June 15, 1957
Writing in The New York Times, Milton Bracker reported that 132 of the 310 living members of the Class of 1932 attended their 25th Reunion. A survey showed that 90 percent of the class had been married at least once, and there were 27 divorces and 16 remarriages. Fourteen of the 25th reunion class had been widowed. After due consideration, the class, broke a long tradition, and husbands were invited to join them Sixty-six men had accepted the invitation.
Many of the husbands admitted originally first coming to Vassar “on another mission,” and Bracker recorded “one conversation that suggested a one-act play:
“SCENE: an overheated lawn outside Cushing Hall. Dramatis personae: A Boston psychiatrist, his wife and a visitor.
VISITOR (to wife): Did your husband have dates at Vassar when you were a student?
WIFE (firmly): He did, but not with me.
VISTOR (to husband, who is taking it in with a sort of watchful innocence): Do you know where the girl you first dated is today?
HUSBAND (with a gulp): Yes.
WIFE (cutting in, with some emphasis): So do I. (Then, after a pause, and with a delicate touch): She’s still single.”
The class’s experiment was “by all odds…a success,” Bracker reported. “A harmonizing influence was the presence of Herbert S. (Hub) MacDonald and his banjo.” MacDonald, a recently elected Superior Court judge from Connecticut, strummed “songs of what someone described as the ‘Tea for Two’ era. The serenade was so popular that ‘Good Night Ladies’ was repeated well into the morning.”
At Reunions, the college reported that total annual alumnae giving, including bequests, totaled $992,500, a record. The total in 1956 was $810,000.