Recently in Alumni News

Jordan Roth ’97, president of Jujamcyn Theaters, earned a Tony Award as producer of the Best Play honoree Clybourne Park – and received high marks for his acceptance speech, seen at right. [Morning Joe/MSNBC.com]

 

 

 

 

Princeton’s SUMMER OLYMPICS contingent climbed to seven athletes on June 4 when U.S. Rowing named Glenn Ochal ’08 to the men’s four. Ochal will join American rowers Robin Prendes ’11 (men’s lightweight four) and Gevvie Stone ’07 (women’s single sculls), and Australian Sam Loch ’06 (men’s eight). A handful of other rowing alumni are auditioning for other U.S. and Canadian boats. Princeton will be sending three fencers to London (Maya Lawrence ’02, Susannah Scanlan ’14, and Soren Thompson ’05), and five Tigers are in the running for spots on the U.S. women’s field hockey squad (Michelle Cesan ’13, Maren Langford ’06, Julia Reinprecht ’13, Katie Reinprecht ’12, and Kathleen Sharkey ’12). Field hockey assistant coach Nate Franks ’07 will be an assistant for the U.S. Olympic team as well.

 

Steeplechase star Donn Cabral ’12 – another Olympic hopeful – is Princeton’s top contender for an NCAA TRACK AND FIELD championship, and the senior will have plenty of company at the national meet in Des Moines this week. Six teammates will join Cabral on the men’s side: Conor McCullough ’15 in the hammer throw; Damon McLean ’14 in the triple jump; middle-distance runners Michael Williams ’14 (800 meters) and Trevor Van Ackeren ’12 (1,500 meters); and distance runners Joe Stilin ’12 (5,000 meters) and Brian Leung ’12 (10,000 meters). Greta Feldman ’13 was Princeton’s lone qualifier on the women’s side. She will run the 1,500 meters. Follow the action on the NCAA Championship Central page from Drake University, the meet’s host.

 

WOMEN’S OPEN CREW made its 16th consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships, held May 25-27 on Mercer Lake in nearby West Windsor, and earned a fourth-place finish in the overall standings. The Tigers placed boats in the grand finals of the varsity eight (fourth place), second-varsity eight (fourth), and varsity four (fifth).

 

At the Intercollegiate Rowing Association regatta in Cherry Hill, N.J., WOMEN’S LIGHTWEIGHT CREW led all Princeton boats with a fifth-place finish in the national championship final. MEN’S LIGHTWEIGHT CREW also reached its varsity-eight grand final, finishing sixth. MEN’S HEAVYWEIGHT CREW notched victories in two petite finals, for the varsity eight and freshman eight.

 

One spring day, a group of seniors from the Class of 1912 were drinking beers around a table at the old Nassau Inn. The more they drank, the more foam spilled out of the sides of their mugs — and the more stains they got on their clothes. One member of the tipsy crew had a novel idea: What if they could design something to wear that was expressly for drinking beer? And with this idea, the beer jacket was born.

 

The beer jacket celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, though in fact it didn’t start out as just a jacket. The 1912 crew decided to don full suits — denim overalls with a workman’s jacket — when it came time to guzzle their favorite brews. Denim was phased out in 1914 when members of the senior class decided to make their suits in white canvas instead, which would remain the fabric of choice until recent years. After World War II, the beer suit was downsized to just a jacket, without overalls, to accommodate the seniors who still were wearing military attire.

 

When the Class of 2012 debuts its jackets at the P-rade this year, it will join 100 years of Princeton alumni who have worn their jackets not only as a way to protect their clothes from spills, but as a means of identifying and uniting the senior class. As Michael Jimenez ’12, the designer of this year’s jacket, puts it: “The jackets add a resounding sense of camaraderie.”

 

The jacket of each class carries a distinctive logo, which comes to serve as the unofficial emblem of the class. The designs, which originally were stenciled on the back shoulder of the jacket, often reference events from campus or national news that affects the graduating class. The black armbands on the Class of 1920 jacket, for instance, mourned the disappearance of beer drinking due to Prohibition, while the ’26 jacket celebrated the class’s narrow escape from the University ban of automobiles on campus.

PAW’s 2012 Reunions Guide celebrates a century of beer jackets and covers the plans for this year’s major-reunion classes, from ’47 to ’07. Read an interview with author Liza Mundy ’82, browse the menu of on-campus exhibits and performances, and “clear the track” with a special crossword puzzle by Graham Meyer ’01.

