February 8, 2006
Reflections and Anecdotes Regarding the
Old Guard Over the Years
Charles Jaffin
Old Guard Member
Minutes of the 19th Meeting of the 64th Year
President Haynes called the 19th meeting of the 64th year to order at the Friend Centre at about 10:15 AM. John Marks presented the invocation. Over ninety members attended. John Frederick read the minutes of the of the last meeting, at which Charles Cook had given a talk on refugee camps in northern Uganda.
Charlie Jaffin was called on to introduce a visitor, his wife Rosanna, and Harvey Rothberg introduced a visitor, his wife Nancy. The President introduced a long-standing stalwart of the Old Guard, Charlie Jaffin, whose attributes are well-known to the membership and whose accomplishments are in part listed in the society’s “bio.” Particularly à propos was his moving to this town from New York in 1960. In 1993 he retired and has for some years been chair of the nominations committee as well as acting as an unofficial advisory counsel to our executive committee. He was therefore in an ideal position to relate the Old Guard’s history to the concurrent life of the university and the town.
Welcoming us to “nostalgia day,” he told us that he’d discovered that Bill Selden’s history of the university made his original intention redundant, and that his researches into our archives held at the Historical Society of Princeton revealed another aspect, one he would dwell on: the changes in the community which is our society’s home. The Old Guard first met in January 1943. Charlie pointed to the encouragement for our society given by Dr MacAfee who belonged to a society of the same name in Summit, New Jersey. The first talk was entitled “Hazing during and subsequent to the Administration of James McCosh.” Thirteen members attended and their dues were a dollar. Notable was the absence of healthcare subjects of the talks. Most members were retired faculty members. Princeton was a “stand-alone” town surrounded by farmland with little commercial life and with social ties to Philadelphia and Baltimore outdoing those to New York. Wartime uniforms were much in evidence. The schools were racially segregated till 1948 as were even the two cinemas. The work done on the atom bomb, continental drift, computers and a book on the theory of games were largely unknown and unappreciated at the time by a sleepy community.
First in the series of “reminiscers” whom Charlie passed his verbal baton on to was Bill Selden. He successfully avoided telling us what he had recently imparted, though he did fill in a bit of information he had omitted – the name of the donor of Alexander Hall, Harriet Crocker Alexander. He emphasized the decimation of the faculty by military service during the Second World War. He quickly turned to the present, presenting comparative figures of all sorts to show the enormous changes and growth of the university. One of the most startling of these is that present tuition costs come to over forty-three thousand dollars compared with about twelve hundred in 1944. Some members would recall their tuitions and shudder at the comparison.
John Lasley opened with a commercial on Old Guard neckties and scarves. He described how various imaginative people from obscure places like Iowa arrived in Princeton to flourish, especially in the Opinion Research Organization which spawned other companies including the London-based MORI Polls. Parking and traffic have remained constant concerns.
Jim Keechin told us of his joining RCA labs in 1963, founded in 1942 by Sarnoff to foster innovation. Having furnished the standard for U.S. colour television, they branched out into semi-conductor technology and nuclear and solar power.
Harvey Rothberg spoke next. While working for the borough’s school board, he met Charlie, his township counterpart, in 1965 and they were instrumental in forming the joint jurisdiction. Eschewing the subject of merger between the borough and township, he nonetheless successfully indicated where his preference lies. When he joined the Princeton Medical Group in 1960, putting fluoride in water was an issue. The group was begun in 1947 and accused of being a socialist experiment – which tells us something about the state of political understanding at the time in the solidly Republican town, no doubt. The hospital, founded in 1919 with five doctors, has grown from 130 beds with breakfast available for a dollar, reaching twenty-five staff members in 1960 and over 200 now. He also highlighted the growth of female participation. He and Bill Haynes worked successfully to affiliate the hospital to the then Rutgers Medical School, now the Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine. The advent of Medicare in the eighties and the growth of specialization have made an enormous difference. One can easily imagine what the political comments of class members of forty years before that would have been
Several questions followed and there was animated discussion of the costs of tuition at the university. Bill Haynes emphasized the importance of the hospital’s connection with the Johnson foundation in terms of bringing in internes and residents. Finally, this enjoyable session was called to a halt just before 11.30 a.m. by the President.
