Fall 2011
Alumni Profiles
Class of 1941 Remembers Gehrig
Lou Gehrig ’23 swings for the fences, or maybe Journalism, as fans fill the bleachers on what now is Van Am Quad.S ix members of the Class of 1941 got a head start on their 70th reunion when they gathered on Thursday morning, June 2, on South Field for a ceremony marking the 70th anniver-sary of the death of Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig ’23. The ceremony was held where home plate would have been, as best as anyone could figure, when Gehrig was slugging home runs in his one season playing for Columbia before he left school to join the New York Yankees. Athletics Director M. Dianne Murphy, who de-scribed herself as “a Yankees fan from Tennessee,” welcomed the alumni and their guests and thanked them for their longstanding devotion to Columbia. Author and Gehrig biographer Ray Robinson ’41 called it “a day of remembrance,” noting that the event had special meaning for his class since the day after Gehrig’s death was the day they graduated from Columbia.
Members of the Class of 1941 who attended the ceremony honoring Gehrig were (from left) Gene Sosin, Sherwin Kaufman, Wm. Theodore (Ted) de Bary, Ray Robinson, Arthur Friedman and Bob Zucker.PHOTO: NEW YORK YANKEES