Chapel 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.