for their letters and respond as early and generously as possible. With this letter comes our annual request (to classmates only) for the class dues that enable us as a class do what we need to do. Please note the special opportunity for the final year to contribute an extra $55 to a fund administered discreetly by Joe Bolster to provide "scholarships" for any classmates who might not be able to attend the reunion without a financial assist. Your contribution will also help a tight reunion budget. The 55th reunion will be the occasion for a transition in class leadership. Our constitution requires your president to name a committee to propose a slate of officers. That committee consists of Hal Saunders, Roger McLean, Bill Murdoch, Tom Dosdall and Geoff Nunes. You may send your suggestions to any of them. They will present their slate to the Executive Committee at its February Alumni Day meeting. Ballots will be sent to the class in March. With this letter as always come our very best wishes to each and every one of you, Hal Saunders Steve Rogers July 31, 2005Dear Classmates, Honorary Members, and Associates: Another great year for a great class! If one looks back over Secretary Dan Duffield's notes and our website, we see classmates traveling by various means all over the globe, publishing books, winning awards, still active on courts and courses, spending creative time with families, and engaged in all sorts of interesting community, church, and civic ventures. We've enjoyed each others' company in regular lunches, chance encounters, planned gatherings in Princeton, and-this year-at the Savannah Mini. We have begun an online conversation following Governor Tom Keane's talk at Alumni Day about the responses of our Congress to the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. We have kept in more timely touch through our '52Net messages and our website with the help of our Class Website Information Committee (CWIC). And once again, to top off the university year, almost 80 percent of us contributed to annual giving, the highest participation rate of any Class from 1952 to the present. For the year ahead, please mark the following on your calendars: on November 12, the day of the Yale game, we will have our usual pre-game lunch in Jadwin Gym and a post-game reception. February 25 is Alumni Day with the usual morning program, lunch, memorial service, and Class Dinner. May 4-7 will be our 21st Mini Reunion in San Francisco. June 3 will be our 54th Reunion. The 55th Reunion Committee has shifted into second gear. You will see their plans on our website (www.alumni.princeton.edu/~cl1952) as they develop. All of this work requires us to keep the Class financially healthy. That brings us to the annual pitch for your prompt response to this year's request for class dues. Please return the enclosed card to Treasurer John Clutz sooner rather than later. While we have a phenomenal level of participation in annual giving, we fall substantially below that participation rate in our payment of class dues. We would like to bring that up to a commensurate level if at all possible. (Associates and honorary members please disregard this request for dues. It is a necessary part of Class business but does not apply to you.) More sadly, we are also drawn closer to each other in sharing and mourning the death of classmates, their wives, and sometimes their children. The reports of classmates traveling great distances to attend memorial services or ministering to ill classmates and their wives are deeply moving. They tell us that we are revealing more deeply who we are by the depth and variety of these responses at these most difficult times. As we continue to reflect on what gives this Class its special character, we again want to ask your help in one project that we have pressed you on before. The Book of Our History is a remarkable work, but it made clear that we would be seriously remiss in recording the fullness of our lives if we did not build a parallel record of the recollections of our wives and partners, women who have lived through a revolution in the lives of women in this country. In response to earlier requests, we now have more than fifty of their stories. They are compelling reading. We ask all of the women associated with the Class to write their stories to be part of a book that we will be publishing for our 55th reunion. You can see a few examples on the website to give you a sense of what others have written. As you will see, they tell quite different stories. They certainly respond to the oft-heard statement: "I really have nothing to write about." Classmates, please urge your wives to send their stories to Priscilla Hildum (pahildum@sbcglobal.net). In concluding, we celebrate the past year and look forward to deepening our experience together in the next! Best wishes to all, February 2005Classmates, Wives, Associates, and Honorary Members: Traditional communications are fundamental to intra-Class connections - the Class Notes in the Princeton Alumni Weekly, letters, phone conversations, reunions, mini-reunions, area meetings, and other