Chapel 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.