Class News

26 classmates vie for oldest Yale memorabilia

July 15, 2022

In his June 10 email to all classmates (here), Class Secretary Tony Lavely ’64 asked: “What’s the oldest piece of Yale memorabilia you have?” Here are the responses, in the order they were received.

Dick Roskos: Lots of memories. Earliest one is walking into freshman dorm and meeting Ben Day who was sitting at his desk. We took many trips together to Christ Church at Harvard Yard where his father was rector. No proof however, just what’s still in my noggin.

John Howells: I have an old Yale dining hall dinner plate that features Handsome Dan that my wife found in an “antique” shop in Atlanta.

Bill Drennen: I have the Yale yearbook 100 years before ours.

Francis Snyder: Here’s a photo of my clay pipe.

Ted Jones: I have my Beta paddle as well, and as you know I still have my Old Campus Facebook.

John Boardman: Most of my personal memorabilia from Yale are photos which I took for the Yale Daily News: football games, Rick Kaminsky playing basketball, Tang Cup, bladder ball, life on the green, construction of Morse and Stiles. A shot of the funeral procession for Whitney Griswold, led by Dean Acheson, was run in Life Magazine. Going back a few years, I have a book by Ezra Stiles published in 1794, complete with maps: A History of three of the Judges of King Charles I. Major-General Whalley, Major-General Goffe, and Colonel Dixwell: Who at the restoration, 1660, fled to America; and were secreted and concealed, in Massachusetts and Connecticut, for near thirty years. The book is dedicated to “All the patrons of real, perfect, and unpolluted Liberty, civil and religious, throughout the World; this history of three of it’s most illustrious and heroic, but unfortunate defenders, is humbly submitted, and dedicated, by a hitherto uncorrupted friend to Universal Liberty.” I will not bring the sword cane to our 60th.

I could not find some of the photos I wanted, in particular color slides of the Tang Cup beer-drinking contest sponsored by Yale! I do have one slide of the arrival of one team. At some point I can rescan from the original color slides. I took a photo of the May 3, 1963 Life Magazine article which included my photo of Dean Acheson. I still have my copy of this issue. I am including another cropping of the same negative which I made for myself. The picture of the 150 JV crew clowning around features Bob Buchanan at bow, John Ralston at 5, and me at 6, sitting on my ass going backward as one does in crew. I have added some pictures of athletics and bladder ball.

Tom Powers: Oldest piece of Yale memorabilia? — my grandfather’s class jacket from Sheffield 1896 — Two copies of an issue of Criterion containing the first piece of fiction I ever published — And an odd lot of photos from 1964 — along with who knows what in the attic —Tony, thanks for all the work you do.

Jim Hart: Not very old, Tony, but very precious to us, and an item we are trying to pass on to some organization which will preserve and use: We have a set of the Abraham Lincoln series (Prairie and War Years) by Carl Sandburg which was signed with a very personal note in 1940 to my grandfather, James Grafton Rogers, when he was Dean of Timothy Dwight College. In addition to his deanship, he served as Undersecretary of State under Hoover, as one of the founders during WWII of the Secret Service (precursor to the CIA) under FDR, Dean of the University of Colorado Law School, and so much more. We don’t want to sell these volumes. We want to give them, preferably as a deductible donation to some organization or someone with 501(c)(3) status. Today I will be calling TD. Both the Yale libraries and Hoover/Stanford libraries have refused so far.

Waldo Johnston: We have the original mantel from Room 6 in Connecticut Hall (1753), Yale's oldest building, given to my father in 1956 by Carl Lohman, Secretary of Yale, after the building was gutted and rebuilt in 1953-1954. Following the removal of sixteen coats of paint, the initials done with a poker by the students living in the quarters were revealed. After my dad received this mantelpiece from Carl Lohman, he brought it to our country farm in Cooperstown. It is in our bedroom where, alas, we rarely light a fire. We enjoy seeing the initials of former Yalies, especially the ones from the class of 1904 who etched most precisely of them all with their pokers. Thanks for initiating another adventure!

Will Perras: I still have my clay pipe though the stem had to be glued together a number of years back. In addition, somehow, I ended up with a large Yale 1964 felt sign that belonged to a number of us in Berkeley. It has not seen the light of day for many years, but I dug it out of the closet to take this picture. There may be other things in a box in the attic but that would require some research.