means that have served us well over the decades. But now we have Internet options - easy, quick and inexpensive means for those who are on line to keep in touch, work on matters of common interest, and just know what is going on in the Class of 1952 Family. We want in this letter to lay out for you where we are on that subject. Class website . The site (alumni.princeton.edu/~cl1952) is both a timely vehicle for news of interest to the Class and a repository of Class information. News is headlined, with the latest item on top, on the website home page, often linked to other pages for more information. We are increasingly putting pictures on the site. Dan Duffield makes his Class Notes column available for posting when he sends it to the PAW, so it can be read on line several weeks before it appears it print. Email addresses for most classmates and many associates are listed on the website. A Class events schedule, Class leadership, and Executive Committee minutes are among other subjects covered. 52Net . Most of you (about 400) have email addresses that are included in our collective email address system. We use this means to pass on information of particular or immediate interest to the Class: CWIC and 1952Matters . We have a system designed to gather more news of the Class for dissemination via the Class Notes, the website, email and whatever other means are appropriate. This is the least-used segment of our total electronic communications system, but we continue to think it has real possibilities. Fifteen members of the Class, geographically spread out, are members of the Class Web Information Committee (CWIC). They can pass on news of the Class through TigerNet's discussion group facility called 1952Matters. In fact, all members of the Class may avail themselves of 1952Matters. Instructions on using it are attached to the Executive Committee page of the website. We encourage anybody with news of interest to pass it to a CWIC member listed on the website or directly to either of us (Hal or Steve), Class Secretary Dan Duffield, Webmaster Bob Jiranek, or, in the case of a death, Jim Evans or Jack McCune. World Economy Discussion Group . Several classmates have responded to the invitation in the 52Net message in December on establishing a TigerNet on-line discussion group on the future of the world economy. Let us (Hal) know if you would like to join as the group is formed. If this arrangement works out well, it may become a model for similar exchanges of views among Class members on other topics. The purpose of these arrangements for intra-class communications is, of course, to maintain and strengthen the bonds that have contributed to making the Class of 1952 Princeton's Greatest Class. We suggest that you explore the website from time to time. For those of you who are not now getting 52Net messages (17 were sent in 2004), please send us (Steve) your email address or that of a friend or family member who can pass messages to you. And remember that the usefulness of our Internet connections depends on your keeping us informed of new or changed email addresses. We close this communication by bringing attention to two items of current interest and activity that are the subject of recent letters and website articles:
We would welcome your comments on our Internet connections. We hope that 2005 has been good to you so far and that it will continue to be. See you in Savannah! Hal Saunders, President Steve Rogers, Vice President September 2004Dear Classmates, Honorary Classmates, Associates: As the new Princeton year begins, we write our annual kick-off letter to celebrate the accomplishments of the year past and to look forward to the next. As you well know, a primary purpose of this letter is to ask that classmates send your class dues to John Clutz as soon as possible using the enclosed card. You will note one addition this year similar to an approach used for the 50th Reunion. We are inviting you to make an additional contribution of $55 for our 55th. As for the 50th, the purpose will be to create a fund to be discreetly drawn on to help classmates whose financial constraints might otherwise prevent them from attending. This was much appreciated last time, and the Executive Committee felt it important to repeat. Any excess money will go to support the reunion itself. Second, this letter serves as the first communication inviting you to Mini XX in Savannah March 31-April 3, 2005. The Committee has asked us to enclose their initial communication to you with this letter. They ask you to return the enclosed card to show an interest in attending and to say that you want to receive the next more detailed mailing. We are enclosing their program to give you something concrete to respond to. They will send their specific registration form to you only if you have returned the enclosed card. Third, we want to call your attention again to our progress in collecting the stories of the women of '52. We printed a first edition for those attending the Arizona mini and for those wives and associates who have written so far. These stories are compelling