• Clinton's Visit

• Name Games

• Army ROTC

• Vintage Class Notes

• Distaff McGrath

• Foreign Mailing

CLINTON'S VISIT
As evidenced by the letters in your September 11 issue denouncing President Clinton's visit to Princeton, an Ivy League education does not temper a person's incivility or inability to show respect-it only makes one better equipped to hide poor manners. Say what you will about Bill Clinton-and your readers have said much-he is still the President of the United States. If you cannot show a certain amount of respect for the man and his policies (including the bold educational initiative he announced at Princeton), then respect his office, its tradition, and our democratic system of government.
This is neither the first time a sitting President has visited Princeton nor the first time a liberal (or Yalie) has been given an honorary degree. No doubt, the university and the Republic will survive this abomination.
As to the reader who almost "lost his cookies" when he saw the President's photo on the cover, I suggest he close his eyes for the next four years.
Christopher P. Lu '88
Washington, D.C.

Most of the letters regarding President Clinton's visit saddened me for their mean-spirited, self-righteous, vitriolic lack of generosity. For the first time since Woodrow Wilson, we have a President of intellect; for the first time since Franklin Roosevelt, we have a President with emotional empathy for life's unfortunate.
In President Clinton we have someone, capacious of soul, who is reaching out to help heal the wounds of individuals, families, and nations. I applaud Princeton's reaching out, a gesture of spiritual generosity, a sign of our university's greatness.
Cuthbert Russell Train '64
Northeast Harbor, Maine

I was amused by the intemperate letters you published concerning President Clinton's visit. They remind me of the hatred so often expressed by many well-to-do alumni toward Franklin D. Roosevelt when he was running for reelection in 1936. I predict that President Clinton's answer to this vitriol will be similar to that of FDR's: Roosevelt won every state but Maine and Vermont. Clinton, I am confident, will do as well.
Gelston Hinds '44
Little Compton, R.I.

This is to inform you that you will shortly be receiving my lawyer's claim in the amount of $4,371.22 for medical expenses incurred as a result of reading your magazine. My medical crisis was triggered by the letters you published concerning the appearance of President Clinton at Princeton. As a result of their breathtaking hypocrisy, I lost respiratory function and had to be rushed to the local emergency room (a risky proposition in this town, by the way). There, normal breathing was restored, but not before a nurse's aide leafed through the copy of paw I was clutching and succumbed herself. Fortunately, her medical coverage is more liberal than mine.
Your readers are old enough to know that national politicians are almost uniformly people of massive egotism and therefore of dubious morality. Success in the pursuit of higher office comes only to people who acquire such characteristics. Do I have to throw in the faces of your readers the scandals of Watergate, IranContra, and Star Wars as well as those of the Gulf of Tonkin and Whitewater for them to remember that these traits are not confined to Democrats? Princeton graduates ought to be ashamed of pretending such naiveté in public just to get in cheap shots at a politician they dislike. And you, dear editor, should be doing your job more assiduously-you are not required to publish every piece of nonsense written by someone whose last name has class numerals attached to it. Here's to better behavior on all sides in the future.
Paul Kolodner '75
Hoboken, N.J.

I can see how President Clinton's visit might have set off some differences of opinion, but Lawrence Harrison Rogers II '43 seems to be dithering off the deep end.
After all, Abraham Lincoln was my great great uncle, as was-adding a few greats-George Washington. Florence Nightingale and Abigail Adams were my great aunts; also Queen Victoria, on my mother's side. I am a direct descendant of Madame Curie, Jeanne d'Arc, and, going even further back, the gallant Boadicea. Da Vinci and Molière were cousins, as was Frederick the Great ("Tuzzin Fweddie," we called him). Jean Harlow was my godmother.
But you don't see me huffing and snorting and moralizing, canceling my paw subscription, and demanding things back from the University Archives. No sir, not me.
David McAneny '41
Paoli, Penn.

For 248 years, Princeton's "within the family" commencement exercises, addressed only by outstanding seniors and our university's president, signaled that a degree from Princeton, whether earned or honorary, was distinction enough. At Commencement we celebrated our shared experience of Princeton and listened to our university's authentic voice. Princeton was the messenger and the message.
I am saddened that, in yielding the platform to an incumbent U.S. president for an electionyear policy pronouncement-an opportunity and honor not accorded to any of his 41 predecessors (not Washington or Madison, not Cleveland, not Roosevelt or Truman, not even Wilson)-Princeton, "in this exceptional year," as President Shapiro called it, became just another university.
Albert A. Applegate '50
Suttons Bay, Mich.

