Princeton’s Reach in Wartime

The Oct. 12, 1945, cover of PAW featured this photo of Pfc. Norman D. Weir Jr. '€™46 perusing his favorite alumni periodical at the U.S. Army base on Okinawa. "It isn't a flattering picture," Weir wrote, "€œbut at least it's accurate."€ The address department of alumni records had a monumental task during the war years but did its best to keep mailing "€œthe Weekly"€ to its loyal readers. The magazine was not the only printed material from Princeton that found its way into the hands of students serving abroad. In 1943, President Harold Dodds *1914 shared presents from the University with each student in the service, as Gregg Lange '70 explained in a 2006 PAW column:

Approaching Christmas of 1943, the country and Nassau’s sons faced the certainty of an impending year bloodier than any since the Civil War. In the teeth of this, rather than despair, Dodds chose to send Christmas gifts. Each of the 1,300 Princetonians in the service received three books of his own choosing, each with a personal bookplate, delivered wherever he might be. With apologies to Dickens, Dodds brought the Best Damn Place of All to the Worst Damn Place of All. Alumni of the 1930s and '€™40s speak about the gesture to this day.