reading. We are eager to create a critical mass so that we might publish a volume for our 55th titled, "Our Lives: A Generation in Transition." Please ask your wives and others whom you feel comfortable urging to participate in this unique project. Fourth, we have just concluded another strong year in annual giving with 78.8% participation and a dollar total of $439,376. Again, this is an example of marvelous teamwork involving the Annual Giving Committee, some 65 callers, and of course, the vast majority of classmates who make possible championship performances year after year. Heartiest thanks to all on behalf of '52 and Princeton. Finally, we call the attention of those with access to the internet to our increasingly lively class website (http://www.alumni.princeton.edu/~cl1952). It is updated frequently with the latest class news and pictures. We notify the class of the deaths of classmates as quickly as we receive the news, both on the website and by the 52Net e-mail facility. We also hope to develop electronic habits of bringing classmates together through a program called 1952 Matters-a vehicle for exchanging news and views among classmates. We'll have more to say about the role of electronic communications in a future letter. We look forward to the gathering in Princeton for the Harvard game October 23, to Alumni Day in Princeton February 26, 2005, to mini XX in Savannah, and to our 53rd Reunion in Princeton May 28. With best wishes to all, Hal Saunders Steve Rogers February 2005Classmates, Wives, Associates, and Honorary Members: Traditional communications are fundamental to intra-Class connections - the Class Notes in the Princeton Alumni Weekly, letters, phone conversations, reunions, mini-reunions, area meetings, and other means that have served us well over the decades. But now we have Internet options - easy, quick and inexpensive means for those who are on line to keep in touch, work on matters of common interest, and just know what is going on in the Class of 1952 Family. We want in this letter to lay out for you where we are on that subject. Class website . The site (alumni.princeton.edu/~cl1952) is both a timely vehicle for news of interest to the Class and a repository of Class information. News is headlined, with the latest item on top, on the website home page, often linked to other pages for more information. We are increasingly putting pictures on the site. Dan Duffield makes his Class Notes column available for posting when he sends it to the PAW, so it can be read on line several weeks before it appears it print. Email addresses for most classmates and many associates are listed on the website. A Class events schedule, Class leadership, and Executive Committee minutes are among other subjects covered. 52Net . Most of you (about 400) have email addresses that are included in our collective email address system. We use this means to pass on information of particular or immediate interest to the Class: CWIC and 1952Matters . We have a system designed to gather more news of the Class for dissemination via the Class Notes, the website, email and whatever other means are appropriate. This is the least-used segment of our total electronic communications system, but we continue to think it has real possibilities. Fifteen members of the Class, geographically spread out, are members of the Class Web Information Committee (CWIC). They can pass on news of the Class through TigerNet's discussion group facility called 1952Matters. In fact, all members of the Class may avail themselves of 1952Matters. Instructions on using it are attached to the Executive Committee page of the website. We encourage anybody with news of interest to pass it to a CWIC member listed on the website or directly to either of us (Hal or Steve), Class Secretary Dan Duffield, Webmaster Bob Jiranek, or, in the case of a death, Jim Evans or Jack McCune. World Economy Discussion Group . Several classmates have responded to the invitation in the 52Net message in December on establishing a TigerNet on-line discussion group on the future of the world economy. Let us (Hal) know if you would like to join as the group is formed. If this arrangement works out well, it may become a model for similar exchanges of views among Class members on other topics. The purpose of these arrangements for intra-class communications is, of course, to maintain and strengthen the bonds that have contributed to making the Class of 1952 Princeton's Greatest Class. We suggest that you explore the website from time to time. For those of you who are not now getting 52Net messages (17 were sent in 2004), please send us (Steve) your email address or that of a friend or family member who can pass messages to you. And remember that the usefulness of our Internet connections depends on your keeping us informed of new or changed email addresses. We close this communication by bringing attention to two items of current interest and activity that are the subject of recent letters and website articles: We would welcome your comments on our Internet connections. We hope that 2005 has been good to you