NAME GAMES
During 27 years on the faculty, I have always said that the most striking thing about Princeton, for all its scholarly excellence and other qualities, has been its unfailing decency. Your September 11 Notebook shook my faith. My complaint is not about the university's excitement over someone's stealing a name unused for 100 years-although we do, I think, sound a little silly. What appalls me, rather, is your decision to feature the photo of the newly named College of New Jersey's misspelled sign. That was a genuine cheap shot-patronizing, class-laden, and childish.
John P. Lewis
Professor of Economics and
International Affairs, Emeritus
Princeton, N.J.

After seeing the photograph of the misspelled sign for "The College of New Jeresy," I submit the following limerick:
Parvenu College of New Jeresy
In a move I thought I would never see
Grabbed the old name
Without any shame
Committing the ultimate heresy.
Stephen A. Kliment *57
New York, N.Y.

Editor's note: On September 19, as we were going to press, the university announced it was dropping its suit against the former Trenton State College, a move that will allow the school to keep its new name, the College of New Jersey. Full coverage will appear in the October 23 Notebook.

ARMY ROTC
The April 17 Notebook article on Army ROTC gave me great pleasure. After nearly 30 years of my urging its departure from the campus, a position that was supported by three faculty votes over the objections of Presidents Goheen, Bowen, and Shapiro, it appeared that Army ROTC was going to die a natural death.
Then came the communication from George D. Eggers '47 *65 (Letters, July 3) detailing the efforts to revive it. Although these efforts seem unlikely to succeed, I am troubled by two parts of his letter which appear to be inconsistent with the 1989 report on ROTC by Thomas H. Wright, Jr. '62, a university vice-president-a report endorsed both by President Shapiro and the Board of Trustees. First, Eggers signs the letter "Chairman, ROTC Advisory Council." Second, he refers in the body of the letter to efforts of "administrators . . . to devise ways to recruit more cadets."
As Robert H. Rawson, Jr. '66, the chairman of the trustee executive committee, wrote to me on December 13, 1993: "the chair of the council [retired General Eggers] has been notified that all reference, recognition and support by the university for any ROTC council is to end." While the financial support for the Advisory Council appears to have ended in 1993, the reference by Eggers in his letter to paw shows that the council continues to operate.
The main recommendations of the Wright Report were actions that would make clear the nature of ROTC as an organization external to the university. Any efforts by administrators "to devise ways to recruit more cadets" clearly run counter to these recommmendations. In addition, the Wright Report recommended that, due to the widespread impression that the word "program" in university publications means a university program, the word "program" not be used in any reference to ROTC activities. Nevertheless, Army ROTC is still referred to as a "program" in the current Undergraduate Announcement. After seven years, the only question is: why?
Harold W. Kuhn *50
Professor of Mathematical Economics, Emeritus
Princeton, N.J.

VINTAGE CLASS NOTES
I wish to thank the editors for the "vintage" class-notes columns that have been appearing at the head of Class Notes.
Calvin Wallis '32
Duarte, Calif.

Editor's note: Last year's columns were adapted from material originally published in the multivolume Princetonians: A Biographical Dictionary (Princeton University Press, 1976, 1981, and 1991). The authors of the articles on which the columns were based are W. Frank Craven (Joseph Clark 1781), John M. Murrin (Mahlon Dickerson 1789), Ruth L. Woodward (Augustus William Harvey 1790), and James McLachlan (John MacPherson 1766, David Howell 1766, Nathaniel Scudder 1751, Benjamin Youngs Prime 1751, Caleb Barnum 1757, Timothy Edwards 1757, and Jonathan Odell 1754).

DISTAFF MCGRATH
Richard O'Brien's July 3 profile of Doug McGrath '80, the director of the movie version of Jane Austin's Emma, plays artfully on his two Janes-the other being his wife, Jane Martin, whom the article notes was Woody Allen's long-time assistant. Her provenance has more to it, however, for she is also the daughter of Edie and Henry Martin '48. Henry's delicious cartoons have long graced the pages of The New Yorker and enlivened the university's Planned Giving ads in paw, as well as decorating the Class of 1948's class notes.
David K. Reeves '48
Princeton, N.J.