Pictured: Patricia Marks *03 (ricardo barros)

In her Commencement address, valedictorian Peggy Ping Hsu ’03 told her classmates that her most valuable lessons came from “being around all of you, speaking with you, reading what you have written, and watching you do what you love . . . People really are quite amazing.”

There were many amazing people among the graduates this year – people who have demonstrated personal strength and made difficult life choices.

Sarah Swords ’03, blind since age 12, graduated with honors in history, walking in the Commencement procession with her dog, Carley. College wasn’t always easy – sometimes her books on tape didn’t arrive until midterms – but she had helpers. Friends showed her the paths to classes. Dean Maria Flores-Mills helped her sort through the municipal archives in New York City for a research project. Community residents read aloud the medieval texts required for her thesis. When I suggested that it must have been difficult to rely on people to read for her, Swords demurred: “I met a lot of really cool people I never would have met!”

Her classmate, Tshepo Masango, learned independence early. The daughter of activists fighting South African apartheid, she saw her three-year-old neighbor in Soweto shot to death. One night, her parents learned that Tshepo’s life had been threatened, and the next day, the six-year-old girl boarded a plane bound for Atlanta, where she would stay for two years with a caring stranger. “I wasn’t frightened,” recalls Tshepo. “I was brought up with the anticipation that I might have to leave my parents. They taught me to speak for myself.”

Terry McCloskey ’03, featured on the back page, was a Princeton freshman in 1972; he left after sophomore year and built a life in Belize before returning to finish his degree. And, at 71, Patricia Hunt Marks (no relation) received her Ph.D. in history, 30 years after beginning it. Along the way, she raised two daughters, served as editor of the Library Chronicle, and edited two books about the university. “I’m a very stubborn person,” she said. “I wanted to finish what I had begun.”

To these Princetonians, and to many others, thanks for your lessons on life.

PAW owes a special thank-you to Princeton’s class secretaries, who so diligently provide your news. At Reunions, many attended a PAW party for the secretaries. Front row, from left: Love Slipock ’98, Jay Siegel ’59, Jack Doran ’68, George Brakeley ’61, and PAW Class Notes editor Kathryn Beaumont ’96. Middle row, from left: Lissa Kiser ’75, David Reeves ’48, Don Kerr ’37, Jack Kellogg ’32, Jim Bensen ’36, Ted Meth ’44, Cecily Kovatch ’94. Back row, from left: Dick Paynter ’51, Ed Strauss ’72, Gus Brothman ’51, Nancy Reed Cassels ’73, Leesy Taggart ’78, Kim Withers Brengle ’79, Sharon Keld ’80, Jo Johnson ’64, John Paul ’55, Hugh Richardson ’53, Lew Kleinhans ’53 k’25, Asa Bushnell ’47, Sam Englehart ’49, Dan Duffield ’52, and Turhan Tirana ’57. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)