so far and that it will continue to be. See you in Savannah! Hal Saunders, President Steve Rogers, Vice President September 2004Dear Classmates, Honorary Classmates, Associates: As the new Princeton year begins, we write our annual kick-off letter to celebrate the accomplishments of the year past and to look forward to the next. As you well know, a primary purpose of this letter is to ask that classmates send your class dues to John Clutz as soon as possible using the enclosed card. You will note one addition this year similar to an approach used for the 50th Reunion. We are inviting you to make an additional contribution of $55 for our 55th. As for the 50th, the purpose will be to create a fund to be discreetly drawn on to help classmates whose financial constraints might otherwise prevent them from attending. This was much appreciated last time, and the Executive Committee felt it important to repeat. Any excess money will go to support the reunion itself. Second, this letter serves as the first communication inviting you to Mini XX in Savannah March 31-April 3, 2005. The Committee has asked us to enclose their initial communication to you with this letter. They ask you to return the enclosed card to show an interest in attending and to say that you want to receive the next more detailed mailing. We are enclosing their program to give you something concrete to respond to. They will send their specific registration form to you only if you have returned the enclosed card. Third, we want to call your attention again to our progress in collecting the stories of the women of '52. We printed a first edition for those attending the Arizona mini and for those wives and associates who have written so far. These stories are compelling reading. We are eager to create a critical mass so that we might publish a volume for our 55th titled, "Our Lives: A Generation in Transition." Please ask your wives and others whom you feel comfortable urging to participate in this unique project. Fourth, we have just concluded another strong year in annual giving with 78.8% participation and a dollar total of $439,376. Again, this is an example of marvelous teamwork involving the Annual Giving Committee, some 65 callers, and of course, the vast majority of classmates who make possible championship performances year after year. Heartiest thanks to all on behalf of '52 and Princeton. Finally, we call the attention of those with access to the internet to our increasingly lively class website (http://www.alumni.princeton.edu/~cl1952). It is updated frequently with the latest class news and pictures. We notify the class of the deaths of classmates as quickly as we receive the news, both on the website and by the 52Net e-mail facility. We also hope to develop electronic habits of bringing classmates together through a program called 1952 Matters-a vehicle for exchanging news and views among classmates. We'll have more to say about the role of electronic communications in a future letter. We look forward to the gathering in Princeton for the Harvard game October 23, to Alumni Day in Princeton February 26, 2005, to mini XX in Savannah, and to our 53rd Reunion in Princeton May 28. With best wishes to all,
Message from the Class President In August, you received a letter written from Priscilla Hildum, Grace Brush, and Annette Merle-Smith to wives and associates of '52, urging them to write reflections on their lives just as we did for the Book of Our History. Priscilla, Grace, and Annette have now quadrupled the number of earlier responses, and the number is growing. The purpose of this message is hopefully to quadruple the number of responses again now that momentum is mounting. Please know that there is no hard and fast deadline--that our aim is to collect as many reflections as possible. Our ladies have, in very different ways, lived through a revolution in the lives of women in our country. Some have entered the professional or business world, and they have a story to tell of being not always accepted, sometimes ignored pioneers. Others have led what we in the 1950s considered the traditional life of wife, mother, volunteer, but many of them have engaged in a range of often uncompensated activities that would make the conventional male experience seem drab. And, of course, there have been those who moved from home to workplace as children matured and more doors opened. Whatever the mix, the stories being told reveal a remarkable richness and depth. They need to be shared more widely. We classmates know how exciting it has been to know each other's experiences through the Book of Our History and the accompanying essays. We would like the ladies of the class to add their experiences to that tapestry—for their benefit, for our benefit, and for their children and grandchildren. A few weeks ago, Carol received a note--a first grader's early attempt at a self-written note. "Nana, please write what it was like for you as a little girl. Our class would like to know." How many similar requests have our ladies received? But this is not only for ourselves. Recently I received the