I was delighted by the article on the contributions of support staff at Princeton over the decades, especially the details, which I had not known, about Agnes Fleming. During the years 1963-66, when I was a graduate student in mathematics, she was Agnes Henry and recognized as a force in the department. My fellow graduate student Morton Brown *65, a graduate of McGill University, student of John Tukey *39, and currently professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, once remarked to me that he doubted women would ever be admitted to the mathematics department while Mrs. Henry was there. I found her very likable, and when I came back to Princeton in 1969 for the retirement of my adviser, Salomon Bochner, she remembered me and chatted cordially with my wife.
In 1965, at the traditional celebration for those who had just passed the general examination, Robert Strichartz *66, a student of Elias Stein, wrote a satirical skit entitled “The Reign of Queen Henry VIII.” It was not exactly SNL quality, but we were all in a good mood and laughed a lot. You had to have been there to appreciate the jokes. There were characters with comic names, such as “Wienerschnitzel” (Gerard Washnitzer *50); “Punning” (Robert Gunning *55), played by Tory Parsons *66, a student of Albert Tucker *32; “Uncle Sal” (Bochner), played by Norman Levitt *67, a student of William Browder *58; and a secretary named “Juicy,” whose name in real life was Bonnie.
As a sample of the esoteric humor, Barbara Cooke, wife of George Cooke *67 (also a student of Browder and no relation to the writer of this letter), read a commercial using the common advertising language of the time, for a product named “Hom,” said to be superior to “Brand Ext.” Well, as I said, you had to have been there. But some of the humor reflected real life. Gunning, for example, is said to have dubbed the new home of the department in 1969 “Finer Hall.”
I was delighted by the article on the contributions of support staff at Princeton over the decades, especially the details, which I had not known, about Agnes Fleming. During the years 1963-66, when I was a graduate student in mathematics, she was Agnes Henry and recognized as a force in the department. My fellow graduate student Morton Brown *65, a graduate of McGill University, student of John Tukey *39, and currently professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, once remarked to me that he doubted women would ever be admitted to the mathematics department while Mrs. Henry was there. I found her very likable, and when I came back to Princeton in 1969 for the retirement of my adviser, Salomon Bochner, she remembered me and chatted cordially with my wife.
In 1965, at the traditional celebration for those who had just passed the general examination, Robert Strichartz *66, a student of Elias Stein, wrote a satirical skit entitled “The Reign of Queen Henry VIII.” It was not exactly SNL quality, but we were all in a good mood and laughed a lot. You had to have been there to appreciate the jokes. There were characters with comic names, such as “Wienerschnitzel” (Gerard Washnitzer *50); “Punning” (Robert Gunning *55), played by Tory Parsons *66, a student of Albert Tucker *32; “Uncle Sal” (Bochner), played by Norman Levitt *67, a student of William Browder *58; and a secretary named “Juicy,” whose name in real life was Bonnie.
As a sample of the esoteric humor, Barbara Cooke, wife of George Cooke *67 (also a student of Browder and no relation to the writer of this letter), read a commercial using the common advertising language of the time, for a product named “Hom,” said to be superior to “Brand Ext.” Well, as I said, you had to have been there. But some of the humor reflected real life. Gunning, for example, is said to have dubbed the new home of the department in 1969 “Finer Hall.”