Chuck Post: Here's an old one for you, the oldest surviving college football program in the United States. One morning in 2005 I was shaving and listening to “Imus in the Morning" on my TV and he mentioned this program coming up in the Sotheby’s Sports Auction and showed a picture of it. I figured if there must be thousands of Harvard and Yale alums listening, since he was such a wild ass and an unpredictable guy loved or hated by all, and my chances were near zero, but anyway I put in a bid of $6000-$7000, and lo and behold, I got it! I'll bring it with me to our next golf outing. In actuality, it’s such a disappointment since it is so small. Here is the presentation in the Sotheby’s catalogue which tells the now familiar story of that game, which we have all heard.

Terry Holcombe: Architectural piece from Old Stone Church in East Haven (image below), which I attended and which had as its first pastor Jacob Heminway, first graduate of Yale College [details]. I was not there for any of his sermons! Meanwhile I probably have the jock strap Jim Duderstadt wore when he intercepted the pass that led to Tony Lavely’s winning touchdown pass to Strachan Donnelley against Harvard freshmen year. I could fake a photograph if you really need it … but it would be at best second place. Note that any mention of Dude has to be accompanied by the statement, “Duderstadt is the University of Michigan President with the winningest record against The [tm] Ohio State University.” He is very touchy about that.

Nancy Upper (surviving spouse of Dennis Upper): In 1960-61 (freshman and sophomore years, maybe junior year too) Dennis was coxswain on Yale’s junior varsity crew. When Yale beat Princeton, Dennis’s crewmates anointed him by throwing him in the river. I still have the black-with-orange-chevron Princeton oar blade Dennis was awarded after the race (image below). I also have a silver cigarette lighter with embossed Yale insignia on it. I think Dennis got it at graduation with the clay pipe.

Larry Crutcher: Somewhere I have a cross between a blanket and a pennant, an approximately 2’x4’ piece of Yale-blue wool whose white lettering simply says “Yale 1964” inside a white border. I have no recollection of where it came from. It might be suitable to tack over the doorway to a bar at a reunion. I’d be happy to donate it to someone with a higher purpose in mind for it; mine has been to store it, sight unseen, in a trunk for nearly 60 years. Being in Rhode Island for the summer, I cannot send a photo of the item, which is in Arizona.

Bill Woodfin: Wearing my 25th Class Reunion shirt.

Tony Lee: I was convinced I had nothing until I saw Bill Woodfin’s item. I remembered something very small that I kept and shook down the house to find. It’s about one-inch square and I couldn’t figure out how to include it in a photo with me. The writing at the top reads “INTER COLLEGE CHAMPIONS.” The middle insignia is a hockey player superimposed on the Yale "Y" and the bottom reads “CALHOUN.” Calhoun won the inter-college championship in 1964. I had more fun playing hockey against my friends in other colleges (ask Getman) than I did playing varsity soccer in the fall and rugby in the spring.

[Comment by Sam Francis: “My Pierson College soccer team won the inter-college championship in 1963 — undefeated and unscored-on — and played Harvard on the day Kennedy was shot. Howcum we didn't get a gewgaw?”]

John Evans: Three bits of memorabilia: a postcard showing Commons in 1909, which a great aunt found and sent to me; a copy of the NYTimes from the day of my birth, a birthday gift this year from a family friend, full of war news, of course; and my copy of the Yale Song Book which I bought upon joining the Freshman Glee Club in the fall of 1960. The front page is marked up with Steve Clay's speech at the 1963 Yale Quartet Contest, which we won (Evans, Clay, Driver, McBride performing as “The Clouds,” a famous rock-and-roll group from Trenton NJ) Ha. We have performed a few times at reunions.

Steve's handwritten speech is pretty faint, so here's a transcription:

SPEECH:

This is a Yale Songe Booke (pick it up — show it). Many of the songs you have heard this evening can be found amongst its pages. In the introduction to this book is contained a brief summary of the history and purpose of Yale Singing. I would like to read a brief passage.

If you were to look in upon the contemporary scene you would find now at Yale a thriving School of Music, a Battel Chapel Choir of fifty voices, and four glee clubs with a total of 250 voices. The singing spirit still flourishes with enthusiasm and Yale students in 1963 are still singing many of the songs sung by their grandfathers a hundred years ago.