 

Look for the Reunions Guide at headquarters sites on campus or download a tablet-friendly version by clicking the cover image at right.

Last Call at the Oasis, a documentary about water scarcity featuring recent PAW profile subject Jay Famiglietti *92, “wraps a lot of bad news into a slick, informative, fast-moving package,” according to a recent review. [New York Times]

 

Former Princeton president William G. Bowen *58 published a vigorous defense of a liberal education, which he believes has never been more valuable than it is today. [The Atlantic]

 

Scholastic Parent and Child named Huffington Post columnist Lisa Belkin ’82 one of the 10 most influential people in family life. [Scholastic Parent and Child]

 

Economics grad Jonathan Lea ’09 has turned his attention to the sweet science of kettle corn in a new business venture. [New Jersey Monthly]

 

Inventor Michael Tseng ’05, a Princeton electrical engineering alumnus, earned second prize in Walmart’s “Get on the Shelf” contest for his PlateTopper airtight food cover. [Huffington Post]  

 

Architect Talia Dorsey ’98 led the proposal for a $6 million renovation of the historic Empress Theatre in her native Montreal. [Montreal Gazette]

In his second State of the Union address, Abraham Lincoln said, “We can succeed only by concert. It is not, ‘Can any of us imagine better?’ but ‘Can we all do better?’” This line inspired former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley ’65 to write his seventh book, We Can All Do Better, which he introduced to an audience of nearly 200 in McCosh Hall May 9 on the first stop of his national book tour.

 

Bradley, a onetime presidential hopeful who now serves as a managing director at the investment firm Allen & Company, wrote the book out of frustration with America’s current political gridlock in the face of overseas war and economic difficulty, exemplified by the debt limit debacle in Washington last summer.

 

“When you look and see the fragility and inequality of our economy, if you see the direction of our foreign policy, if you see the paralysis in our national dialogue, it’s relevant — can we all do better?” he said. Bradley also emphasized personal responsibility, asking, “Can each of us do better? Can we find that part of ourselves that honors the selfless and project it into the world we live?”

 

Bradley, a history major at Princeton, relied heavily on U.S. history to create practical, cautiously optimistic recommendations in three areas — the economy, U.S. foreign policy, and domestic political institutions.

 

Civil rights attorney John Doar ’44, pictured at right, and Toni Morrison, the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities emeritus, were among 13 men and women honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom April 27. [Superior (Wis.) Telegram]

The Federal Trade Commission team investigating antitrust allegations against Google added a key member: Beth Wilkinson ’84, a former Justice Department lawyer who played a prominent role in prosecution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. [New York Times]

 

John Armstrong ’84, a former trauma surgeon and current chief medical officer at the University of South Florida Health Center, will become Florida’s surgeon general in May. [Miami Herald]

 

Thirteen early paintings by artist Frank Stella ’58 are featured in a new, critically acclaimed exhibition at L&M Arts, a gallery on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. [New York Times]

 

Consumers tend to manage their everyday expenses but overspend on purchases that they view as “exceptional,” according to a new study by New York University professor Adam Alter *09 and Princeton Ph.D. student Abigail Sussman. [Wall Street Journal]

 

Two alumni running for the U.S. Senate are primary underdogs, but both have shown promise, according to recent reports. Texas Republican Ted Cruz ’92 finished second in a recent poll, according to the Austin American-Statesman, trailing by 12 points with a month remaining before his primary vote. Minnesota Republican Pete Hegseth ’03, the former executive director of Vets for Freedom, has raised more money than his opponents, but he may have taken a hit when Ron Paul endorsed his top opponent, the Minnesota Post reported.

 

Democrat Hayden Rogers ’95 aims to earn the open seat in the crowded race for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District. Rogers was chief of staff for Rep. Heath Shuler, who decided not to run for re-election. One of Rogers’ Princeton contemporaries, Democrat Derek Kilmer ’96, received the endorsement of retiring Rep. Norm Dicks in the competition for Washington’s 6th Congressional District.

 

In California’s 9th Congressional District, Ricky Gill ’08 – the youngest of Princeton’s alumni candidates, just shy of his 25th birthday – has been raising more donations than incumbent Democrat Jerry McNerney, according to the Associated Press. Fellow Republican Dan Schwartz ’72 has lagged in the fundraising race but hopes to stay competitive among those vying for the seat in Nevada’s 4th Congressional District.