following from classmate and eminent sociologist Ed Tiryakian: "I think your getting wives of '52 to tell their story is a splendid idea. I was fascinated with the sample biographies that we received. I do very much think that when completed it could make a very rich book, as a companion volume to the one that was published a couple of years ago (was it by Tom Brokaw?) about the generation born in the depression years who rebuilt American after WWII -- essentially, our generation. But I think the distaff component of that generation was not highlighted in the volume, whereas the story of wives of '52 will make fascinating reading for more than Princetonians." The Executive Committee of the Class has approved putting these stories together in a small book. I know many of our wives say, "I don't have anything to say." My response is, "You may not think so, but when you've lived through a revolution, however quietly, your reflections are of immense value." Would you please share this message as appropriate and encourage a response if at all possible. The team that has launched this effort would also appreciate knowing of any wives, associates, significant others who have had experience in putting together a collection like this or in putting this collection in an historical perspective. Admittedly, this experiment breaks new ground--not uncharacteristically for '52--but we are all excited by its possibilities. As more wives and associates engage, the more the excitement grows. Please encourage participation and help as you feel appropriate. Best wishes, Hal Saunders August 2003As a new Princeton year begins, we call attention to our first letter of that new year (text below) setting the stage for our life together. All will receive it by regular mail, but we give you a preview here. We also want to call your attention to the new section on this website, "Connections.” It opens by describing two opportunities for classmates, wives, and associates to come together around efforts that could connect the interests of others in the class with yours. We invite you to post interests or projects in which others could join or help you. Posted first in the Connections section is a letter from a group of our ladies of which we are particularly proud. We understand that this is the first-ever mailing from Princeton written directly for the ladies of a Princeton class. We hope this will become the vehicle for an exciting effort that will bring our wives and associates closer together and us with all of them as we see them through new lenses. Second is an important project described by Sid Liebes. Consider joining him in the larger effort to enhance sensitivity to changes in perception that are necessary to assure life on our planet in the long-term. As I said in my prayer at our memorial service at the Fiftieth: ". . . may we deepen the relationships among us in ways that make these the richest years of our lives.” Hal Saunders Preview: President's Next Letter: August, 2003 Dear Classmates, We greet you at the beginning of another Princeton year. Building from the achievements of the past year, we express our hopes for the next. In the past year we basked in the continuing enthusiasms of the years leading up to our Fiftieth. Perhaps the turnout for Mini XVIII in Washington--our second largest mini ever--reflected the deep satisfactions of connections and reconnections at the Fiftieth. At the same time, we experienced some inevitable letdown in the wake of our once-in-a-lifetime Fiftieth. Payment of class dues, for instance, fell from an understandable decade high of 67% in 2001-2002 to 55% this past year. One objective in the coming year is to push that level back at least into the mid-60s. As soon as you put this letter down, please pick up the enclosed dues card, write your dues check, and send both to Treasurer John Clutz. Having broken three annual giving records last year, we continue in that mode in this off-year: the amount given led all off-year classes by a wide margin and our participation rate led all classes our age or younger. The number giving $1,000 or more led all classes. We will be concentrating on pushing our 78.4% participation rate ever higher (83.25 last year) as befits the great class that we are. Again, we congratulate our remarkable leadership team, our 60 callers, and all of you who continue to keep us out in front in supporting a university that did so much for us. One unique step that will bring all of us--classmates, wives and associates--closer is described in a letter recently written to wives and associates. We understand that this is the first mailing from Princeton written exclusively to alumni wives and widows. Another '52 first! It invites our ladies to write briefly their life stories in ways that would parallel the stories we classmates wrote for the Book of Our History . The Executive Committee has agreed with enthusiasm to publish these if there are enough responses to make a critical mass. Our ladies have lived a revolution in the lives of women in this country, and we strongly believe their reflections should be