A letter from an alum about PAW's October 8, 2003, issue

October 6, 2003

The Alumni Weekly of October 8 had a strong emphasis on remembrance — in President Tilghman's personal recollection, Bill Plonk's letter, the Notebook on the memorial garden dedication, and the announcement of 1948's Memorial Plaza outside West College (where I once briefly lived).

The editor pointed out that "remembering always has been important to Princeton" and described both the installation of bronze star memorials to alumni who died in the Korean War and dedication of the garden to alumni killed on September 11, 2001. A university so stationed at crossroads of history as is Princeton must expect that remembrance will be important and frequent.

Her note that "Designers of the garden hoped that the memorial would be both a personal tribute to those who died, and a quiet space for contemplation" cast me back 56 years to an afternoon in the fall of 1947 when I sat under a memorial grove of pine trees at an edge of the Princeton Battlefield and scribbled some very blank verse under the influence of a chill, fall wind.

While I wish it were better poetry, I also think there are hundreds of similar memorial verses written by Princeton students over many generations; so I can at least plead to representing them.

Robert Ryerson Rodgers ’47
Montclair, N.J.

At Princeton Battlefield
(Fall, 1947)

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