In this week’s installment of our recurring series bringing you the history of Princeton University and its faculty, students, and alumni, police arrest 31 protesters, Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated Princeton’s president, and more.
October 22, 1945—At a brief ceremony in the Faculty Room of Nassau Hall, Princeton’s president, Harold W. Dodds, confers 20 undergraduate degrees, but only 11 graduates are present to receive their diplomas in person. Nicholas Katzenbach ’44, who completed his coursework in a Nazi prison camp, is among those who receive their degrees in absentia. With the exception of a World War II ceremony in which only four degrees were conferred, this is believed to be the smallest Commencement at Princeton since the 1750s.
As can be seen on this grade card for Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach, originally a member of the Class of 1943, he had an unusual junior and senior year, with asterisks noting courses for which he received credit for work “pursued while a prisoner of war in a German prison camp…” (Click to enlarge image.) Undergraduate Academic Records 1921-2015 (AC198).