But let us not forget that here at Yale we encourage the practice of singing for the fun of it. We recognize that, although music can be approached as an art, it can on that level be appreciated and understood by the relative few of the musical elite. Singing has human values of tremendous importance, and — especially in the student world — it is an ideal medium for “letting off steam” — for giving joyous and harmonious expression to an impulse which, if restrained, may have alarming and exPLOsive consequences — (Smile).These consequences are the cause and concern of our group.

Note the stage directions (“pick it up, show it”; “Smile”) and emphasis in a few places. Steve was doing a riff on Marshall Bartholomew's intro, particularly the bit that went "… singing ... is an ideal medium for letting off steam, for giving joyous and harmonious expression to an impulse which, if restrained, may have alarming and explosive consequences." Ha. You can see Steve's exaggerated take on that at the bottom. The last bit is "These consequences are the cause and concern of our group." And we broke into 1950s rock and roll. Fun to remember. Glad you are pushing these bits of relevance.

Pat Caviness: You have a photo of my oldest things from Yale: two Beta fraternity paddles. At one point I had my low-cut football shoes. Bill Dayton consented to letting Jack Cirie and me wear them. We were the only ones. Everyone else wore high tops. Even the backs. Johnny Bowen received his paddle from Guy, the Beta president. He gave it to me before he died. I received the paddle from Johnny at college.

Ron Parlato: I just have a Yale '64 beer mug, and if you get any pictures of the clay pipes we smoked at graduation, please post them. I remember this, and the younger generation cannot imagine anything so. Well, Old Blue, Bush I, and privileged elitist nonsense. Then I tell them that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave the commencement address, and they gush and goo and go, "Oh, wow!"

Roger McPeek: I still have my Beta paddle.

John Witherspoon: Still got my clay pipe, mounted and framed.

Tom Powers: Oldest piece of Yale memorabilia? — my grandfather’s class jacket from Sheffield 1896. Two copies of an issue of Criterion containing the first piece of fiction I ever published. And an odd lot of photos from 1964 — along with who knows what in the attic.

Toddie Getman: The oldest piece of Yale memorabilia I have is CHRIS!

Tony Lavely: Receiving so many great and esoteric items of Yale memorabilia got my competitive juices flowing … beyond what I included in my original question. Here’s a Yale yearbook from 1858.

And my collection of 1931 Wedgwood plates.

The Yale Club of Chicago gave this two-volumn history of Yale in 1981 when I stepped down as President.

And my beer mug, of course.

Tim Damour: I am a bit slow on the draw, but I think that the oldest pieces of Yale memorabilia that I have are not related to our time at Yale but are the following:

A book entitled "Songs of Yale," compiled and edited by Marshall Bartholomew '07, Director of the Yale Glee Club since 1921, and published by G. Schirmer, Inc, New York. It is probably from 1934 since the copyright references start with 1882 and run up to 1934. It was probably a paperback edition, but the cover and back are missing, and some paper material is showing along the spine. I received it from a brother-in-law whose father had attended Yale. It starts with Alma Mater, then Bright College Years, etc.

A paper-covered pamphlet entitled "The Yale University Library Gazette," Volume I, June 1926, Number 1" containing two articles, each dated April 23, 1926, relating to the gift of the Gutenberg Bible to Yale by Mrs. Edward S. Harkness. Last year sometime, upon asking the Yale Library if they would like this pamphlet, I learned that they had a stack of these pamphlets and did not need any more!

I will be interested in the results of your question to our classmates.

Jim Currie: I’m out in California picking up a new aircraft and receiving transition training from a local pilot before bringing it home to Tucson. So, having a little weekend downtime, I am spending a few hours going through your last email. Again, mind-blowing collection of things! Can’t thank you enough for all this work. I can share things with my kids and my friends, and they will get a greater understanding of what it means to be a 1942 “war baby.” P.S. I never knew about Dick duPont’s career in aviation, so now I will definitely try getting in contact with him. Rereading the incredible 1986 piece by Bruce Warner’s widow brought tears to my eyes, once again.

Note from Tony Lavely: If you didn’t respond earlier, send me your Yale memorabilia and we’ll add it. Or photos of the items listed, and we’ll add them.