written--for their sakes, for ours, for our children, and as an insight into this era of profound change. We fervently hope that they will consider seriously joining in this adventure. We have strengthened our network for gathering news about classmates as a step in tightening connections. This is reflected both in Secretary Dan Duffield's class notes in the PAW and on our website. If you are connected to the Internet, please go to the website at www.alumni.princeton.edu/~cl1952, to see the changes and to learn about the new Class Web Information Committee (CWIC) and the information exchange system 1952Matters. The website also now features a section titled "Connections," where classmates, wives, and associates can describe work they are doing in which others might like to join. If you have e-mail but did not receive the enclosed message we sent in June, please send your e-mail address to shrogers@alumni.princeton.edu and we will add you to the 52Net collective address. We would welcome your comments and suggestions on the website as well as on the use of 52Net and 1952Matters. Of course, anyone not on e-mail is strongly encouraged, as usual, to mail their news to Dan or to record it on John's dues card. We look forward to another year of opportunities to be together across the country: the Yale game in Princeton November 15 with lunch before and cocktails after; Alumni Day February 21 in Princeton with lectures, Alumni Association lunch, memorial service, and Class of 1952 dinner; and '52's on-campus 52nd reunion May 29. Topping this agenda will be Mini XIX in Scottsdale, Arizona, next May, for which you have already received our committee's first mailing. Please respond promptly to their letter so they can plan responsively, and put all these get-togethers on your calendar. And please send John your dues today so we will have the flexibility to deepen our connections as opportunities arise. With best wishes to all, June 3, 2003MINI-REUNIONS For those who attended the mini-reunion early in May in Washington, DC, for others who are interested in knowing what went on, and for all who want to hear what our great tradition of mini-reunions is all about, we have two good reports on Mini XVIII. Don Oberdorfer's "official" report is on the Mini-Reunions page. Dan Duffield devoted his column for the June 4 issue of the Princeton Alumni Weekly to Mini XVIII (see Secretary's Notes). And Dan has written an expanded report -- what he would have liked to publish in the PAW if he hadn't been limited to 300 words; to read it, click here. Each Mini-Reunion has been unique, but they all have been opportunities for friendship, entertainment, and learning. Each has provided us with a new perspective, reflecting the intent to hold mini-reunions in different parts of the country -- anywhere, almost, where we have classmates who are willing to host them. Proposals for sites of future minis are always welcome! Mini XVIII is now history, and we can look forward to Mini XIX in Phoenix/Scottsdale in early May 2004. Ted Nicholson and Bill Nicely provided information on Mini XIX to participants in the Washington Mini; it is repeated below (note the request for feedback in the last paragraph of Ted's letter). Next year -- Arizona. And then, in 2005, Mini XX in -- to be announced! Hal Saunders Princeton Class of 1952 Mini-Reunion XIX Mini XIX will take place May 2, 3, 4, 2004 at Camelback Inn, Scottsdale, AZ with a side-trip (optional) to the Grand Canyon and Sedona on May 5, 6, and 7. Highlights 1. Reserved Pueblo style casitas at Camelback Inn. A casita is a two room suite with a private patio. It has most amenities you can imagine, with twin or king size beds available at a rate of $190.00 per night plus 11.67% tax. This room rate is available 3 days in advance of 5/2 or three days after May 4. Camelback Inn is a five-diamond and four-star golf, spa, and tennis resort operated by Marriott. 2. Registration on May 2 (all day) with a Mexican-style buffet dinner. Dinner on May 3 will be at Rawhide, a re-creation of an 1880's western town and the steak, chicken or vegetable dinner will be served outside in the desert. Very informal. Tuesday, May 4, dinner will be served at the Heard Museum, a unique surrounding. It is known as a historic and contemporary Native American Art Museum. Tours will be available and the museum shop will be open exclusively for our group. 3. Side trips will be arranged for May 3rd and 4th and include: 4. We are also arranging airline discounts with Southwest Airlines (10% off the ticket price ), US Air and others. Also we have discounted fares for travel from Airport Terminal to Camelback Inn on the "Super Shuttle." 5. Prices are still being negotiated, but we expect everyone to make their Camelback Inn room arrangements directly with Camelback at 1-800-228-9290 by March, 2004. In order to get a "feel" (not a commitment) as to whether you will attend, please call (480) 922-1897, fax (480) 922-8385, or e-mail (ted@nicholsoncompany.com) with your intentions as to the Camelback Inn experience and the side-trip to Sedona/Grand Canyon. This would be needed by June-July, 2003 to give us preliminary planning at to the number of rooms, buses, etc. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you, Ted Nicholson * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Side Trip to Sedona/Grand Canyon May 5-7, 2004
