June 9, 1967
At the annual meeting of the Associate Alumnae of Vassar College (AAVC), alumnae fund chairman Mrs. Helen Hendrickson Couch ’24 announced that the $7.5 million raised by alumnae to match a $2.5 million challenge grant from the Ford Foundation made Vassar the first college whose graduates had successfully matched a Ford Foundation challenge unaided by other bodies. The Ford challenge, issued in 1964 and set to expire on June 30, 1967 had already been met by the college in August of 1966.
The AAVC president, France Prindle Taft ’42 announced that 100 percent of the 165 living members of the Class of 1917 contributed to the class’s 50th anniversary gift of $400,000.