The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

      

NEW YORK, Friday—I went to Boston the other day for the Harvard reunion, as my husband's class—the class of 1904—was having its 50th reunion. I was met by Mrs. Edward Taft and by my grandson, Bill Roosevelt. He had come up from Florida and had been flying all night, but he looked as fresh as possible and took most of his day to look after me—which I certainly appreciated.

First, he motored us to the memorial service at the Appleton Chapel. There Mr. and Mrs. Larue Brown awaited me and we went in together. It is a lovely chapel and the service was impressive, conducted by Dr. Russell Bowie, whom I have always admired.

Then Bill took me to Dunster Hall, where I left my bags and hung up my evening dress before we dashed to another hall where a symposium was being carried on by the men of the 1904 class.

Some of the members of this class who have achieved prominence reviewed the last 50 years of development in their various fields. Mr. Brown presided. Dr. Ned Krumbhaar reviewed medical advances, Mr. Laird Bell legal advances, and so on. I found it a most interesting hour but was a little horrified when Mr. Brown called on me to speak.

I wondered what ground I should cover. As the only woman in the group, I decided to cover women's achievements in the last 50 years and I tried, in the few minutes allotted to me, to say a few things about the advances made by women all over the world in these years.

Then we all lunched together and proceeded to the Harvard-Yale baseball game, in which Harvard, unfortunately, came out the loser. I hadn't seen a baseball game in so long that I was really interested in watching such a close one, as well as watching the crowd. To me the most interesting thing was the parade of the classes and the attention they gave to the class of 1904.

I wished so much my husband could have been there, because he had the quality that some men have of remaining, in some ways, always young. That is what comes out in most men at a reunion. You look at them and you realize that they have behind them years of struggle in a difficult world, and yet, for the few hours of the reunion, they relive their college days and are young again. I think this is a very good thing.

In the evening, the whole class dined in the Fogg Museum, which was a delightful setting for a very charming dinner. I enjoyed it very much. When the Harvard choir arrived to sing in the gallery after dinner, I think everyone felt that was the highlight of the whole day.

I was sorry to have to leave early the next morning, and was so grateful to everyone for their warm welcome and their kindness. It made it seem so well worthwhile to be there.

E.R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1954, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • New York (N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, June 19, 1954

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
[ ERPP bio | LC | VIAF | WorldCat | DPLA | Wikidata | SNAC ]

Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Regenhardt, Christy (Associate Editor)
    [ ISNI ]
  • Black, Allida M. (Editor)
    [ VIAF | ISNI ]
  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]
  • Alhambra, Christopher C. (Electronic Text Editor)
    [ VIAF | ORCID ]

Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

XML master last modified on June 9, 2017.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
TMs, AERP, FDRL