* Not included in Package January 15, 2003Dear Classmates, Wives, and Associates: Happy 2003! We want to bring you up to date on our fall Executive Committee meeting and enclose information on making your hotel reservations for the Washington mini-reunion May 1-4 . You all should have received the handsome album on our Fiftieth Reunion. The Executive Committee warmly thanked Don Oberdorfer, Joe Bolster, and Steve Rogers for their work in bringing us this wonderful memory. (Copies still available at $10 from Ansel Gould, 4636 Sunflower Drive, Rockville, MD 20853.) This marvelous wrap-up of our Fiftieth Reunion year provides not a closure but a springboard to the potential excitement of the next five years. We rejoice in the many connections and reconnections made during the past year. And yes, we broke several records in unbelievably decisive ways. But even more significant, we generated a deepened self-consciousness about who we are as a class and the role we have played both in each other's lives and in this turbulent half century. In short, we see our reunion year as a staging point for experiencing and demonstrating how a great class can build on all this to make this "fourth quarter of our lives" the richest of all. Those thoughts lead us to the following reports on initiatives now in their formative stages. We don't know yet exactly where we are going. That's what's exciting! We are closing no doors by attempting to define our objectives before we have explored them as fully as possible-and even then, we will want to leave space for unforeseen opportunities and accomplishments. But we will be crystallizing specific possibilities for you over the next couple of months. Keep in touch with our website and look out for the envelope with the tiger! First, a group began with summer teleconferences to probe your responses to "Can '52 Connections Enrich Retirement?" We will shortly post on the website and mail several illustrative proposals for Common Interest Groups (CIGs) that we hope will engage some of you. Second, wives and associates under the leadership of Priscilla Hildum, Annette Merle-Smith, Grace Brush, and Warren McCabe are forming a group to review responses to the paper, "To the Ladies of '52." They are sharpening the focus of this project. In a most unusual initiative, Roger McLean and Dick Kazmaier are following up a suggestion of Ed Tiryakian to form a joint Princeton '52 and Harvard '52 delegation to the 2004 Olympics, which will return to Athens for the first time since the modern Olympics began in 1896. Then, Princeton and Harvard athletes played a significant role, and our group is exploring whether it might be possible to celebrate that role with a non-official representation of the two universities at the 2004 games. On another front, Bob Lamperti has graciously taken on the challenge of building a comprehensive '52 archive for the Mudd Library. We claim to be one of Princeton's great classes and don't want anyone to forget it! If you have material that should be preserved, please contact Bob. We have celebrated '52's spectacular performance in 2001-2002 annual giving, contributing almost one sixth of the entire university goal in a year when the overall effort faced grave challenges in the wake of 9/11 and in the midst of the severe stock market decline. The Executive Committee, with Joe Bolster presiding, presented a citation to our annual giving staff member, Sean Brennan, '88, and his wife, Susie, '89, for their role. What came out in dinner conversation was that few classes have the kind of veteran annual giving team that '52 enjoys. Virtually the same leadership team of Jay Sherrerd, John Emery, Dick Pivirotto, Joe Bolster, Hoby Kreitler, and many others have been working together for some thirty-five years. Class agent Don Malehorn joined the team as class agent five years ago and has happily agreed to continue. This unique teamwork, not surprising from '52, has contributed vitally to our cumulative annual giving records. In this first "off-year" following our Fiftieth, the annual giving office put us down for a goal of $450,000. Not untypically, our annual giving team set a symbolically significant goal of $520,000 and 80% participation. It will be a stretch but with their usual confidence in all of us, they predict success. Treasurer John Clutz reported to the Executive Committee that our reunion accounts came out decently in the black, and the Book of Our History is virtually breaking even, according to Stokes Carrigan. The class treasury is in a solid position to support new initiatives, John says, and we encourage you to send your response now to his reminder on the importance of our dues. Over 100 classmates are now involved in one or another of the efforts described above; 55% of us attended the Fiftieth Reunion; more than two-thirds are paying