A letter from an alum about Peter Bell *64

March 25, 2003

The March 26th issue telling that Peter Bell *64 received the James Madison Award for his work with CARE brought home memories of our past. I think I am probably one of the few Princeton graduates to have been on the receiving end of CARE's largesse.

When we were in India, working at a small tuberculosis hospital in the Himalayas, suddenly out of the blue we received a goodly number of CARE packages. We still do not know how our hospital was selected for them, but did not question why. I remember three items that were included in them — multipurpose food (which looked somewhat like oatmeal), large cans of Wisconsin cheddar cheese, and cans of fruit (peaches as I recall). Enclosed with each package was the name of an individual donor. It was wonderful, but also posed some problems. The fruit was easy to use and soon disappeared. The multipurpose food we used to help feed patients and the local village of professional beggars. But the cheese posed a problem. Our Indian patients did not like it. But our Tibetans (all refugees) did. So they stuffed themselves. Incidentally, it tasted wonderful.

My wife, Barbara, personally wrote each donor by hand, thanking them. A couple of them sent $25 donations — the entire cost of care for a patient for a month.

We think a lot of CARE and congratulate Peter Bell on this well-earned honor. We should all take away from this article the maxim "make the world less miserable." Mr. Bell has.

Forrest C. Eggleston M.D. ’42
Mechanicsburg, Pa.

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