College of New Rochelle - Annales Yearbook (New Rochelle, NY)

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1916 The Class of 1916 held its tenth Seventeenth of March celebration on the campus this year. Ever since its first St. Patrick s Day in college in 1913 — when Father Halpin blessed the Class and ratified its adoption of that day as its own, 1916 has held to this custom. This year the girls came up for the Meet and held their class dinner afterwards in the castle. 1918 (From the account in the April Quarterly) The Class of 1918 had its second reunion in February. Except that the back- ground had been changed from the austere classrooms of our academic halls to the more luxurious and wordly setting of a hotel suite, there was no perceptible difference in our gathering. Everyone came late, full of apologies and explanations, just as at Class meetings a few years ago. Dolly and I had gone down to the McAlpin at three o’clock so that we might be there on time — and we were — plenty of time. The others arrived, breathless, about five-thirty, Helen Casey came from Wilming- ton, Ruth McMahon from Washington, Dorothy Donovan Farrell from Albany, Bettie Routh from New Haven, Mary McAniff from Wilkes-Barre, Gladys McLoughlin Deacon from Waterbury, and from their nearer homes came Kathryn Cocks, Irene Wightwick, Lillian Costello, Elinor Cunningham, Florence O’ Grady, Margaret Keane Lynch, Marie Kieran Duffy, Irene Foster Sullivan, and from New Rochelle, Dolly Ryan, Helen Closs FitzGerald, Chairman of the Reunion, and I. But they all came late, and I am sure they all came up on one elevator — they and their sixty bags. At least, everything burst in upon our lonely splendor all at once, and all personal recollection of the next half hour is quite drowned under the memory of the noise, the chaotic babble, the sudden whirlpool of faces and greetings, and the fragmentary conversations swirling through the long suite of rooms that had lain so still and empty through the longer afternoon. . . . After dinner we went to see “The Chocolate Soldier.” Sunday we were in New Rochelle. Mother Ignatius and Mother Loyola re- ceived us — I should say welcomed us, for there was no vestige of warmth lacking in the greeting which T8 received when she came into her own again. We had dinner at the end of the hall nearest the door; at the other end various young girls were eating their dinner. They examined us with furtive glances — (“Some of the old girls back again”) — and we recognized their presence and were secretly a little sorry for them. It is always our college, you know, and these bobbed-haired stran- gers who seemed so at home probably thought it was theirs. Yet we weren’t without liking them, remembering perhaps, a saying we had come to know one time, one that is inseparably linked with the gracious dignity of her who used to tell us that, “It isn’t our college, it’s yours; it isn’t your college, it’s ours. ’ That is so true now, when we see new faces and hear new names go sounding through the old familiar places. It is true, undergraduates; we hope you understand. At the meeting in the Living-room after dinner, a meeting which we tried to make formal, the well-being w Twenty-nine

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The Alumnae Association of The College of New Rochelle Miss Gertrude M. Doherty, T6, President Miss Monica D. Ryan, T6, Vice-President Mrs. Lucy Wh ite Schaffer, T9, Treasurer Mrs. Margaret Ball Sullivan, T9, Corresponding Secretary Miss Mary Shaughnessy, T9, Recording Secretary EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Miss Winifred Demarest, T4 Miss Olive March, T5 Miss Irene Komora, T6 Miss Florence O’Grady, T8 Miss Edith Leeming, T4 Miss Marie Rohn, T9 Miss Anna L. McDevitt, TO Miss Virginia Waldron, T9 4 T the Founder’s Day Meeting of the Alumnae Association held last (Fall, P it was decided to make a Father Halpin Memorial Chapel on the campus the immediate objective of the Association s campaign for funds for the building needs of the college. There is no one who has known the kindly personality of Father Halpin, and the high inspiration infused by his true devotion and deep wisdom, but will recognize the fitness of this memorial. The girls of New Rochelle were always, according to his own testimony, his especial care and first interest. And so it is but a small return we make him when we dedicate our efforts toward the erection of a memorial chapel in his name. The first Alumnae undertaking for this end was the Bazaar and Dance held in the Waldorf-Astoria on October 28th and 29th. Lovely articles of all kinds were donated by the various classes and by the student body, to whose co-operation much of the Bazaar’s success was attributable. REUNIONS 1915 The reunion and theatre party of the Class of 1915, scheduled for January, was cancelled on account of the sudden death of Edith Swift Butler, one of the members. Twenty-eight

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and social future of 1918 was entrusted to the capable hands of Helen Closs Fitz- Gerald, to whose efficient management the success of this reunion had largely been due. There was Benediction given at two-thirty, and to me, who twenty years ago learned to say my prayers in this same chapel, the visit we paid during the short service did more to wipe away the four years that have elapsed since we last prayed there, than did all the other hours of the reunion. We returned to the Living Room and soon found that it was time to stop living in 1918 and come back to 1922. A sentimental grief, perhaps, that it should be so, but a physical necessity. Thus, up the campus paths again, to part reluctantly at the top of the hill — our solace, the high fine memories we were bearing away with us, our anticipation, the week-end of the Prom in 1923 when we shall have our third reunion, to re- juvenate once more old memories, old friendships, old happinesses, to pledge once more our faith and loyalty to her who brought us together and whose ideals are always with us, our toast through college days, our strengthening principle through life — Alma Mater. — E. B. T8 Thirty