class dues; 83% of us participated in annual giving; and over 97% are represented in the Book of Our History. We hope also that many will find it of interest to make the interactions among us a rewarding and regular part of our lives. Remember our Alumni Day dinner in Princeton on February 22 with an outstanding after-dinner panel, AND book your hotel room for the Washington mini now. All the best, Hal Saunders Steve Rogers October 2002MEMORANDUM TO: Joe Bolster From: Hal Saunders Date: October 1, 2002 All of you in your various communications to the class have thanked both solicitors and I know Don called special attention to the ’52 annual giving leadership team at the To give this message the broad base it deserves, I am sending copies to all members of the Again, our rousing thanks! June 2002Dear Classmates, Wives, and Associates: It is with great pleasure and deep appreciation for the opportunity to serve that we write this inaugural letter as '52's new president and vice president. Slightly more than half of us are basking in the afterglow of our 50th -- a record-breaking group of 342 that surpassed the previous attendance record for a 50th by almost 60! In a few weeks, we will send a report on the reunion that Don Oberdorfer is writing so that everyone may have a record of that memorable milestone. To begin our next five years, we are asking all of you to explore with us ways of building on the connections and reconnections of this reunion year. Specifically, we are enclosing two pages that were included respectively in the ladies' and the classmates' reunion packets. We are asking you- wives, associates, and honorary members included-to respond to these in the next few days, if you haven't already done so. Your responses will help set our course. We have four thoughts in mind: First, our reading of the marvelous Book of Our History convinces us that the rich mine of experience recorded there offers countless opportunities for new and productive interactions around shared interests. There may even be possibilities for connecting some of those interactions with the university's educational goals. We are especially excited by the hope that the wives and associates of the class will become partners in these adventures. Your interests and experience will enrich us all. Second, we are inviting wives and associates to write your stories of living as women through a revolutionary era in American life. We will work with you in whatever ways you design to record those stories for the benefit of all. We hope some of you will be eager to take the lead in thinking through how best to do this. Third, the Book of Our History has generated a wealth of narratives and reflections on fifty years of living in America through the Cold War and remarkable changes in our society. We need to figure out the next step in capturing what we have learned. Fourth, we need to discuss how we might upgrade our communication in support of whatever we may do in these areas, given the dual challenge of now-available means of electronic exchange and the fact that many have chosen to stay with familiar modes of communicating. We have a colorfully remodeled class web page which we'd like to think of as a "community center," and we could use related technology to exchange thoughts around shared interests. But we also need to include those who prefer other ways of communicating. This will be the focus of one of our next letters. As we move forward, we hope many of you will cluster in informal groups pursuing common interests. The members of the class Executive Committee, named on the letterhead, stand ready to assist you in any way we can. Just a word about the Executive Committee. We are pursuing a two-track strategy: (1) we decided early to keep together as many as possible of the hardworking and effective team that Roger assembled but (2) we expect to enlarge the number of those-classmates, wives, and associates-working actively with the class by forming and consolidating work groups around the interests and projects described above. There are no limits. We will begin this process with your responses to the enclosed pages and, in the next few weeks, with telephone conferences to map our options, for instance, for enhancing communication and then to make some of them happen. Initially, these efforts will be led by members of the Executive Committee, but as we go on, we expect that others will, in a natural way, move into leadership roles because they care about what is evolving. That's the kind of leadership that has marked our class-and, we might add, American democracy. Finally, we're already looking forward to our next opportunity to come together. You will soon be receiving a letter from the committee planning a mini-reunion in Washington for May 1-4, 2003. We have received an enthusiastic response to our initial e-mail request for a show of interest. Since preparation time is short, we hope you will respond promptly to the letter and further communications on the mini. Plan to join us! Hal Saunders Steve Rogers |
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