Respectfully submitted,
John Frederick
Charlie Jaffin was called on to introduce a visitor, his wife Rosanna, and Harvey Rothberg introduced a visitor, his wife Nancy. The President introduced a long-standing stalwart of the Old Guard, Charlie Jaffin, whose attributes are well-known to the membership and whose accomplishments are in part listed in the society’s “bio.” Particularly à propos was his moving to this town from New York in 1960. In 1993 he retired and has for some years been chair of the nominations committee as well as acting as an unofficial advisory counsel to our executive committee. He was therefore in an ideal position to relate the Old Guard’s history to the concurrent life of the university and the town.
Welcoming us to “nostalgia day,” he told us that he’d discovered that Bill Selden’s history of the university made his original intention redundant, and that his researches into our archives held at the Historical Society of Princeton revealed another aspect, one he would dwell on: the changes in the community which is our society’s home. The Old Guard first met in January 1943. Charlie pointed to the encouragement for our society given by Dr MacAfee who belonged to a society of the same name in Summit, New Jersey. The first talk was entitled “Hazing during and subsequent to the Administration of James McCosh.” Thirteen members attended and their dues were a dollar. Notable was the absence of healthcare subjects of the talks. Most members were retired faculty members. Princeton was a “stand-alone” town surrounded by farmland with little commercial life and with social ties to Philadelphia and Baltimore outdoing those to New York. Wartime uniforms were much in evidence. The schools were racially segregated till 1948 as were even the two cinemas. The work done on the atom bomb, continental drift, computers and a book on the theory of games were largely unknown and unappreciated at the time by a sleepy community.
First in the series of “reminiscers” whom Charlie passed his verbal baton on to was Bill Selden. He successfully avoided telling us what he had recently imparted, though he did fill in a bit of information he had omitted – the name of the donor of Alexander Hall, Harriet Crocker Alexander. He emphasized the decimation of the faculty by military service during the Second World War. He quickly turned to the present, presenting comparative figures of all sorts to show the enormous changes and growth of the university. One of the most startling of these is that present tuition costs come to over forty-three thousand dollars compared with about twelve hundred in 1944. Some members would recall their tuitions and shudder at the comparison.
John Lasley opened with a commercial on Old Guard neckties and scarves. He described how various imaginative people from obscure places like Iowa arrived in Princeton to flourish, especially in the Opinion Research Organization which spawned other companies including the London-based MORI Polls. Parking and traffic have remained constant concerns.
Jim Keechin told us of his joining RCA labs in 1963, founded in 1942 by Sarnoff to foster innovation. Having furnished the standard for U.S. colour television, they branched out into semi-conductor technology and nuclear and solar power.
Harvey Rothberg spoke next. While working for the borough’s school board, he met Charlie, his township counterpart, in 1965 and they were instrumental in forming the joint jurisdiction. Eschewing the subject of merger between the borough and township, he nonetheless successfully indicated where his preference lies. When he joined the Princeton Medical Group in 1960, putting fluoride in water was an issue. The group was begun in 1947 and accused of being a socialist experiment – which tells us something about the state of political understanding at the time in the solidly Republican town, no doubt. The hospital, founded in 1919 with five doctors, has grown from 130 beds with breakfast available for a dollar, reaching twenty-five staff members in 1960 and over 200 now. He also highlighted the growth of female participation. He and Bill Haynes worked successfully to affiliate the hospital to the then Rutgers Medical School, now the Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine. The advent of Medicare in the eighties and the growth of specialization have made an enormous difference. One can easily imagine what the political comments of class members of forty years before that would have been
Several questions followed and there was animated discussion of the costs of tuition at the university. Bill Haynes emphasized the importance of the hospital’s connection with the Johnson foundation in terms of bringing in internes and residents. Finally, this enjoyable session was called to a halt just before 11.30 a.m. by the President.
Respectfully submitted,
John Frederick