Previous

||

This Issue

||

Next

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Moment of Fulfillment

Today I attended and participated in Class Day, not as a graduating senior, but as an alumnus who is about to celebrate 50 years since our Class Day in 1957. Our class reunion, a five-day affair, will take place in late May and early June. While I know that it will provide a series of highlights for all who attend, I doubt that I will be able to match the feelings I had today as Carlos Muñoz ’57 and I led the procession of alumni classes behind our 1957 class banner, walking past 1,000 cheering, applauding members of the Class of 2007. All were standing, some even on chairs, turning to honor us.

This class has a special attachment to those of us from 1957 because we have known a number of them since they were first-years. My wife and I most recently met 15 or so members of the graduating class at a social gathering this winter at the home of Ed Weinstein ’57. They are an impressive group, both individually and collectively, and I am proud that I went to the same school that has nurtured them during the past four years.

While over time I have not always agreed with some of Columbia’s decisions, I always have had positive feelings about the College. Over the years, several members of my family have graduated from the College. I was privileged to be a Spectator sports editor, and I have been involved in a limited way in alumni affairs. But taking that walk today, past an array of light blue gowns and smiling faces, was one of those rare moments of fulfillment — about as good as it gets for any of us.

Neil McLellan ’57
Freeport, N.Y.

Wrong Corner

I was surprised to read on page 10 of the May/June issue that “Site preparation [for Columbia’s new science building] has begun on the southwest corner of Broadway and 120th Street.” Last time I checked, that corner was occupied by Barnard’s Milbank Hall. I hope someone in Low Library consulted with President Judith Shapiro, who surely will not sit idly by while the building she works in is demolished. She should probably direct the workers to the other side of Broadway, where there is an ideal site for just such a building.

Edward A. Hoffman ’87
Los Angeles

[Editor’s note: As Hoffman points out, the building site is on the southeast corner of the intersection.]

Respecting Authority

I was amused by the quotable quote of Eric Foner ’63 as a John Jay Award recipient printed in Columbia blue on page 14 of [the May/June] CCT: “ ... and students respected authority.” I attended the College at the same time Eric did. Don’t we all recall the ’60s on campus and the formation of the Action Political Party? Students respecting authority? Hmmm. That’s only one of the things I love about Columbia.

Dr. Laurance J. Guido ’65, ’69 P&S
Siasconset, Mass.

Five Books

Did Sidney Morgenbesser’s complaint, “Moses published one book. What did he do after that?” (quoted in the May/June issue) galvanize Moses into a writing frenzy? Is that how we got the Five Books of Moses?

Dr. Jesse Roth ’55
Whitestone, N.Y.

Ralph de Toledano ’38

Ralph de Toledano ’38 (Obituaries, May/June) was on campus in 2006 for the first time in 50 years. He came from Washington, D.C., to appear on a panel of editors at the Columbia Review reunion on March 11, 2006. Speaking to about 120 alumni and students gathered in Low Library’s stately Faculty Room, all of them associated with the College’s long-lived literary magazine, de Toledano said: “I guess the time I was at Columbia most of you would consider the Dark Ages. I was Class of ’38. But it was a very, very exciting time at Columbia. We had Herman Wouk ’34, we had Robert Giroux ’36, we had Robert Paul Smith [’36], we had John Treville LaTouche, who moved on to Broadway doing musicals. And the College itself was very exciting. Think of it: Senior Colloquium, which was the most exciting course I took at Columbia, was headed by Lionel Trilling [’25] and Jacques Barzun ’27, and when they began arguing with each other, the sparks would fly. It was really tremendous.

“As far as the Columbia Review is concerned, we had some very notable issues. It was a practice then to have a professor review every issue of every publication, and so the magazines were an integral part of the College. What was most important is that we reflected the times and the times were exciting times, exciting in many ways. It was the time of the Spanish Civil War, which struck me very deeply because I had family on both sides. It was just stimulating, there were wonderful people, wonderful professors — Mark Van Doren, Trilling, Barzun — and those were all in my field.”

As the earliest editor in attendance, de Toledano spoke first. Then, as soon as the other panelists had finished, he again took the mic: “May I interject? During my tenure, Columbia Review was a very serious publication. But I would like to quote a limerick we ran in one of the 1937 issues:

“A neurotic erotic named Sid
Got his ego mixed up with his id.
His errant libido
Was like a torpedo
And that’s why he done what he did.”

Les Gottesman ’68
San Francisco

Previous

||

This Issue

||

Next