As you can see — and feel — this issue marks a return to PAW’s full print run, after a paper shortage forced us to shrink the magazine in March and April. Securing paper continues to be a challenge, but we hope to move forward as usual for the rest of the year.
That means we can return to a PAW tradition, with the photo of the Class of 1938 on page 43. Since the death of Francis H. McAdoo Jr. on Jan. 26, at 105, the class has no known living members, and its column no longer appears in Class Notes.
At Commencement, speakers noted more consequential issues. The Great Depression was continuing, and Hitler annexed Austria in ’38’s senior year. Valedictorian Desiderio Parreño reminded classmates of the developing storm in Europe and continued: “Here in America it is also an hour of crisis … . In the fight for freedom, for enlightenment, for justice, it is we, the young, and the young who have been privileged, who must decide the day.” In the class oration, Thomas Roberts McMillen stressed the duty to vote and to consider running for office. Asked in an undated class poll whether they believed there would be a world war, 196 members said no; 217 thought one would begin within five years.
Among the class personalities was Dan D. Coyle, whose classmates voted him best all-around man, most respected, most popular, most likely to succeed, busiest, and the person who did the most for the class. That made him seem destined for the job he would occupy later, as head of Princeton’s PR office. Well-known classmates included beer executive William Coors; class officer Robert S. Mueller Jr., whose son would lead the FBI; and brothers Hans and Wolfgang Panofsky, later known as stellar scientists, with Wolfgang, a physicist, receiving the National Medal of Science.
In his 50th reunion book, however, Wolfgang began his profile by noting a different award: “I am including a photo to document what happens when my class voted me as the runner-up in its ‘most likely bachelor’ competition.” The picture showed Panofsky with his wife, their five children, and a bunch of smiling grandkids.
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4 Responses
Robert Platten k’38
2 Years AgoIn Tribute to the Class of ’38 (and ‘Tiger Larson’)
I read with interest your article about the last remaining member of the Class of ’38, and I felt compelled to add a few notes to embellish your summary a bit. I am the son of a member of that class, and my Dad, Jack Platten, lived and breathed Princeton, his class, and his classmates through the last 70 years of his life until he died in 2008. He lived in Princeton and attended every home football game since 1933, and every home basketball game except one that he missed due to a car accident that had him in the hospital. He was reunion chairman almost since he graduated, so I got to know many of his classmates who visited, and with whom he corresponded.
There were some truly wonderful and interesting people, many of whom were not superstars but just plain solid folks. I think of Bill Tams, longtime class correspondent, a modest fellow with a great sense of humor — he and my Dad, and George Morgan, Ed Fleer, Bob Kulp, and a few others created a mythical classmate named Tiger Larson whom they bragged about every once in a while in the PAW for some amazing feat he presumably pulled off. They had a friend who was not a classmate play the role of Tiger Larson and attend a reunion (maybe the 25th?). Other classmates claimed to remember him from their time on campus, so the ruse was very effective. I don’t think they had him win the Nobel Prize or anything, but they made up some prizes and honors that sounded authentic, and they had a really good time with that fantasy.
Other members of the class of note that were not mentioned in your article included Peter Frelinghuysen, congressman from New Jersey, and Alex Notopoulos, who was a WWII secret service spy of some note and should not be forgotten. Also, the class had a Dixieland band made up of classmates, including a couple of honorary women classmates, called the “Eight-Balls” who played at Reunions every five years.
I suppose I could go on and on with memories of that class. I liked your write up, it just wasn’t long enough. I suggest you put together a two or three page summary of each class that has expired, and get classes, as they reach their 50th reunion, to craft their own history for the ages. It would be nice to capture some of the best stories and reflect on the some of the wonderful people who populated those classes. I am sure each has a rich history, much like the Class of ’38.
William Silber *66
2 Years AgoCorresponding with Francis McAdoo ’38
I saw the notice of Francis McAdoo ’38’s passing in the May issue of the magazine (From the Editor) and thought you might be interested in the following braided Princeton history. My name is William Silber. I received a Ph.D. (economics) in 1966 and former Princeton provost Steve Goldfeld was my thesis adviser. I wrote a book, When Washington Shut Down Wall Street, published in 2007 by Princeton University Press, which traces Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo’s triumph over a monetary crisis at the outbreak of World War I that threatened the United States with financial disaster.
The book was favorably received, including a comment from Nobel laureate Milton Friedman (“This book addresses an important issue that deserves wide readership. It is lucid and clear and deals with some very important episodes in American history”). But my favorite commentary came from an unsolicited letter in 2008 from Francis H. McAdoo Jr., William McAdoo’s grandson, which I have attached. PAW favorably reviewed my biography of former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker ’49 in 2013, but I thought this letter from Francis McAdoo, and the generational Princeton connections, might be of human interest today.
Charles H. Stone ’49
2 Years AgoChapel Rules in the War Years
In her piece in the May issue, Marilyn H. Marks says that the Class of ’38 “enjoyed the end of compulsory chapel.” If that is so, then why do I remember compulsory chapel in my first semester in the summer of 1945? I seem to recall indifferent enforcement fading into abandonment of the whole business by the time of the first frost. The fall semester began in perhaps early October, returning World War II veterans swarmed onto the campus, and much of Princeton’s pre-war culture was rapidly extinguished.
Editor’s note: The Class of ’38 was among the first classes that did not have to attend chapel as juniors and seniors; the change was approved by Princeton’s trustees in the spring of 1935. According to the PAW archives, compulsory chapel was not completely eliminated until June 1964.
Charles Frisbie ’61
2 Years AgoChapel Attendance
The article in the May edition of PAW on the death of the last known 1938 class member was interesting (From the Editor). But it contains what I am pretty confident is an error when it states that “classmates enjoyed the end of compulsory chapel.” A job I had freshman and sophomore years was handing out and then collecting attendance cards at Trinity Episcopal Church on Sunday mornings (at $2 per Sunday). I turned the cards in to the University to substantiate the attendance at Trinity of a student who chose not to attend the University Chapel. This is because there was during my time a requirement that freshmen and sophomores attend some kind of religious service on one-half the weekends during the academic year.
Editor’s note: The Class of ’38 was among the first classes that did not have to attend chapel as juniors and seniors; the change was approved by Princeton’s trustees in the spring of 1935. According to the PAW archives, compulsory chapel for freshmen remained until June 1964.